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Teacher hiring and retention
Leveraging Quarterly Workforce Indicators to Analyze Teacher Labor Market Dynamics: Inequitable Trends in Educator Turnover
Educator labor markets vary considerably across the country and can change quickly during recessions. We use data from the Quality Workforce Indicators (QWI) on educators in Elementary and Secondary Schools from 2000-01 to 2022-23. We demonstrate how to transform the quarter-level data in the… more →
The Prevalence of LGBTQ+ Teachers in the U.S.
Due to limited data, we know little about the prevalence of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) educators. Using the American Community Survey and Census Pulse, we examine the representation of LGBTQ+ individuals in PK-12 teaching. We find that 3.3-3.5 percent of LGBTQ+… more →
What Happens When We Pay Our Teachers More? Evidence from New Jersey Public Schools
Topics: Teacher and Leader DevelopmentThis paper examines the impact of increasing teacher salaries on student outcomes by exploiting variation from the “50K The First Day” campaign that established a $50K salary floor for new teachers across New Jersey school districts. Using school-level data from 2003 to 2019, we employ a… more →
Pathways to the Teaching Profession: Teaching Assistants’ and Substitute Teachers’ Transitions into the Teacher Workforce
Teacher shortages and lack of teacher diversity have led to growing efforts nationally to recruit teaching assistants (TAs) to be classroom teachers. Substitute teachers are not typically considered in these efforts. We pair longitudinal administrative data from a mid-sized urban district with… more →
Teacher-colleague race congruence and mobility: Do colleague demographics impact teacher retention?
Topics: MethodsTeacher turnover is especially pronounced among teachers of color who play critically important roles in the success of students of color. A growing literature points to racial isolation as one factor that is associated with Black teacher job satisfaction in particular, which in turn could play… more →
Differential Responses to Teacher Evaluation Incentives: Expectancy, Race, Experience, and Task
Topics: Teacher and Leader DevelopmentTeacher evaluation systems and their associated incentives have produced fairly mixed results. Our analyses are motivated by theory and descriptive evidence that accountability systems are highly racialized, and that individuals are less likely to respond to incentives when they have low… more →
Career Sequences and Unequal Sorting of Subject Area Teachers along the Path to the Principalship
Topics: Teacher and Leader DevelopmentThe path to becoming a school principal is characterized by a variety of trajectories that reflect the diverse experiences and backgrounds of aspiring leaders. While ideally the road to the principalship would result in a proportional and representative body of principals, research has shown… more →
The Causes and Consequences of U.S. Teacher Strikes
Topics: Policy, Politics, and GovernanceThe U.S. has witnessed a resurgence of labor activism, with teachers at the forefront. We examine how teacher strikes affect compensation, working conditions, and productivity with an original dataset of 772 teacher strikes generating 48 million student days idle between 2007 and 2023. Using an… more →
STEM teacher workforce in high-need schools resilient despite shrinking supply and increasing demand
Topics: MethodsThe teacher workforce in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) has been a perpetual weak spot in public schools’ teaching rosters. Prior reports show the pipeline of new STEM teachers into the profession is weak while demand for instruction in STEM fields continues to grow. This… more →
A Meta-Analysis of the Experimental Evidence Linking Mathematics and Science Professional Development Interventions to Teacher Knowledge, Classroom Instruction, and Student Achievement
Topics: Student LearningDespite evidence that teacher professional development interventions in mathematics and science can increase student achievement, our understanding of the mechanisms by which this occurs – particularly how these interventions affect teachers themselves, and whether teacher-level changes predict… more →
Do Mid-Career Teacher Trainees Enter and Persist Like Their Younger Peers?
Topics: Teacher and Leader DevelopmentIn the context of an ongoing national conversation about teacher shortages, we build on prior literature on the efficacy of teacher certification pathways by comparing entry and exit patterns based on age at the time of certification. All trainees who complete a state certification process have… more →
From School to School: Examining the Contours of Switching Schools within the Special Education Teacher Labor Market
The United States is facing growing teacher shortages that may disproportionately affecting schools serving high proportions of students of color, low-income students, and those in rural or urban areas. Special education teachers (SETs) are particularly in demand. Each year, nearly half of all… more →
Should They Pay, or Should I Go? Differential Responses to Base Salary Increases
This study uses administrative data from Oregon to estimate the extent to which base salary increases reduce teacher turnover and to investigate whether these effects are heterogeneous by teacher characteristics. Using multiple sets of fixed effects to isolate plausibly exogenous variation in… more →
College Students and Career Aspirations: Nudging Student Interest in Teaching
We survey undergraduate students at a large public university to understand the pecuniary and non-pecuniary factors driving their college major and career decisions with a focus on K-12 teaching. While the average student reports there is a 6% chance they will pursue teaching, almost 27% report… more →
(Dis)connection at Work: Racial Isolation, Teachers’ Job Experiences, and Teacher Turnover
Topics: Teacher and Leader DevelopmentTeachers of color often work in schools with few colleagues from the same racial or ethnic background. This racial isolation may affect their work experiences and important job outcomes, including retention. Using longitudinal administrative and survey data, we investigate the degree to which… more →
Local Licensure and Teacher Shortage: Policy Analysis and Implications
Topics: Policy, Politics, and GovernanceWe use frame analysis to analyze the first iteration of the Texas District of Innovation policy, which allows districts to take exemption from state education requirements mandating the hiring of a state certified teacher. We analyzed 451 district policies and find the plans use very similar,… more →
The Returns to Experience for School Principals
Topics: Teacher and Leader DevelopmentDespite increasing recognition of the importance of high-quality school leadership, we know remarkably little about principal skill development. Using administrative data from Tennessee, Oregon, and New York City, we estimate the returns to principal experience as measured by student outcomes,… more →
Teacher Salary Raises and Turnover: Evidence from the First Year of the Arkansas LEARNS Act
Attracting and retaining high-quality teachers is a pressing policy concern. Increasing teacher salaries and creating more attractive compensation packages are often proposed as a potential solution. Signed into law in March 2023, the LEARNS Act increased Arkansas's minimum teacher salary from $… more →
Teacher Retention and Quality in the Four-Day School Week
The four-day school week is a school calendar that has become increasingly common following the COVID-19 pandemic. Proponents of the calendar often claim that offering teachers a regular 3-day weekend will help schools better retain existing teachers and recruit new teachers to their district… more →
The Teacher Labor Market in Context: What We Can Learn from Nurses
Researchers have posited various theories to explain supposed declines in teaching quality: the expansion of labor market opportunities for women, low relative wages, compressed compensation structures, and substituting quantity for quality. We synthesize these previous theories and expand on… more →