Teachers who are married to other teachers within a school district often experience their personal life events in full view of the school community. How should a principal respond when a math teacher wants to leave due to her divorce, knowing that math teachers are hard to find? Challenges in this case for campus principals and human resource…

Principal preparation programs devote very little time to showing future principals how to recruit, hire, support, and retain solid teachers. Yet school staff are a major part of every school budget and have one of the biggest impacts on student achievement, so hiring and retaining talent is key. The authors give specific actions and approaches…

An urban school principal contends that the best way to recruit, support, and retain effective teachers right now is to set up conditions that restore and reinforce interpersonal connections for teachers. She details ways leaders can restore connections between teachers and students, between teachers and colleagues, and even between teachers and…

The intent of this annual report is to shine light on the Texas Education Agency's commitment to ensuring that every one of the more than five million public school students in Texas is prepared for success in college, a career or the military. The achievements of Texas students are a testament to the hard work of educators across the state. Their…

During the past year, Texas students, families, and educators have shown tremendous grit and determination as they continue to emerge from the effects of the pandemic. While much work remains in mathematics, results from the last school year show that Texas students have largely reached pre-pandemic levels of proficiency in literacy, and Texas…

Teacher shortages disproportionally impact high need schools that can be hard to staff. However, effective teachers have an influential role in improving low-performing schools. Focusing on recruiting and retaining teachers to low-income and low-performing schools is crucial not only to closing achievement gaps, but also to ensuring that students…

The Public School Forum's Top Education Issues outlines the Forum's priorities on what should be at the forefront of education policy decision-making each legislative biennium, as the Forum works toward eliminating the systemic racism and inequities that exist and are visible throughout the educational system. The Top Education Issues publications…

Research shows that teachers of color can benefit all students, particularly students of color, yet only one in five teachers are individuals of color, compared to more than half of K-12 public school students. Increasing the diversity of educators can not only benefit students, but recruiting, preparing, and retaining more teachers of color who…

In this report, we update our ongoing research on five school systems to reveal the academic, social, and political challenges posed by the pandemic and what system leaders and their staff are doing to address student learning loss. The report is part of the American School District Panel, a research partnership between the RAND Corporation and…

By 2030, most jobs will require some training beyond high school (a four-year degree, a two-year associate degree, or some type of industry credential). The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board established the 60x30TX Plan to focus collective attention on meeting this need. Progress has been made in the last decade, but COVID-19 has…

The purpose of this handbook is to provide detailed information regarding school-based decision making (SBDM) processes, laws, and best practices. Topics covered include the following: (1) School-based Decision Making Statute: KRS 160.345; (2) Achievement Gaps and Planning Requirements; (3) Other Kentucky Statutes Related to School Council Work;…

This report summarizes Austin Independent School District elementary principals' comments from a December 2017 discussion about the process for choosing bilingual and English as a second language programs for their schools in the 2018-2019 school year.

In 2012 there were approximately 80 million millennials and about 70 million baby boomers (Schawbel, 2012). Schawbel estimates that by 2025 three of four workers will be of the millennial generation. By 2041, which is during the lifetime of most millennials, America's population is projected to become majority Brown and Black (Kundu, 2014).…

Identifying and maintaining talent is important in any organization, but in a low-performing school, it is perhaps "the" most important component to achieving turnaround. Given the importance of teachers and leaders for students and schools, districts and states are wise to hone their efforts related to identifying, attracting,…

Diversifying the teaching profession has garnered attention from researchers, policy makers, and educational stakeholders. However, missing within this conversation is the role of school and district leaders in diversifying the teaching profession. We argue that without considering school and district leaders, diversity initiatives will not have a…