Educator Quality: Recruitment & Retention

Students need and deserve a diverse corps of highly skilled teachers. Expanding the teacher workforce to meet changing educational needs requires a retooling of recruitment strategies to attract young people and career changers to the profession who are well prepared to succeed. School districts and state policymakers have a role to play in stopping the “leaky bucket” of teacher turnover that exacts both a financial and academic toll on students and school systems.

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Research identifies a number of effective strategies for attracting—and keeping—a diverse and high-quality teacher workforce. Building on the evidence, districts, schools of education, and states are adopting innovative strategies to recruit and retain talented educators, including:

Policies and practices, including financial incentives, to make teaching careers more attractive and available to diverse candidates.
Innovative teaching pathways that encourage and prepare young people and others to teach in their communities, which research indicates increases retention.
Improved teaching and learning conditions, including access to academic resources and supportive services, skilled and supportive school leaders, and opportunities to collaborate and partner with peers and parents.

“ Teacher turnover is 50 percent higher in high-poverty than in low-poverty schools.”

Teacher Turnover and Teacher Shortages: An Organizational Analysis
American Educational Research Journal

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Report

Promising Models for Preparing a Diverse, High-Quality Early Childhood Workforce

Madelyn Gardner

Hanna Melnick

Beth Meloy

Jessica Barajas

Dec 10 2019
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The first years of a child’s life provide a foundation for long-term health and well-being. As states consider policy proposals to update credential or degree requirements for early childhood educators, they can look to promising programs and state policies that recruit and prepare diverse cohorts of educators to teach in early childhood education programs. This report includes case studies of distinct approaches offering innovative, affordable pathways to preparation for diverse candidates.

Topics Early Childhood Learning, Educator Quality, Educator Quality: Professional Learning, Educator Quality: Recruitment & Retention, Equitable Resources and Access
Brief

Promising Models for Preparing a Diverse, High-Quality Early Childhood Workforce

Madelyn Gardner

Hanna Melnick

Beth Meloy

Jessica Barajas

Dec 10 2019
|
Three California-based programs offer promising models for recruiting and preparing diverse cohorts of early educators through innovative and affordable pathways. These successful programs provide valuable lessons for policymakers and others interested in ensuring that all children have teachers who meet high standards and reflect the racial, ethnic, cultural, and linguistic diversity of students and their families.

Topics Early Childhood Learning, Educator Quality, Educator Quality: Professional Learning, Educator Quality: Recruitment & Retention, Equitable Resources and Access
Brief

Promising Models for Preparing a Diverse, High-Quality Early Childhood Workforce in California

Madelyn Gardner

Beth Meloy

Hanna Melnick

Jessica Barajas

Dec 10 2019
|
As California prepares to make major investments in its early childhood education workforce, three programs offer promising models for recruiting and preparing educators through innovative, affordable pathways. These successful programs provide lessons for the state's policymakers about how to ensure all children have teachers who meet high standards and reflect the racial, ethnic, cultural, and linguistic diversity of children and their families.

Topics Early Childhood Learning, Educator Quality, Educator Quality: Professional Learning, Educator Quality: Recruitment & Retention, Equitable Resources and Access
Interactive Tool

Interactive Map: Understanding Teacher Shortages in California

Dec 05 2019
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How are California school districts and counties impacted by the state’s persistent teacher shortages? An interactive map enables policymakers, advocates, parents, caregivers, and others to answer that question by exploring data in critical areas, such as the percentage of teachers on substandard credentials, the share of beginning teachers, and the rates of teacher turnover—a critical factor driving shortages.

Topics Educator Quality, Educator Quality: Recruitment & Retention, Equitable Resources and Access
Brief

Investing for Student Success: Lessons from State School Finance Reforms

Linda Darling-Hammond

Aug 05 2019
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Equitable and empowering educational opportunities are increasingly important to the survival and success of individuals, economies, and societies, but today, U.S. public schools are the most inequitably funded of any in the industrialized world. Some states, however, have had some success addressing those inequities. Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and North Carolina have substantially improved learning opportunities and there are lessons to be learned from their efforts.

