The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a significant difference between teachers' perceptions of principals' use of consideration and initiating structure and elementary school student achievement as measured by academic growth according to the results of North Carolina End of Grade tests for reading and math during the school…

This article discusses what it means to be a beginning teacher from the perspective of four mid-career entrants to the profession. Findings from this ethnographic study suggest that regardless of preservice teacher preparation or school districts' formal induction practices, newcomers experience a dramatic threshold or liminal phase among…

Qatar has recently faced a tremendous reform in education that requires changes in many domains and causes a lot of challenges. A very serious challenge is teachers' retention where many teachers tend to leave their schools looking for new jobs. In independent schools as well as governmental schools, teachers switch jobs and therefore schools…

The purpose of this paper was to examine the cross-national performance of fourth- and eighth-grade students in mathematics on the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2003. The TIMSS assessment data were used to identify nations that have a competitive edge in the critical area of mathematics. The Trends in International…

The price of teacher attrition is high, not only financially, but also in terms of human and institutional costs. The inability to retain beginning teachers contributes significantly to teacher shortages. This study investigates the effect of the preparation program on teacher attrition. Attrition rates of elementary teacher graduates from two…

This report is based on the discussions of the February 2008 "Teaching by Choice: Beyond 2 + 2" conference, convened by the American Association of Community Colleges to focus on the growing role of community colleges as providers of teacher education and source of professional development for elementary, middle and secondary teachers of science,…

Arguably the most important educational resource is teachers. Teachers and teaching quality are a central feature of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) which requires a "highly qualified teacher" in every core academic classroom. Many states and large districts also have policies in place to attract qualified teachers to…

The Strategic Management of Human Capital in Education Project was founded in 2008 with one goal: to improve student achievement dramatically in the 100 largest urban school districts. Unless teaching quality and principal leadership improve significantly, lasting education improvement is impossible. In policy terms, without "strategic management"…

The article presents some findings from the York-Jyvaskyla Teacher Professionalism project. The project was a follow-up study to earlier case-study research in six schools in Finland and six schools in England on the impact of educational reforms on teachers' work. Data were collected by re-interviewing a sample of teachers from the original…

In recent years there has been a growing interest in support, guidance, and orientation programs--collectively known as induction--for beginning elementary and secondary teachers during the transition into their first teaching jobs. This study examines whether such supports have a positive effect on the retention of beginning teachers. The study…

Induction has become an increasingly popular strategy for school districts across the country that seek solutions for high attrition rates among teachers who are new to the profession. In Illinois public schools, the attrition rate among new teachers can be as high as 40 percent after only five years on the job. Such turnover levels are costly for…

When Erik G. Brown launched his teaching career at the Cesar Chavez Academy in East Palo Alto, California, four years ago, he was not alone. Seventy-five percent of the teachers in the 400-student middle school were new to the district, and two-thirds of those were new to the field. The school had gone through six principals in six years, and its…

This article focuses on the challenge of teacher retention in rural schools in relation to the No Child Left Behind mandate, that school districts must attract and retain highly qualified teachers. This case study examines the extent to which a rural school enhanced teacher retention by overcoming the barriers that might otherwise have presented a…

Many states are struggling to finance under-funded teacher pension systems as well as recruit and retain a high-quality teaching workforce. This paper compares Maryland's former (prior to Spring, 2006) teacher pension system to those in Pennsylvania and several other states. On the basis of simple replacement rates, the former Maryland state plan…

Notwithstanding over 20 years of propaganda promoting board school teaching as an ideal career for upper-class women, it appears that in the 1890s it was still unusual for "girls of good family" to go in for it. Therefore, it was an eccentric plunge in 1898 when Eglantyne Jebb, an Oxford student from a prosperous land-owning family,…