Background: By attracting high-achieving college graduates and professional career changers, selective alternative certification programs, such as the New York City Teaching Fellows (NYCTF), promise to address pressing teacher shortages while also improving outcomes in hard-to-staff schools. Purpose: Looking at the main patterns in their careers…

Background/Context: Professional development (PD) programs have been the primary tool school districts have used to improve teachers' knowledge and skills, though the evidence is mixed on the degree to which these investments translate into improved outcomes for teachers and their students. Further, most research has tracked researcher-designed…

Background and Context: Teacher licensure and certification are complex processes that aim to establish standards of teacher quality by regulating entry into the profession. However, many teachers of color experience barriers when navigating licensure and certification. Purpose: Using racialized administrative burdens as a theoretical lens to…

Context: Ongoing teacher diversity campaigns will not increase the net number of teachers of color if policymakers fail to address the disproportionate rate at which teachers of color leave the profession when compared to White teachers. Purpose: The purpose of this article is to fill the empirical gap about the mechanisms that influence Black…

Background/Context: High teacher turnover has directed a great deal of scholarly attention toward the connection between teacher retention and teacher working conditions. Prior work has identified a set of key working conditions associated with teacher retention, including supportive school leadership, school safety, a collaborative professional…

Background: To stem the tide of teacher turnover and prevent shortages, teacher turnover interventions and policies often focus on new and novice teachers because evidence suggests that teacher turnover is particularly high among these teachers. In addition, researchers continue to investigate the root causes of the high teacher turnover observed…

Context: In 2005-06, Denver became one of the first U.S. districts to implement a pay-for-performance (PFP) compensation system, and Denver's ProComp is now the longest-running PFP policy in the country. The national proliferation of PFP systems in education has been controversial, with mixed evidence and competing narratives about its impacts.…

Background: Alternatively certified (AC) teachers have generally been found to turn over at higher rates than traditionally certified (TC) teachers. These higher turnover rates are generally attributed to lower levels of preparedness and less of a commitment to remain in teaching than TC teachers, both of which may be compounded by AC teachers'…

Background: Prior research shows that teachers' working conditions are important for teacher and student outcomes, such as teacher retention and student achievement. Because National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs) can be effective in the classroom and as instructional leaders, they are well positioned to create favorable working conditions for…

Background: Creating greater stability in the teacher labor force and improving teacher quality is an important education policy priority in the United States. While there is a robust literature on the external, environmental reasons teachers stay in or leave the occupation, little is known about the role internal, person-level factors play in…

Background: Teacher education programs at Minority Serving Institutions--which include Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Native American and Tribal Colleges, Asian American and Pacific Islander Serving Institutions, and Hispanic Serving Institutions--are an under-researched resource. Purpose: Our aim is to provide a foundation and set…

Background/Context: The stakes are getting higher for teachers daily as more and more states adopt hiring, firing, and tenure-granting policies based on teacher evaluations. Even more concerning is the limited discussion about whether or not high-stakes teacher evaluation can meet the intended outcome of improved student achievement, and at what…

Background/Context: In response to a shortage of highly qualified teachers, states and school districts have enacted a number of policy innovations over the last two decades. While researchers have evaluated many of these reforms, little is known about the initial effectiveness of individuals with prior teaching assistant experience. We review…

Background/Context: Researchers have examined the challenges of staffing urban, under served classrooms primarily through large-scale data sets; policymakers have responded with strategies intended to recruit more or "better" teachers into the classroom through programs such as the popular Teach for America. Yet there is little…

Background: Over the past decade, most of the quantitative studies on teacher preparation have focused on comparisons between alternative and traditional routes. There has been relatively little quantitative research on specific features of teacher education that might cause certain pathways into teaching to be more effective than others. The vast…