District Leader

The Metropolitan Multicultural Teacher Education Program (MMTEP) specifically serves the needs of diverse students in Milwaukee’s public schools. It recruits a high percentage of minority candidates who are currently paraprofessionals into a postbaccalaureate alternate route that involves a short course of summer training, followed by placement as teachers of record and a year of collateral coursework and mentoring leading to certification and a guaranteed teacher contract in the Milwaukee Public Schools after program completion. 

This initiative highlights the potential of using technology and redesigning teachers’ jobs to ensure excellent teachers. By focusing on redesigning teacher leadership opportunities, teacher pay, and collaborative working environments, the goal of district initiatives is to attract and retain effective teachers in high-need schools. 

Using student and teacher data from Miami-Dade County, Florida, the authors found that less experienced, minority, and female teachers are more likely to be assigned students with lower average prior achievement, more prior behavioral problems, and lower prior attendance rates, especially in schools with stable senior staffs. Moreover, novice teachers were more likely to be assigned students from black and low-income families within the same school.

This study examined whether new teachers are, in fact, assigned to the toughest classrooms, and, if so, what effect that has on new teacher turnover. Using administrative data from Florida and the National Schools and Staffing Teacher Follow-Up Survey, the author found that inexperienced teachers usually taught in schools with low-performing, minority, or limited-English-proficient students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.

This study considers the national retention rates for Teach For America teachers based on a survey of three cohorts. The researchers found that teachers in more challenging assignments (e.g., split grades, multiple subjects, and out-of-field classes) were more likely to leave their schools or resign from teaching.

This brief produced by the Alliance for Excellent Education examines access to great teachers and leaders in high schools. Understanding the dynamics of the teacher labor market can ensure that strategies actually influence teachers’ decisions concerning where to work, as well as how long they stay. Although states and districts have the most influence on teacher policies, federal law also can help improve access to great teachers by supporting and encouraging effective recruitment and retention practices at state and local levels.

This study of Florida districts found that collective bargaining agreements are often more lenient than people think when it comes to administrators’ discretion in teacher assignments—even in large, at-risk districts. Yet administrators often do not take advantage of the flexibilities in their union contracts because of ingrained practices and pressures by teachers and parents for the most effective teachers to teach students with the fewest high needs.

This center works to increase the nation’s capacity to successfully recruit and retain special educators, early intervention providers, and related service providers to serve the needs of infants, young children, and youth with disabilities and their families. Information on careers, personnel preparation programs, state certification requirements, financial aid, and employment opportunities is maintained and continually updated on this website.

In Hillsborough County, Florida, the annual three-day district job fair is limited to high-poverty schools on the first day, and principals in these schools also are exempt from the district requirement that transferring teachers must be given priority before new teachers. 

The state provides financial assistance to students pursuing bachelor’s degree programs, as well as current licensed teachers, to pursue endorsements or master’s degrees in hard-to-staff subject areas. The scholarships are available to those teachers who plan to serve a hard-to-staff geographic area at the rate of one year of service for each award year.