The path to becoming a school principal is characterized by a variety of trajectories that reflect the diverse experiences and backgrounds of aspiring leaders. While ideally the road to the principalship would result in a proportional and representative body of principals, research has shown this is rarely the case. To gain a better understanding…

Volunteers have always been essential to the success of 4-H youth development programs. However, the number of available volunteers has declined. Although this decline is not new, it is imperative to recruit and retain adult volunteers for youth programming. Researchers sought to describe characteristics of current Texas volunteers and identify…

Effective recruitment and retention strategies of teachers remain elusive for school districts. This study examines the pilot implementation of a year-long teacher residency program throughout four high-needs districts. This program embeds eight residents in these schools and provides various teacher preparation supports to support these beginning…

Public school campuses in rural South Texas are struggling to recruit and retain high-quality teachers. Districts now have flexibility in hiring certified teachers, but the need for teachers continues to grow annually. The challenge lies in attracting teachers to smaller school districts, when there are larger districts throughout the State of…

Background: The number of English learner (EL) students has been steadily increasing within the United States and currently includes more than 5M students. The National Education Association (2020) estimated that by 2025, nearly 25% of all learners will be EL students. Curricula, interventions, and assessments for both diagnostic and academic…

There are concerns that teacher shortages in the STEM field will lead to a downfall in the U.S. economy and security of the nation. The internship program was created to provide the STEM majors in Texas A & M University-Kingsville (TAMUK) and its partner community colleges an opportunity to observe and participate in STEM education and…

The objective of this study is to add to the existing literature on principal recruitment and hiring strategies by examining the turnover and retention patterns of internally recruited principals. For many hard-to-staff schools--particularly urban and rural schools--internal recruitment is considered a primary method of improving recruitment and…

The study aimed to address rural school principals with unique challenges and responsibilities who have the critical task of attracting and retaining skilled teachers. These schools often face challenges in hiring and keeping quality teachers due to their remote locations, low salaries, and additional workloads. The research focused on identifying…

Teacher shortages increase yearly while interest in the teaching profession seems to be at an all-time low. Policymakers are again seeing value in high school "grow your own" (GYO) teacher programs as a source of future teacher talent. Against the backdrop of career development models for teaching, we developed an instrument based on…

This article presents a mixed method study utilizing teacher and student demographic and student attendance data from seven hundred and two public schools in central Texas along with follow-up qualitative data gathered through semi-structured interviews conducted with the top 1% of principals identified as having the most diverse group of faculty…

This paper presents a mixed method study examining the relationship between teacher advanced degree attainment and student achievement. This study utilizes teacher demographic data along with standardized test scores from 702 public schools in south central Texas. First, OLS regression analyses were employed to measure the relationship between the…

For years, policymakers, districts, and scholars have pushed for the inclusion of more Black male teachers in US public schools; however, their even smaller subset--Black male special education teachers--has been ignored, particularly by scholars. The results of this study provide insight into the recruitment and retention of Black male special…

Grow Your Own Programs (GYO) have gained increasing popularity with the impact of shortages of quality teaching candidates in many school districts, particularly in urban areas. To address the lack of quality teaching candidates, school districts and states have responded creatively to recruit the best teachers for their schools. To explore some…

In 2019, the Texas legislature passed a historic education finance bill that included an initiative to add up to 30 days to the school-year calendar. One way districts can do this is to offer a voluntary summer learning program. In 2020, the American Institutes for Research, with support from The Wallace Foundation, launched the six-year Texas…

The United States is experiencing a teacher shortage crisis that is even more pronounced in rural communities. Teachers may be driven away from the profession if they feel inadequately trained or under-supported to address students' mental health needs. As such, an important teacher retention strategy is to ensure schools have enough mental health…