To determine whether teachers, on average, improve in their effectiveness as they gain experience in the teaching profession, this brief summarizes the key findings from a critical review of the relevant research. A renewed look at this research is warranted due to advances in research methods and data systems that match student data with…

Teachers are increasingly dissatisfied. In one recent survey, 47 percent of teachers said they were not enthusiastic about their jobs, and another showed a sharp drop in teacher satisfaction since 2008, from 62 to 39 percent. This dissatisfaction does not stem from what one might think--stresses related to dealing with students and families.…

The January 1970 Music Educators Journal's "Special Report: Facing the Music in Urban Education" included the article "Recommendations for Teacher Education Programs." This article contained seven recommendations to prepare successful future urban music educators. As two urban music educators, we examine how "MEJ"…

Community colleges are the pathways for millions of Americans to gain valuable education and to access career opportunities leading to family-sustaining wages. Faculty, student services staff, and administrators must share in the responsibility for student success if we are to meet national completion goals and reach even more students. During a…

A highly competent teacher workforce is a necessary foundation for improving children's educational outcomes, especially for those who rely most on schools for their success. Yet in the United States, shortages in the teaching force have been growing across the country, reaching crisis proportions in some teaching fields--such as mathematics,…

Teacher burnout is a major problem in the education field. Student misbehaviour, loss of independence, increased workload, and lack of support are only a few causes of increased stress in teachers. With turnover rates at an all-time high, it is important to find ways to increase overall teacher well-being. Methods such as reflection on one's…

In this article, Kim Marshall writes that as she has worked with numerous principals and faculties over her career, she is disheartened to see administrators spending most of their contact time with teachers on cumbersome bureaucratic processes. She believes the result of this is that teachers begin to shift to a defensive mode--worrying…

Pre-service teachers need to be prepared to teach in both rural and urban contexts. Preparation to teach multi-grade classes in rural schools is excellent preparation for teaching any class, including urban single-grade classes. Based on our previous research and experience, we designed a unit to prepare our pre-service teachers for the issues…

In many countries, less experienced teachers (those with less than five years' teaching experience) are more likely to work in challenging schools and less likely to report confidence in their teaching abilities than more experienced teachers. Most countries have activities in place aimed at preparing teachers for work, such as induction and…

Teachers are the single most important school-based factor affecting student achievement. In many places, however, the most effective teachers are not working with the students who need them the most. On average, disadvantaged students have less access to effective teaching than other students. This paper will explore strategies to provide…

Rebecca Van Tassell struggled during her first years as a science teacher. She knew her colleagues had good ideas to share, but she never got to see them in action, so she started a walk-through club in which she and a few colleagues visited one another's classrooms and discussed what they saw. The group met every two weeks, after having…

Teacher collaboration and engagement in policy offer hope for improving teacher recruitment, retention, and morale-and for reenergizing the profession. Unfortunately, teacher engagement in education policy is woefully lacking. Research has shown that 70 percent of teachers feel out of the loop in district decision making. "Everyone at the…

The Teaching, Empowering, Leading and Learning (TELL) AISD Survey gathers information about school conditions from the educators working in schools. TELL obtains perceptions on a variety of issues related to student achievement and staff retention. In 2016, 5,309 AISD teachers (91%) and 3,092 other campus employees completed the survey. This is…

This one-page brief report highlights findings from the full report (published separately) that summarizes district-level results of the 2015 Teaching, Empowering, Leading, and Learning (TELL) AISD Survey. [For the full report, see ED626500.]

In a January 2016 report on teacher shortages in California, "Addressing California's Emerging Teacher Shortage: An Analysis of Sources and Solutions," the Learning Policy Institute found that there were too few qualified California teachers to meet the growing demand of school districts across the state. A fall 2016 survey of more than…