The statistics are familiar: almost 50% of new teachers leave the profession within their first five years in the classroom. The challenge of recruiting and retaining teachers carries high costs for today's schools and students. This book uncovers some of the reasons behind the elevated attrition rates in the field of education through a long-term…

Early career science teachers are often assigned to classrooms with high numbers of English language learners (ELLs). For the underprepared early career science teacher, these circumstances are challenging. This study examines the changes in beliefs and practices of an early career science teacher who taught high numbers of ELLs in an urban…

This paper discusses the challenge of retaining teachers in hard-to-staff schools by examining how it is addressed in three context specific teacher education programs, which prepare teachers to teach in urban public, urban Catholic, and Jewish Day Schools in U.S.A. The findings of this study suggest that counter to teaching force trends teachers…

In this study we explore the experiences of new teachers in urban schools at the intersection of three major policy agendas--alternative certification, new teacher retention, and the small schools movement. We examine alternatively certified teachers' perceptions of the rewards and challenges of teaching in small schools, the support neophyte…

Teachers for Chicago is a program that recruits, educates, and trains new teachers. The Chicago Public Schools pays for candidates to earn a master's degree in education at a participating college or university. Participants work as interns for two years under the tutelage of a mentor. A sidebar describes how rural districts aggressively recruit…

This handbook is a guide to the design of new teacher recruitment programs. It is intended to help new programs make the best possible start in duplicating the success of the Pathways program, which seeks to recruit from three nontraditional pools: paraprofessionals, uncertified teachers, and returned Peace Corps volunteers. Pathways involves:…