Recruitment and Retention: Pilot Solutions Designed by Teachers of Color

A large body of research, including a detailed report commissioned by Digital Promise in 2020, points to the importance of diversifying the teacher workforce across the U.S. Too often, though, state- or district-level teacher workforce diversity initiatives are applied in broad strokes and do not center the experiences of teachers of color in the locations Read more about Recruitment and Retention: Pilot Solutions Designed by Teachers of Color[…]

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In Demand: The Real Teacher Shortages and How to Solve Them

Are there widespread teacher shortages in U.S. public education? Recent headlines suggest there are. But a closer look at school staffing trends in recent years yields a different story, one with important consequences for education policymakers. In a new report from FutureEd and EducationCounsel, Principal Sandi Jacobs analyzes pre-pandemic teacher supply and demand trends, identifies Read more about In Demand: The Real Teacher Shortages and How to Solve Them[…]

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Right From the Start: D.C.’s Groundbreaking Teacher Hiring Strategy

The District of Columbia Public Schools is well-known for its comprehensive teacher-evaluation and performance-based compensation systems. But an equally important component of the district’s work to strengthen its teaching workforce has been a systematic, data-driven approach to hiring the strongest candidates in the first place. Known as TeachDC, the system employs a multi-step process for Read more about Right From the Start: D.C.’s Groundbreaking Teacher Hiring Strategy[…]

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Is Your State Prioritizing Teacher Diversity & Equity?

Research shows that access to a racially and culturally diverse teacher workforce is beneficial for all P-12 students, particularly for students of color, who often thrive in classrooms led by teachers who share their racial and cultural background. But unfortunately, the diversity of the national public school teacher workforce does not reflect the diversity of Read more about Is Your State Prioritizing Teacher Diversity & Equity?[…]

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May Issue Brief: Effective Teacher Hiring Practices

Every year, schools must hire new teachers to replace the nearly 15 percent who leave annually. But what if schools are doing it wrong? In Core Education’s May issue brief, we explore the data science behind teacher hiring, look at the teacher characteristics that have the most impact on teacher effectiveness and retention, and benchmark Read more about May Issue Brief: Effective Teacher Hiring Practices[…]

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How State and Local Leaders Can Strengthen Teacher Pipelines

Diverse, learner-ready teachers in the classroom means students have access to the instruction and learning needed to meet education goals. But the reality is that too many students are without these teachers State and district leaders can change that by using data to make informed policy decisions that strengthen their teacher pipelines. Data Quality Campaign’s Read more about How State and Local Leaders Can Strengthen Teacher Pipelines[…]

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Taking the Guesswork Out of Teacher Hiring

Recently in Education Week, Madeline Will reviewed new teacher hiring practices designed to predict the longevity and effectiveness of teachers before they begin teaching. Excerpts from the piece appear below: Sojourner and other researchers partnered with the Minneapolis school district to determine whether teachers’ resumes can predict how effective they’ll be in the classroom and Read more about Taking the Guesswork Out of Teacher Hiring[…]

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What does pre-service teacher quality tell us about entry and retention in the profession?

It is often difficult for school and district leadership to identify high-quality teachers who will remain in the classroom, especially among those who are just entering the profession and in the first years of employment. However, a recent study by Robert Vagi, Margarita Pivovarova and Wendy Miedel Barnard suggests that examining a prospective teacher’s instructional Read more about What does pre-service teacher quality tell us about entry and retention in the profession?[…]

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Attracting Minorities to the Teaching Profession

Michael Hansen, Diana Quintero, and Li Feng of the Brookings Institute recently explored incentive policies that show evidence of attracting minority teachers. Excerpts from their piece appear below: Many education policymakers and practitioners across the country recognize the need to recruit and retain more racial and ethnic minorities into the teaching profession. As we’ve previously Read more about Attracting Minorities to the Teaching Profession[…]

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NCTQ Releases Analysis of States’ Efforts to Address Teacher Shortages and Surpluses

The National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) has released its Teacher Shortages and Surpluses Databurst, an analysis of states’ work to track teacher shortages and surpluses, and to implement policy solutions to address these challenges. This resource includes an overview of promising practices currently being implemented, a snapshot of all 50 states’ and the District Read more about NCTQ Releases Analysis of States’ Efforts to Address Teacher Shortages and Surpluses[…]

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States’ Sense of Urgency to Improve Teacher Policies Grinds to a Halt

The National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) has released its biannual 2017 State Teacher Policy Yearbook (Yearbook), which finds that the rapid progress made by states over the last decade to modernize their teacher policies has largely slowed. Since the last edition of the Yearbook in 2015, few states have initiated any new actions to Read more about States’ Sense of Urgency to Improve Teacher Policies Grinds to a Halt[…]

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Landscapes in Teacher Prep: Undergraduate Elementary Education

The National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) has released new ratings for 875 undergraduate elementary teacher preparation programs. The latest Teacher Prep Review found evidence that the nation’s top programs–those that graduate teachers well versed in both evidence-based content and methods of teaching–are not all the nation’s best known elite universities, but include Purdue University, Read more about Landscapes in Teacher Prep: Undergraduate Elementary Education[…]

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New Teachers Make Up a Significant Segment of Profession

Everybody involved in K-12 education knows that new teachers tend to need a lot of extra support. What they may not fully grasp, however, is just how many new teachers are out there. As a segment of the total U.S. teaching force, their representation appears to be considerable. Nationally, 12 percent of all public school Read more about New Teachers Make Up a Significant Segment of Profession[…]

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Evaluating Teacher Preparation: The problems with inputs — and outputs

In a recent article in RealClear Education, Ashley LiBetti Mitchel and Chad Aldeman explore the difficulty with evaluating teacher preparation. Excerpts of “Our Failed Investments in Teacher Preparation” appear below: Each year, new teachers collectively spend about $4.85 billion dollars and 302 million hours on their preparation work. But there is no evidence that any Read more about Evaluating Teacher Preparation: The problems with inputs — and outputs[…]

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The Importance of Teacher Supply to Education Reform

Paul Bruno at the Brookings Institution explores the relationship between teacher evaluation policies and the supply of teachers in a recent article. Overall, teacher evaluations have been ramping up in recent years, with some evidence in New York City and Washington D.C. that they are improving student achievement. However, in general, teacher evaluation reforms in Read more about The Importance of Teacher Supply to Education Reform[…]

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Districts Facing Teacher Shortages Look for Lifelines

You may have been hearing in the news about teacher shortages in various communities around the country. Looking a little bit more closely at these situations reveals that, while enrollment in teacher preparations programs has certainly declined in recent years, there does not appear to be an across-the-board problem with finding and hiring teachers in Read more about Districts Facing Teacher Shortages Look for Lifelines[…]

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