This report, designed specifically for school executives and board of education members, contains information about teacher recruitment. According to the U.S. Office of Education, the nation's teacher preparation institutions now turn out about 145,000 graduates annually, but the need for additional teachers is about 196,660 per year. This major…

A long-standing problem for rural school districts is recruiting and retaining quality teachers for their classrooms. The lack of resources, low salary and incentives, and personal and professional isolation are some reasons why fewer good teachers choose to work in rural schools. In order to address the challenges facing rural schools, states and…

The Appalachian Model Teacher Consortium is a partnership involving Radford University, Wytheville Community College, and the Grayson County (Virginia) School System. Its purpose is to prepare highly qualified teachers for rural southwest Virginia. The model was developed in response to the growing teacher shortage facing school districts in rural…

TO ATTRACT AND RETAIN COMPETENT TEACHERS AS CAREER PROFESSIONALS, PROGRAMS OFFERING (OPTIONAL) EXTENDED-YEAR CONTRACTS EMPHASIZE THAT (1) THE TEACHER IS EMPLOYED UNDER CONTRACT FOR THE FULL YEAR, INCLUSIVE OF VACATION, (2) MUCH OF THE CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT AND INSERVICE TRAINING WHICH TAKES PLACE IN THE SYSTEM IS DONE DURING THE SUMMER MONTHS,…

This article addresses several key ongoing issues in a large urban school district. Literature focuses on what make a large urban school district effective in Human Resource Management. The effectiveness is addressed through recruitment and retention practices. A comparison of the school district with current research is the main approach to the…

Building an appreciation and respect for others is an important educational goal in an increasingly global society. Several methods can be used to promote these goals such as cross cultural teacher training and hiring culturally diverse teachers. Cultural competency can help both mainstreamed and culturally diverse students, and role modeling is…

Describes the current procedures for choosing teacher educators, the difficulties qualified teachers face in searching for employment, and some solutions resolving those problems prospective teachers must overcome in order to find jobs. (RK)

Educational reform over the past two decades has focused primarily on schools as the critical units of change, often ignoring the role of districts and their effect on schools' performance. Although national reform efforts such as the recently reauthorized Elementary and Secondary Education Act (the No Child Left Behind Act), are directed…

The National Education Association has strongly supported the Elementary and Secondary Education Act since its inception in 1965. But the law's most recent reauthorization, the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act, is fundamentally flawed, writes NEA President Reg Weaver. Weaver offers NEA's recommendations for revising the law and addressing these…

The Tennessee education system has slowly introduced school-based management (SBM) or site based decision making (SBDM). This paper presents findings of a study that investigated Tennessee educators' perceptions of responsibility for teacher hiring. Data were obtained from a survey of 197 teachers, 22 principals, 13 district administrators, and 22…

This report sets out to define and construct a working model of a school management guide that will help school officials, school leaders, and community members make sense of the mountains of data they are generating. It is not so much a map to buried treasure as it is a guide to action. It does not say "X marks the spot," but it does provide some…

This study, commissioned by The Abell Foundation, analyzes new teachers hired by the Baltimore City Public School System (BCPSS) over the past several years. In particular, the study compares different categories of new teachers: those with full professional certification, teachers in alternative certification programs (Teach for America, the…

Describes a Nebraska case where a signing bonus awarded to a new teacher was contested by the teachers' association. Provides a two-part legal reminder to school authorities. Does the state have a collective bargaining law that mandates bargaining in such situations? If so, negotiate the matter into a clearly provable agreement. (Author/MLF)

Data in this report reveals that collectively bargaining agreements are not the source of the teacher quality problem in urban school districts. The data shows that collective bargaining agreements are associated with reduced teacher transfer activity, especially in high-poverty schools, and less reliance on first-year teachers to staff…

The Los Angeles Teacher Trainee program is designed to help recruit talented people into teaching; the Mentor Teacher component of that program is designed to help retain capable teachers by expanding their rewards and opportunities. Requirements of the Teacher Trainee Program intersect with the inducements of the Mentor Teacher Program to form a…