Sustainable leadership practices are essential to the health of any association and should be seen as a priority to ensure continuity of services to its members. These practices are two-pronged: (a) creating, with intentionality, a leadership pipeline to recruit and identify new leaders, and (b) providing current leaders with the support needed to…

Annually, 13% of special educators leave teaching, twice that of general educators (Wong et al., 2017). In June 2017, the U.S. Department of Education and Office of Postsecondary Education announced that 46 states were drastically short of special education teachers (Robinson et al., 2019). This study explores how university special education…

The Region 8 Comprehensive Center collaborated with the Indiana Department of Education to evaluate the obstacles many districts face in the teacher hiring process. The brief further discusses the importance of hiring timelines, benefits and barriers of early hiring, and recommendations and strategies for revising hiring timelines.

There are many benefits to being involved in a school-based agricultural education program (SBAE). Engagement of students in SBAE programs provides students with a milieu of opportunities; as such, it is imperative to determine strategies for recruitment and retention that are impactful. Research surrounding the recruitment and retention of SBAE…

Much is unknown about those who do not finish high school and there is a need to understand who enters and completes alternative high school completion programs, such as the HiSet (High School Equivalency Test), GED (General Education Development Test), or growing number of state sponsored high school equivalency programs. The purpose for…

From 2005 to 2015, the number of Black teachers in Michigan dropped by 48%, substantially exceeding declines in the corresponding K-12 Black student population. These teacher losses are an acute phenomenon within a broader national context of deurbanization of K-12 student populations away from those districts with the largest and most established…

Background: The number of English learner (EL) students has been steadily increasing within the United States and currently includes more than 5M students. The National Education Association (2020) estimated that by 2025, nearly 25% of all learners will be EL students. Curricula, interventions, and assessments for both diagnostic and academic…

Michigan education leaders would like to know whether recruiting certified teachers who are not teaching would be an effective way to fill teacher vacancies in public schools. The study examined the characteristics of these teachers, their reasons for not teaching, and incentives that would motivate them to teach in public schools. Michigan…

The specific needs of rural schools and communities have received limited attention from state policy makers, and many state programs have only added to the challenges that school districts in rural areas face. Michigan State University researchers surveyed and interviewed rural superintendents in Michigan to learn more about their situations.…

Black superintendents are significantly underrepresented in our nation's schools. Despite a slight increase in representation of female Black superintendents, minorities of all races continue to be underrepresented (Tienken & Domenech, 2020). In this study, I examined the experiences of Black superintendents in Michigan who currently hold…

Motivation: The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in substantial disruption to K-12 schooling and students learning (Kuhfeld, Soland, & Lewis, 2021). Policymakers and educators have pointed to the potential of tutoring to support students' learning recovery, given that tutoring is one of the most effective educational strategies to help students…

All students deserve access to a high-quality education and the resources they need to thrive. However, in Michigan this has not been the reality for far too long, particularly for students who are the most underserved. Longstanding inequities have persisted and worsened since the beginning of the pandemic, and Michigan has fallen further and…

Since districts are often competing with each other and other higher-paying professions for new hires, it is imperative to consider ways to better engage and appeal to candidates. For human resource (HR) professionals and administrators to improve their efforts, they need to know how to cultivate effective relationships with potential new hires.…

Background/Purpose: Students enroll in college at least in part to prepare for a career after graduation. At the same time, for many students, attending college requires working to earn money (Perna, 2020). Optimally, these work positions concurrently provide students the opportunity to develop skills that have labor market returns, explore career…

With the rapid increase of English Learners (ELs) in K-12 schools, school districts are struggling to find ways to meet the needs for EL teachers. One approach to address the shortage is to build teacher capacity by collaborating with higher education institutions where English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher preparation programs are offered.…