Reports

High rates of teacher turnover contribute to shortages and undermine academic progress. This report reviews an extensive body of research on teacher recruitment and retention, identifies key factors that influence decisions to enter, stay in, or leave the profession, and offers evidence-based recommendations for local, state, and federal policymakers.

Widespread media reports of local teacher shortages have become a hot topic in education since the summer of 2015. After years of teacher layoffs, districts began hiring again as the economy recovered from the Great Recession. This report analyzes evidence of teacher shortages, looks at national and regional trends in teacher supply and demand, and investigates policy strategies that might mitigate these effects based on research about effective approaches to recruitment and retention.

Considerable research exists on the elements of high-quality early childhood education and its many benefits, particularly for low-income children and English learners, but little information is available to policymakers about how to enact their visions of good pre-k programs. This report fills that gap by describing and analyzing how four states—Michigan, West Virginia, Washington, and North Carolina—have built high-quality early education systems.

Do teachers, on average, continue to improve in their effectiveness as they gain experience in the teaching profession? This review of research finds that teaching experience is, on average, positively associated with student achievement gains throughout a teacher’s career, especially in collaborative school environments.

This report provides critical information about the requirements and opportunities under the new federal education law, the Every Student Succeeds Act. Drawing on promising examples from several states, as well as from New York City and Alberta, Canada, the authors offer alternative approaches to developing, presenting, and using a multiple-measure accountability system.

During 2015, a group of diverse states began to work together to redesign their accountability systems so as to better support school improvement and students’ acquisition of deeper learning skills to ensure all students are college, career, and life ready upon graduation. This report documents the progress made by 10 states to transform their systems of accountability to support more meaningful learning opportunities for all students. 

After many years of teacher layoffs in California, school districts are using an influx of new k–12 funding to hire again. However, the supply of teachers has not kept pace with the increased demand. This report examines shortage indicators, discusses their impact on students, analyzes factors that influence teacher supply and demand in California and nationally, and recommends policies to ensure an adequate supply of fully prepared teachers where they are needed.

In 2015, California allocated $490 million to professional learning systems statewide, for districts to improve their overall professional capacity, especially the competence of teachers and principals within their school systems. This report is intended to help districts think through strategies to support all the allowable uses of funds and discusses how districts can approach professional learning in their implementation of state academic standards.