Background: Policy makers are increasingly adopting performance incentives to spur underperforming teachers as a way to improve teaching and student performance. However, much of the experimental research fails to find meaningful effects of performance incentives on either student achievement or teacher practice. Purpose/Objective: Using the…

Amidst increasing globalized pressures to raise student achievement, nations are heavily investing in various forms of teacher professional development. In the United States, teachers are increasingly electing to pursue National Board Certification, yet few studies have analyzed the experience within the greater complex system of teaching and…

When districts get ready to recruit excellent teachers for the career possibilities that Opportunity Culture roles offer, success may come down to two actions: Start early, and communicate constantly, say recruiters in Charlotte-Mecklenburg's Project L.I.F.T. (Leadership and Investment For Transformation) schools. What brings excellent teachers in…

An increasing number of states are mandating teacher performance be considered in educator employment decisions, including awarding tenure and layoffs, according to a 50-state policy review of teacher tenure laws. Tenure laws have historically granted job protections based on years of employment. The Education Commission of the States (ECS)…

Principal Alison Harris is blunt in describing what she confronted on her arrival to Ranson IB Middle School in 2011. "I was placed in what many people would call an impossible situation," she says. During her initial visit to the school in 2009-10, she watched as students changed classes--while teachers pressed against the lockers to…

Greensboro College has many of the intimate hallmarks of a small, private, liberal-arts college. Professors give their cellphone numbers to students and routinely provide extra help to those who need it. Classes at the North Carolina institution average 14 people. One of the students featured on the college Web site is a biology major who plays on…

In the era of No Child Left Behind, principals are increasingly held accountable for student performance. But are teacher labor agreements giving them enough flexibility to manage effectively? This study answers this question and others. It examines how much flexibility school leaders enjoy on key dimensions of management in America's fifty…

Regulations for sick leave and substitute teachers, adopted by the North Carolina State Board of Education, are presented in outline form. Sick leave regulations provide for sick leave eligibility, sick leave earned, leave charges, sick leave accumulation, advancement of sick leave, verification of sick leave, repayment of excessive leave,…

Much good work has recently been done on the socioeconomic history of teaching in the United States, particularly in relation to the "feminization" of the profession that occurred over the course of the nineteenth century. This article brings together evidence from disparate local sources in both North Carolina and New York to explore…

This report examines the difficulties schools encounter as they seek qualified teachers. The paper focuses on the southeastern portion of the United States, using North Carolina as a case study. Emerging teacher shortages in the state have put pressure on administrators to staff classrooms at all costs, weakening the case for high standards for…

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;…

An analysis was conducted on the employment history of teachers hired in the North Carolina public schools from 1979-80 school year through 1996. Over 81,000 new teachers were hired in this period. Overall, the loss by the end of the second teaching year is 15-18 percent. Male teachers are more likely to leave (20 percent versus 15 percent for…

This paper studies the variables that may be related to the length of time that black teachers stay in teaching and, if they do leave, to whether or not they return. Specifically studied are the career paths of 2,535 black teachers who began their careers in North Carolina between 1974 and 1982. Used to predict the timing of both an exit from…

This publication reports the findings of the North Carolina Board of Higher Education Research Division. The study yields the following information: a) elementary and secondary school education in North Carolina will not be a growth industry in the 1970s because of the decline in school enrollments; b) the rate of growth in the demand for teachers…

This monograph is a revision of an earlier edition designed to help school boards handle terminations of employment while reducing the likelihood of litigation arising from terminations. The former set of five procedural codes have been updated, modified, and added to. This edition contains six model procedural codes on which school boards can…