There is a critical, nation-wide teacher shortage. Exacerbating this shortage is declining enrollment in teacher preparation programs that serve as a pipeline to the profession. To help address this shortage, school districts and teacher preparation programs across the country are implementing a variety of strategies to recruit high school…

As school districts compete to attract and hire highly qualified teachers of diversity, human resource (HR) leaders in organizations face multiple challenges. Based on the benefit to students, particularly students of diversity, there is an impetus for the leaders within school districts to strive to increase the diversity of teachers working with…

We describe the extent and predictors of staffing challenges faced by school districts in Washington state throughout the 2021-22 school year using data collected from job posting websites for districts representing more than 98% of students in the state. These data suggest that school districts in the state faced considerable challenges filling…

This dissertation investigates the significant issue of principal turnover in K-12 international schools, focusing on the predictive role of cultural intelligence (CQ) in cross-cultural adjustment (CCA) and principal longevity. The departure of school principals challenges school stability and student achievement. Despite the critical role of…

Teacher shortages and lack of teacher diversity have led to growing efforts nationally to recruit teaching assistants (TAs) to be classroom teachers. Substitute teachers are not typically considered in these efforts. We pair longitudinal administrative data from a mid-sized urban district with survey follow-up to address how TAs and substitute…

The purpose of this study was to understand the deciding factors of teachers who have accepted a teaching position, or continue to remain in a teaching position, in rural K-12 public schools in central Illinois. Staffing a school of fully qualified teachers remains one of the most important and difficult challenges to school districts throughout…

There is growing acceptance that governing boards in English schools and academies should be diverse. Yet progress towards this strategic aim remains slow despite initiatives to address this. We ask whether boards represent their communities and whether they model diverse and ethical leadership as seen in the culture and values of a school or…

The Region 8 Comprehensive Center collaborated with the Indiana Department of Education to evaluate the obstacles many districts face in the teacher hiring process. The brief further discusses the importance of hiring timelines, benefits and barriers of early hiring, and recommendations and strategies for revising hiring timelines.

In November 2022, California established the Arts and Music in Schools Act to fund arts education programs in TK-12 public schools. With funding from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, SRI Education led an inquiry to estimate the number of new arts teachers required to fulfill the promise of the act. This brief presents funding allocations…

The United States faces a critical teacher shortage across general education and fields such as special education, mathematics, and natural sciences, particularly in underserved areas. This shortage is intensified by high teacher attrition rates, which negatively impact student performance and educational outcomes. In Louisiana, teacher attrition…

The EdResearch for Action Overview Series summarizes the research on key topics to provide K-12 education decision makers and advocates with an evidence base to ground discussions about how to best serve students. Authors - leading experts from across the field of education research - are charged with highlighting key findings from research that…

The purpose of this study was to understand recruitment and retainment challenges districts faced pre-COVID-19 and changes or additional challenges faced post-COVID-19. Through this study, human resources administrators and teaching and learning administrators were interviewed in pairs and discussed challenges their district has faced related to…

Most school and district leaders have a wealth of information available to them before, during, and after the hiring process, but they might not analyze it regularly or use it to inform their recruitment and retention plans. However, using data strategically is key to positively impacting teacher recruitment and retention. This brief discusses…

There has been a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) teacher shortage in K-12 schools across the United States (Klassen et al., 2021; Luft et al., 2005). To help provide a possible solution to the nationwide STEM teacher shortage, this study investigated the factors that influence STEM majors to change careers from STEM…

Introduction: Computer science (CS) lacks representation from people who identify as one or more of the following identities: woman, Black, Indigenous, Hispanic, Latina/Latino/Latinx, or disabled. We refer to these groups as historically underrepresented groups (HUGs). Informal learning, like CS summer camps and hackathons, can increase interest…