General Resources

In this report, the Alliance for Excellent Education examines why teacher turnover rates are high among beginning teachers and recommends a comprehensive induction program to increase teacher retention, especially among new teachers. 

This report from the Center for American Progress examines policies and practices that states, districts, and schools can leverage to improve the overall quality of the educator workforce and ensure that all students have access to effective teachers. 

This brief from the Center for American Progress looks at compensations rates for teachers across the states and finds that not only are teachers being paid less than they deserve, they are not being paid enough to support their families. In order to stem attrition rates and encourage good teachers to remain in the profession, some states and districts have implemented innovative compensation schemes. The brief takes a look at some of them and finds that initial results are promising.

This TNTP report on teacher compensation puts forward the case for rewarding teachers according to their performance. Currently, nearly 90 percent of school districts use a “lockstep” approach to compensating teachers—awarding salary increases that are either based on years of experience, advanced qualifications, or some combination of the two. The report looks at issues with the recruitment and retention of teachers under lockstep pay systems and examines several districts that are adopting innovative compensation methods to attract and retain high-performing teachers into their classrooms.

In this report, the Center for American Progress looks at the increasing demands placed on principals in today’s schools, which are leading to growing rates of attrition in the field. The report includes an examination of the changing landscape of school leadership and the increasing demands of teacher evaluation and development and instructional improvement, which coexist alongside more traditional administrative duties.

The Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) enlisted the help of principals in three states, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Maryland, to find out more about ways they are using their autonomies to maximize the resources at their disposal. The report looks at how principals are reallocating funds to organize their schools in innovative new ways. Prime examples of this include extending the reach of teachers and increasing the use of technology in schools to customize learning.

This publication reports the results of the 2013 Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) of 100,000 teachers and leaders in 34 countries and economies. To inform efforts to recruit, retain, and develop teachers worldwide, the survey examines how teachers are recognized, evaluated, and rewarded. The report includes a summary of findings and recommendations for teachers and leaders on areas of improvement, including school leadership, teacher appraisal and feedback, school climate, professional development and teaching practices.

This report provides a comprehensive and research-based framework outlining the conditions necessary for school leaders to succeed and details the conditions that effective school systems have in place. A separate toolkit offers principals a means of assessing their current conditions and provides recommendations on ways to improve those conditions with the overall goal of increasing student achievement. 

Published by the Center for American Progress, the report focuses on the need to build a more racially and ethnically diversified teaching workforce. The study looks at the obstacles that limit the supply of highly effective teachers of color and the difficulties in retaining teachers of color. The impact that the disproportionate number of teachers of color has on the growing body students of color in the United States is addressed. The report contains recommendations aimed at increasing the teachers-of-color pipeline at the federal, state, and district levels.  

This report, published by Gallup, includes data from 5th- to 12th-grade students, together with material gathered over several decades from studies focusing on the key qualities of high-performing teachers and principals. With an end goal of improving student engagement and achievement, the report looks at how principals can create high-quality learning environments within their schools and includes sections on attracting, engaging, and retaining highly effective teachers.