Topics Equitable Resources and Access, Educator Quality, Educator Quality: Professional Learning, Educator Quality: Recruitment & Retention, Educator Quality: Evaluation & Career Development
Brief

Principal Turnover: Insights from Current Principals

Stephanie Levin

Kathryn Bradley

Caitlin Scott

Jul 18 2019
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High quality principals are essential to students' educational opportunities and outcomes, but principal turnover is an ongoing problem in the United States. A 2017 survey of public school principals found that approximately 18% had left their position since the previous year. In high poverty schools, the turnover rate was 21%. This brief includes insights, experiences, and expertise from school leaders on the challenges associated with being a school principal and strategies to address those challenges.

Topics Educator Quality, Educator Quality: Professional Learning, Educator Quality: Recruitment & Retention, Educator Quality: Evaluation & Career Development
Report

Investing for Student Success: Lessons from State School Finance Reforms

Linda Darling-Hammond

Apr 09 2019
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Money matters when it comes to improving our nation’s schools, but how that money is spent is critical. This report reviews and analyzes efforts by four states to undertake progressive school funding strategies in order to substantially improve learning opportunities for all students and provides recommendations for federal and state policies to address funding inequalities that contribute to the cycle of poverty.

Topics Equitable Resources and Access, Educator Quality, Educator Quality: Professional Learning, Educator Quality: Recruitment & Retention
Report

Understanding and Addressing Principal Turnover: A Review of the Research

Stephanie Levin

Kathryn Bradley

Mar 19 2019
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School principals are responsible for maintaining a positive school climate, motivating school staff, and enhancing teachers’ practice. They are vital to ensuring teachers’ success in the classroom and students’ success, but one in five principals leaves their school each year and the numbers are worse in schools in underserved communities. Inadequate preparation, poor working conditions, insufficient salaries, lack of authority, and high-stakes accountability policies are among the drivers of principal turnover that must be addressed.

Topics Educator Quality, Educator Quality: Recruitment & Retention, The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)
Brief

Teacher Shortages in California: Status, Sources, and Potential Solutions

Linda Darling-Hammond

Leib Sutcher

Desiree Carver-Thomas

Oct 15 2018
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Teacher shortages have been worsening in California since 2015. In response, the state has invested nearly $200 million in programs aimed at recruiting and retaining high-quality teachers, but those programs will take time to yield the desired results. California needs to make additional investments to rapidly build the supply of qualified teachers where they are most needed and create incentives for experienced, effective teachers to re-enter and remain in the classroom.

Topic Educator Quality: Recruitment & Retention
Report

Taking the Long View: State Efforts to Solve Teacher Shortages by Strengthening the Profession

Danny Espinoza

Ryan Saunders

Tara Kini

Linda Darling-Hammond

Aug 29 2018
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Most states have been struggling to address teacher shortages for several years, often filling the vacuum with underprepared teachers. Governors and legislators in many of these states are now working to turn the tide. A new report from the Learning Policy Institute focuses on six evidence-based policies that states are pursuing to address their teacher shortages that can help states build long-term sustainable systems to attract, develop, and retain a strong and stable teacher workforce.

Topics Educator Quality: Recruitment & Retention, Educator Quality

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Related Research

Research Related to Educator Quality

Jul 01 2015

In keeping with the Learning Policy Institute’s commitment to communicating high-quality research to inform education policy and practice, we have assembled a selection of reports by other organizations that address critical questions and issues in LPI’s core topic areas. This collection, which will be periodically updated, is part of our larger effort to provide policymakers, practitioners, and stakeholders with useful information as they seek to advance equitable and empowering learning for all students.

Report

Teacher Turnover: Why It Matters and What We Can Do About It

Aug 16 2017

As students return to school this year, many will be in one of the more than 100,000 classrooms across the country staffed by an instructor not fully qualified to teach. This shortage of qualified teachers is almost entirely due to teachers leaving the profession and about 2/3 of teachers who leave do so for reasons other than retirement. This study looks at who is leaving, why, who is impacted, and policy considerations.

Report

Diversifying the Teaching Profession: How to Recruit and Retain Teachers of Color

Apr 19 2018

More and more states and districts are recognizing that recruiting and retaining teachers of color can help meet their students' needs while also helping to curb critical teacher shortages. But prospective teachers of color encounter unique barriers to entering and staying in the profession. High-retention pathways—combining high-quality clinically rich preparation with financial support—can be especially effective at reversing those trends.

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