Publications

This brief examines how six school districts participating in the Wallace Foundation’s Principal Pipeline Initiative are using data systems to identify a steady supply of effective school leaders. The data systems have the capacity to match principals to schools according to fit, identify principal mentors, and tailor training to a school leader’s needs. The brief shares lessons learned regarding system design, access, and implementation. 

This report outlines the methods used by four successful charter networks to recruit and develop principals, and offers recommendations for expanding these practices to schools across the country. Key practices includes establishing a candidate pool, providing coaching and support after hiring, and offering leadership development opportunities at all levels, aligned with clear leadership pathways.

This study examines how principals in public schools spend their time, using data from the 2011-12 National Center for Education Statistics’ Schools and Staffing Survey. Principals were found to work an average of 59 hours weekly, with the bulk of their time spent on administrative tasks. The study also reviews principal participation in different types of professional development.

This report evaluates the potential of a professional development model in which excellent teachers gave formal presentations traditionally delivered by non-district experts to develop other teachers. The study found that teachers received the training positively, reporting increased collaboration, effectiveness, and perception of the presenters as leaders within the district.

This qualitative study examined a professional development school partnership  between a local state university and a K–5 inner-city school in the southeastern U.S. over a year to discover how the school fostered teacher leadership. The report discusses three dynamics that foster teacher leadership—professional development opportunities, co-teaching, and collective teacher efficacy—and the elements of the school culture that were found to support teacher leadership.

This report from NCTQ and the Brookings Institution examines why diversity in the teacher workforce matters so much, and the challenges associated with recruiting teachers who reflect the diversity of students served. The report finds that minority teachers exit the teacher pipeline at four key points: attending and completing college, majoring in education, hiring into teacher positions, and staying in teaching beyond one year, and it suggests some short-term strategies that could be employed to reverse these trends. 

This brief from the Learning Policy Institute examines the effectiveness of state efforts to recruit, employ, and retain minority K-12 teachers. Results are based on a study of teacher recruitment data from 1987 to 2013. The study concludes that though efforts to recruit and place minority teachers in high-needs schools have been largely successful, retention rates have been low. Other findings indicate that two key determinants of retention are the degree of teachers' classroom autonomy and teacher input into school decisions.

This report from the Learning Policy Institute uses federal databases to analyze current trends in teacher shortages and to project future shortage trends. It identifies four principal factors that drive teacher shortages: high attrition rates, increasing student enrollment, declining teacher preparation enrollment, and district attempts to reduce student-teacher ratios. With a projected shortfall of around 300,000 teachers by 2020, the report identifies some policy strategies that could be used to improve recruitment and selection practices. 

This report outlines findings from a study of the 2010 cohort of Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) Program grantees in their third year of implementation. The report provides an in-depth analysis of the impacts of pay-for-performance bonuses on teacher and student outcomes in ten districts. Findings indicate that student achievement after three years in TIF schools was 1 to 2 percentile points higher than in non-TIF schools, which is roughly equivalent to a gain of four additional weeks of learning.

This brief examines the CLASS project, an Oregon initiative intended to close the achievement gap by improving teacher quality by expanding career paths for teachers, and improving evaluations, professional development, and salary options. The paper includes an overview of the CLASS project model, the legislative and policy actions necessary to implement the model, an analysis of its impact, and a summary of lessons learned.