Attracting and retaining high-quality teachers in the profession is a matter of significant policy concern. Increasing teacher salaries and creating more attractive compensation packages are often proposed to achieve this goal. However, average real teacher salaries have remained stagnant over the past decade and have not fully recovered from the…

Charter schools see as many as one in four teachers leave annually, and recent evidence attributes much of this turnover to provisions affected by collective bargaining processes and state laws such as salary, benefits, job security, and working hours. There have been many recent efforts to improve teacher voice in charter schools (Kahlenberg…

In this article, we explain how overly prescriptive, rigid state statutory and regulatory policy frameworks regarding teacher evaluation, tenure and employment decisions outstrip the statistical reliability and validity of proposed measures of teaching effectiveness. We begin with a discussion of the emergence of highly prescriptive state…

The authors analyze the Arkansas teacher pension plan and empirically gauge the behavioral response to incentives embedded in that plan and to possible reforms. The pattern of pension wealth accrual creates sharp incentives to work until eligible for early or normal retirement, often in one's early fifties, and to separate shortly thereafter. We…

This report presents findings from the Pilot Teacher Compensation Survey (TCS), which collected data for school year 2005-2006. This pilot collection is a research and development effort to see if it is possible to collect and publish teacher-level data from the administrative records residing in state departments of education. Seven states…

The Common Core of Data (CCD) is an annual collection of public elementary and secondary education data administered by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and its collection agent, the U.S. Census Bureau. Data for CCD surveys are provided by state education agencies (SEAs). This report presents summary data from the Pilot Teacher…

Reports results of a five-state survey of 331 small school superintendents from Arkansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas which studied techniques and plans of action for teacher recruitment and teacher maintenance. (AH)

Although states have maintained a focus on recruiting and retaining teachers, many schools and districts still face daunting challenges in ensuring a qualified and competent teaching corps. It is particularly difficult for schools considered hard to staff-those with high concentrations of low-performing, low-income students; high teacher turnover;…

Teacher selection is a complex set of procedures that may be influenced by administrators' beliefs and values. This paper presents findings of a study that identified the teacher characteristics most valued by Arkansas public school administrators. Data were gathered during the 1995-96 school year through a survey of 40 area school administrators…

This statewide study concerning salary supplementing activities of Arkansas public school teachers is based on a sample of approximately 1,500 teachers who completed a 33-item questionnaire. Foremost among the concerns of the researchers were such topics as: (1) How many teachers are working outside the field? (2) How much time is spent in these…

Application forms for teaching positions were collected from 225 school districts throughout the State of Arkansas to ascertain their awareness of and compliance with Federal equal employment opportunity (EEO) laws. Two-thirds of the districts were found to use personnel forms with numerous violations of EEO principles. (Author/GC)

Comparative information on higher education in the southern states (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia) compiled by the Southern Regional Education Board is presented. The report is divided into the following seven sections (with…