A century ago, the United States was a world leader in industrial benchmarking. However, after World War II, once no one could compete with the U.S., it became complacent. Many industrialized countries now have higher student achievement and more equitable and efficient education systems. A higher proportion of young people in their workforces…

Finding, keeping and supporting great educators presents the single biggest challenge to successful school turnarounds. Without teachers and administrators who bring the needed combination of skills and passion, nothing else will achieve the desired effect. The turnaround model supported by the U.S. Department of Education School Improvement Grant…

One of the most frequently discussed topics in education reform circles is teacher pay--how much money teachers make, for what work and who decides teachers' salaries. Over time, educator pay reform has included many different reward structures and goes by as many different names, such as merit pay, performance pay and differentiated pay. The…

Schools in America, especially in communities far from urban centers, are working harder to find highly qualified and culturally proficient staff to prepare students successfully for an increasingly interconnected world. Apart from offering teachers more professional development and hiring educators with international travel experience, public…

Describes partnership with out-of-state universities to recruit teachers to school district in Lake Havasu, Arizona. (PKP)

The most important part of the teacher recruitment process begins and ends with the interview experience. By including several key components in this experience, administrators can ensure that they will wind up offering contracts to candidates who quickly will contribute to the school system. Advice is given regarding preparing questions and…

Not long after Dennis Roseleip received a superintendency appointment in his native state of Montana, the district's entire administrative team departed, leaving him to fill three principalships in the opening months of his new post. The sudden vacancies were not a statement on the choice of Roseleip, then 44, to lead the Cut Bank Public Schools…

School leaders are trying pay incentives, consortia, and temp firms to assuage their need for qualified substitute teachers. Five coping strategies include making the job more attractive, increasing the candidate pool, hiring some permanent subs, using automated calling systems, and examining systemic issues. Substitutes are unionizing in some…

Schools need a Renaissance human-resources director to implement strategic staffing and fast-track teacher-recruitment plans. The HR director must attend to customer satisfaction, candidate supply, web-based recruitment possibilities, stabilization of newly hired staff, retention of veteran staff, utilization of retired employees, and latest…

A consortium of St. Louis-area school districts, college career officers, and consultants developed an online teacher and administrator recruitment/job-application system that has gone statewide and is being used by nine other states. Next is a nationwide job bank to help districts recruit educators. (MLH)

The U.S. Department of Education's "1999-2000 Schools and Staffing Survey" indicated that teacher shortages are 50 percent higher in urban schools than in suburban schools. Almost a third of the teachers leave the profession during the first three years and nearly half leave after five years. In schools serving low-income communities,…

The first group response on the state of American education from the educational community is reported. These educators agree that debate is healthy, but are concerned that the nation prepare for long-term solutions rather than a "quick fix." (MD)

Describes examples of financial incentives used to recruit teachers for low-achieving and hard-to-staff schools. Includes targeted salary increases, housing incentives, tuition assistance, and tax credits. (PKP)

Although about 5 percent of all U.S. workers hold second jobs, 300,000 teachers, or 17 percent of America's 2 million teachers, were employed outside the school system during the school year. Moonlighting adversely affects teacher recruitment, job stress, and teacher efficacy. Changes such as better salaries, merit pay, and productive summer…

The challenge of maintaining the richness of cultural diversity will be won or lost in the 1990s. Necessary ingredients include revamping curricula; building cadres through staff diversification, new teaching strategies, and teacher retraining; offering teachers incentives for community involvement and second-language study; and fostering parent,…