The signs that faculty are suffering, disengaging, and even leaving the profession surround us. We contend that we have to consider carefully what motivates faculty members to be faculty so faculty developers can be better positioned to help faculty re-engage. Integrating data from a preliminary survey we conducted, we offer five steps that…

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…

Effective teacher management -- aimed at building teachers' status, skills, motivation, wellbeing, and retention -- is a key policy lever that can help Uganda to achieve its aim of developing and sustaining a high-quality, inclusive, and equitable education system for all learners, including refugees and vulnerable Ugandans. This policy brief aims…

In sub-Saharan Africa, the loss of teaching hours due to teacher absenteeism corresponds to a waste of approximately 46 cents for every US dollar invested in education, an annual wastage of 1-3% of GDP. This brief summarizes the results of research in 11 countries in West and Central Africa under the Time to Teach study, a project in UNICEF that…

In the 2018-2019 academic year, more than 560,000 prospective teachers attended more than 21,500 teacher preparation programs (TPPs) housed in more than 2,100 institutions in the United States. Some will either never complete their program or fail to seek or secure teaching positions, but the majority will, and they will become a substantial part…

Teachers' positionality within the political landscape has evolved rapidly over recent election cycles. In Texas, nationwide teacher advocacy and anti-teacher state legislation motivated teachers to become politically involved. Increased teacher voting greatly impacted the 2018 election results, which led statewide leaders and legislators of the…

This paper provides glimpses of transactions in chemistry classrooms in five African countries (Burundi, Ghana, Morocco, Nigeria, and Senegal) during the COVID-19 lockdown. Members of the secondary school community in the countries including teachers, students, and school managers were unprepared for the unprecedent demand in shift from a…

Policymakers know that improving teaching in our schools requires a systemic look at many policies related to educator effectiveness. For example, teacher preparation programs need to be dramatically improved and strengthened, but without accompanying reform in compensation, even highly effective and innovative schools of education are unlikely to…

Great teachers have the ability to transform and enrich the lives and living standards of Americans. According to recent research, a student's kindergarten teacher has long-lasting influence on important lifetime outcomes, such as future earnings. These effects are so important that the difference between having an above-average kindergarten…

Merit pay programs for educators--sometimes referred to a "pay for performance"--attempt to tie a teacher's compensation to his/her performance in the classroom. While the idea of merit pay for classroom teachers has been around for several decades, only now is it starting to be implemented in a growing number of districts around the…

This report identifies what are thought to be smart ways to redesign career paths and compensation for California teachers. It is known which changes are most likely to improve both teaching quality and student achievement, because these changes address what really matters in schools and what motivates teachers. These are not the traditional and…

The body of research on the design, implementation, and effects of performance-based compensation systems has influenced the design and evaluation of the 2010 Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) grants. In the sections presented here, the authors describe the key components of 2010 TIF grants and the conceptual framework for the evaluation. The remainder…

All employers, including school districts, enter into a "Value Proposition" with their employees--the complete set of offerings and experiences provided by the employer, compared to other similar opportunities. A successful Value Proposition reflects the needs of both employer and employee, not only attracting and retaining employees with the…

Performance pay can be implemented in ways that are helpful to students and teachers, or it can repeat the mistakes of the past. To avoid these mistakes, initiatives must address the district factors that affect schools. There are six cornerstones for compensation reform: 1) Performance-based compensation is a systemic reform; 2) Compensation…

When proposing performance pay for teachers, reformers first must answer three questions: What is the definition of teacher performance? What is the definition of student performance? and What are the goals of schooling? Reformers also need to examine the assumptions that guide their proposals and prepare to deal with the implementation issues…