We estimate the effects of Race to the Top (RTTT) on teacher qualifications, work environments, and job attitudes. Drawing on the Schools and Staffing Survey and the National Teacher and Principal Survey, we create a nationally representative data set of public school teachers from 1988 to 2018. We adopt an event study difference-in-differences…

Leadership training and administrative experience are key components of sponsored mobility as the candidate's participation in district- or school-sponsored training for aspiring school principals combined with the opportunity to avail of administrative experiences effectively constitute a pipeline to the principalship. The literature reveals that…

Drawing on nationally representative data from six cohorts of beginning teachers from the Schools and Staffing Survey and the National Teacher and Principal Survey, this study applies a difference-in-differences research design to examine the relationship between changes to state-level alternative certification policies and the characteristics of…

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to estimate the relationship between principal quality and turnover. Principals can have potentially large effects on student outcomes. When school leaders leave their roles, they cause disruptive effects to the school's climate. If effective principals are more likely to leave, the negative effects of…

We investigate the male-female gap in principal compensation in state and national data: detailed longitudinal personnel records from Missouri and repeated cross-sections from the nationally representative Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS). In both data sets, we estimate substantively important compensation gaps for school leaders. In Missouri,…

Background: Much of the previous research in teacher attrition and retention focuses on teachers in general, without regard to specific types of teachers. We focus on English language arts (ELA) and English as a second language (ESL) teachers because the United States has stubbornly low achievement in reading, and reading is critical to the…

We investigate the male-female gap in principal compensation in state and national data: detailed longitudinal personnel records from the state of Missouri and repeated cross-sections from the nationally representative Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS). In both data sets, we estimate substantively important compensation gaps for school leaders.…

The authors provide an updated analysis of demographic trends in teaching profession, finding that the profession is growing, becoming more inexperienced, and more diverse. The trends and others, they write, shed light on the teacher pipeline today and offer insights on teacher-staffing issues, even as they raise important policy questions.

Qualified science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) teachers are critical in the provision of high-quality STEM education for all students. Through descriptive and regression analysis, we document how demographic characteristics, qualifications, and turnover rates of a nationally representative sample of public school STEM teachers…

Although the caseload of students with categorical disabilities and limited English proficiency has increased in recent years for secondary engineering design graphics teachers, the level of preparation to teach students with these characteristics has not. Given that teachers must develop inclusive classroom environments for all students, the…

To inform the "Leandro v. State of North Carolina" Action Plan, the Learning Policy Institute examined the within-school and out-of-school barriers to obtaining a sound basic education facing students who attend North Carolina's high-poverty schools. High-poverty schools are schools where 75% or more students are at risk because their…

This study provides nationally representative information about the qualifications and preparation of secondary content and special education teachers in special education and alternative school settings, as compared with teachers in regular schools. Findings demonstrate that a statistically significant relationship did not exist between school…

In this commentary, we revisit "NCLB and the Demand for Highly Qualified Teachers: Challenges and Solutions for Rural Schools," an article we published in this journal in 2005. We consider the predictions we made then about the impact of the Highly Qualified Teacher mandate on special education teacher (SET) shortages in rural states and…

There are at least four ways teachers may enter a new school: directly after receiving a new degree, exiting a different career, transferring from another school or type of position in a school, or after a break from teaching. The data used in this report span 25 years, from 1987 to 2012, providing an overview of these four key sources of newly…

In this study, we investigate the distribution of qualified special educators across elementary neighborhood schools and exclusionary public and private special education schools. Using the 2011-2012 Schools and Staffing Survey, we provide a descriptive analysis of measurable teacher qualifications (e.g., years of experience, preparation type,…