Recruitment and Retention

This report examines 22 teacher education programs that have significantly shifted focus to place high-quality clinical teacher preparation at the center of their programs. It details how those shifts occurred and conditions that facilitated movement from traditional teacher training models to more clinical approaches.

This report examines how five school districts in Texas, Tennessee, Oregon, Georgia, and Louisiana implemented new educator evaluation and support systems and lessons learned along the way. The report finds that a process of regular observation and feedback is an important component of an effective evaluation system and identifies five essential practices for ensuring that teachers receive effective feedback and support from evaluation systems. 

This brief from The Education Trust presents ideas for states to consider when developing a state plan to ensure that all students, particularly disadvantaged students, have access to effective teachers. Recommendations include using data to identify patterns of teacher access, working with stakeholders to determine the main causes of disparities, and creating policies to spur change that give priority to schools with the most urgent problems.

This federal report presents data on teacher attrition and mobility from a longitudinal study following teachers who began teaching in 2007–08. Analysis of the data reveals that in contrast to the 40–50 percent attrition rate found in earlier studies, only 17 percent of new teachers left their jobs in the first five years.

This study examines what Boston charter schools are doing to achieve consistently strong student outcomes. Comparing Boston charter schools and more than 200 charter schools across the country, the study finds that Boston charter schools employ specific school leadership practices that result in stronger environments that promote excellent teaching. Key findings include the importance of early hiring while setting a high bar, leadership practices that foster a strong school culture, and ongoing professional development for teachers.

This report looks at 10 school districts and the key policy decisions they have made to redesign their teacher compensation systems. With the goal of attracting, retaining, and rewarding high-quality teachers while staying within budget and achieving district targets, these districts have changed compensation systems to pay effective educators more. 

This report details lessons learned from implementation of the Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowship (WWTF) program in five states. Aimed at providing a strong pipeline of effective teachers, WWTF currently partners with 28 universities in Georgia, Indiana, Michigan, New Jersey, and Ohio to provide prospective teachers academic training, clinical experience, and mentoring that will effectively equip them to succeed in high-need schools.

This brief from ERS is based on its work with the Cleveland Metropolitan School District and examines the relationship between strategic school design and effective student-based budgeting. The brief highlights the importance of aligning funding with a clear plan for reorganizing resources in order to improve student outcomes, and recommends that three overriding principles should be at the heart of all design plans: excellent teachers for all students, personalized learning and support, and cost effectiveness through creative solutions.

This series of videos follows five exemplary principals to illustrate five key practices that are essential to shaping instructional leadership: shaping a vision of academic success for all students, creating a climate hospitable to education, cultivating leadership in others, improving instruction, and managing people, data, and processes to foster school improvement.

This case study examines the work of three groups of charter management organizations (CMOs) to develop and launch teacher credentialing and master’s degrees programs. After concluding that traditional teacher preparation programs were not equipping their graduates with the skills needed to teach effectively, leaders at High Tech High in San Diego; Uncommon Schools, KIPP, and Achievement First in New York; and Match Education in Boston created their own programs for educating teachers, granting teacher certifications, and awarding master’s degrees in education.