Created by the U.S. Congress in 2006, the Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) represents the first federal initiative targeted directly at state and district efforts to introduce performance measures into educator compensation. TIF responds to a growing body of evidence that existing pay structures do not respond to labor force realities or adequately…

Researchers and policymakers often assume that teacher turnover harms student achievement, though recent studies suggest this may not be the case. Using a unique identification strategy that employs school-by-grade level turnover and two classes of fixed-effects models, this study estimates the effects of teacher turnover on over 850,000 New York…

Over the past decade, national initiatives have shifted States' attention to the challenge of turning around low-performing schools. The lack of consistent, dramatic improvements in the lowest-performing schools reflects the severity of the school turnaround challenge, but also suggests the need to continuously evaluate and refine turnaround…

Researchers and policymakers often assume that teacher turnover harms student achievement, but recent evidence calls into question this assumption. Using a unique identification strategy that employs grade-level turnover and two classes of fixed-effects models, this study estimates the effects of teacher turnover on over 600,000 New York City 4th…

Teachers have a powerful impact on student achievement, yet high attrition rates hinder the ability of schools to provide quality instruction. Attrition rates are highest for schools serving low income, minority students and among small private schools. This review of research seeks to understand why teachers leave, examining different teaching…

In the context of an emerging national focus on evaluating school personnel, the 2009 federal State Fiscal Stabilization Fund (SFSF) program requires that states collect data from all local education agencies about their practices for evaluating teachers and principals. In response, the California Department of Education designed and administered…

The problem of teacher shortage is of grave concern internationally, impacting countries such as the US, England and Australia. One popular approach to addressing issues of teacher attrition has been to hire international teachers (a.k.a. overseas-trained teachers) to fill the gap. In this paper the authors document the challenges and barriers…

A teacher shortage is a recognized problem in research on public schools. Schools across the United States must hire and retain highly qualified teachers, but the literature indicates teachers with fewer than 3 years of experience are often leaving teaching, creating a possible teacher shortage of 4.2 million teachers by the year of 2016.…

"Irreplaceables" are teachers who are so successful they are nearly impossible to replace, but who too often vanish from schools as the result of neglect and inattention. To identify and better understand the experience of these teachers, the authors started by studying 90,000 teachers across four large, geographically diverse urban school…

This 27th edition of the "Annual Condition of Education Report" includes a rich set of information to evaluate the current status of the education system in Iowa. Data in the report provide important information about Iowa's students, teachers and schools from multiple perspectives. It includes information such as demographic…

Title I, Part A and Title II, Part A funds are provided to Houston Independent School District (HISD) through the 2002 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), also known as the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). Both funds focus on enhancing student achievement: Title I, Part A provides supplemental…

The Boston Teacher Residency is an innovative practice-based preparation program in which candidates work alongside a mentor teacher for a year before becoming a teacher of record in Boston Public Schools. We find that BTR graduates are more racially diverse than other BPS novices, more likely to teach math and science, and more likely to remain…

This review critically examines 15 empirical studies, conducted since the mid-1980s, on the effects of support, guidance, and orientation programs--collectively known as induction--for beginning teachers. Most of the studies reviewed provide empirical support for the claim that support and assistance for beginning teachers have a positive impact…

Student behavior problems contribute to poor academic achievement and poor teacher retention. This study investigated preservice teachers' dispositions to implement positive and proactive strategies for managing behavior in the general education elementary urban classroom. The author interviewed 19 preservice teachers in a large urban school…

The 2008-2009 school year marked the second year of the 4-year pilot of the AISD REACH program. This report is the second in a series of reports documenting the progress of AISD REACH toward key program goals. [For the first report, see ED628201.]