Salaries are one of the most powerful policy levers states and school districts can use to attract qualified, effective, and diverse teachers. What role do states play in supporting strategic use of salaries? This report examines the state teacher compensation policies that influence districts' potential strategic use of teacher pay. It analyzes…

Most children in the U.S. spend time in some form of early childhood education (ECE) program prior to entering kindergarten. In fact, children spend an average of 25 hours per week in nonparental care, including center-based care and informal family, friend and neighbor care. Children develop a foundation for learning during these early years, so…

Leaders across the state of Minnesota and nation proclaim to want to diversify the educator workforce. However, the reality nationwide is that less than 20% of teachers who teach a student population that is at least 51% students of color are teachers of color (Ingersoll et al., 2018). What follows are a number of research briefs organized around…

Career Technical Education (CTE) teacher recruitment is a challenge that has dogged state CTE leaders for decades. According to a recent survey of State CTE Directors, 98 percent said that increasing access to industry experts is a high priority in their state. And 20.4 percent of rural districts with CTE teacher vacancies report that CTE…

Research has commonly suggested that adequate and appropriate mentoring and faculty perception of support for a work-life balance are important factors in the recruitment, development, and retention of university faculty. To better understand the role of these factors in faculty job performance at teaching universities, faculty from such a…

Every two years, the Educator Licensing Division of the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) is tasked with producing a report on the supply and demand of teachers. By statute, that report must contain data collected by surveying Minnesota public school districts, charter schools, and teacher preparation institutions (Minnesota Statute 127A.05,…

A survey of 135 technical college teachers found that those persisting as teachers had higher commitment to teaching and more practical experience in the subject area. Leavers rated their first-year teaching experience more positively than persisters. Common reasons for leaving teaching included salary levels, institutional climate, classroom…

When this research report was first conceived, the current economic crisis was only just on the verge of revealing its full extent. Economic crisis or no economic crisis, over the years funding for PK-12 education has been a constant struggle. While all schools continue to face difficulties, for various reasons rural schools have different and…

This study explored how many teachers were leaving public school districts in Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, and Wisconsin during their first 5 years in teaching. Researchers analyzed four types of novice teachers, including those who: taught continuously in the same district all 5 years, transferred to another district within the state but…

In fall 2000, all 3,506 superintendents in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin received a survey that asked them to report on the strategies they had implemented to attract and retain teachers and on how effective those strategies had been. The survey was designed to collect basic information about a variety of…

A study was conducted to identify why secondary career and technical education (CTE) teachers, especially in Minnesota, remain in or leave the teaching profession. Research recently reported that nearly 22 percent of all teachers leave the teaching profession within the first three years of teaching. The population for this study was the 258…

A study was conducted to determine the following: Do the needs of beginning and experienced technical college teachers differ? Do the professional development activities of the two groups differ? and Do the factors important to beginning teachers who leave vocational education differ from those of experienced teachers who leave? The data used in…