Across a range of contexts, reductions in education costs and provision of subsidies can boost school participation, often dramatically. Decisions to attend school seem subject to peer effects and time-inconsistent preferences. Merit scholarships, school health programs, and information about returns to education can all cost-effectively spur…

This issue of CPRE Policy Briefs summarizes the findings on issues related to teacher quality in the chapter by the author in the book, "The State of Education Policy Research" (Cohen, Fuhrman, Mosher, Eds., 2007). This report also draws on discussions that took place during a summer, 2006, policy briefing on teacher labor-market issues…

Although policymakers and academics tend to overlook the behind-the-scenes role that district human resources (HR) departments play in education, the HR office's effect is far from small. HR departments determine whether qualified teacher candidates make it to the classroom, or slip through the cracks. They can help principals find teachers who…

This paper examines the relationship between policy, organizational type, and the utilization of extrinsic incentives. Charter school reform spread throughout the country in the 1990s, providing the unique opportunity to study over a thousand new public organizations and the innovative operational decisions they made. Traditional public schools…

The author assesses the state of affairs in contemporary schools and focuses on current out-of-hand practices and trends relating to teacher certification, enrollments and increasing credit hours required for graduation in American institutions of higher education. He suggests that rather than continuing to certify teachers in existing colleges…

On October 21, 2006, more than 200 Washington National Board Certified Teachers[R] (NBCTs) assembled in Seattle to address the vexing problem of recruiting and retaining accomplished teachers for high-needs schools. Before the Summit, NBCT participants read a number of background papers and research summaries. At the Summit, they listened to the…

Proposes a controversial method of dealing with teacher shortages: leave the classrooms vacant rather than using less qualified teacher substitutes. If the public were confronted with the problem of attracting high-quality teachers, citizens would pressure boards and legislatures to find long-term solutions for developing quality teachers. (MD)

BellSouth Foundation has supported various alternative teacher certification programs. Teacher development also requires that the school be at the center of talent identification, teacher preparation, recruitment, induction, and continuing education. (SK)

The president of Teach for America, a privately funded teacher corps, believes that school districts, states, universities, and nonprofit organizations must assume new roles, implement substantial policy changes, restructure, and reallocate resources to improve teacher recruitment, selection, training, and assessment. (SK)

Analyzes the ongoing debates and changes in the German system of academic appointments on the basis of an examination of the origins and overall function of the academic career system. Suggests that the recruitment, promotion, and appointment of academic staff are important issues in countries like Germany, where they shape the institutional…

Describes the position of academic staff at universities and other higher education institutions in France, where they occupy a place between other professions and the civil service. As the system evolves toward increased self-governance of institutions of higher education, the faculty is seen by administrators as an obstacle to the development of…

The leadership of Qatar is greatly invested in its K-12 education reform, "Education for a New Era," because it views education as the key to the nation's economic and social progress. This study, one of a number of RAND studies that trace and document the reform process in Qatar, was designed to assess progress made in the first years…

The Strategic Management of Human Capital in Education Project was founded in 2008 with one goal: to improve student achievement dramatically in the 100 largest urban school districts. Unless teaching quality and principal leadership improve significantly, lasting education improvement is impossible. In policy terms, without "strategic management"…

The most important and most difficult task of the assistant principal for instruction in a multiunit high school is recruitment of teachers for the learning communities. These teachers must be convinced that the increased workload and added responsibilities involved in developing interdisciplinary courses, budgeting time, space, and funding, and…

The faculty development movement of the 1970s and 1980s is taking new directions. One model that enhances intrinsic motivations to teach well and uses institutional structures to encourage autonomy and personal initiative holds promise for undergraduate instruction. (Author/MSE)