To help address funding and teaching resource disparities across districts in the state, Texas leaders developed the Teacher Incentive Allotment (TIA). The Allotment aims to make the teaching job more appealing and sustainable, particularly in rural areas and in areas with a high concentration of economically disadvantaged students. This document…

Teacher retention is an ongoing problem in education, especially in small private schools where resources are limited. The purpose of this study was to evaluate educator perceptions of a new teacher induction and mentoring program to support first-year teachers and improve teacher effectiveness and the retention of new teachers. Cycle 1…

This qualitative descriptive study explored what human resource leaders understood to be high-impact practices in the acquisition, development, and retention of quality teaching talent for nonurban public school districts in Texas. This study answered three research questions that included what human resource leaders identify as high-impact…

Little is known about differences between traditional, university-based certification programs and alternative certification programs in terms of outcomes for students and teachers. Across all preparation pathways, however, too many early career teachers leave the field (over 40% within first five years). This attrition problem is likely to grow…

This study contributes to the literature on first year teachers by identifying complexities and struggles of becoming a teacher and the implications of district-university partnerships to strengthen our educator preparation program. The importance of partnerships with stakeholders, memorandum of agreements to share data, observations of first year…

Teacher turnover in urban high-poverty schools is detrimental to students' achievement. In fact, one of the most prevalent social justice issues today is the unequal distribution of experienced teachers to urban high-poverty schools. Researchers suggest that experienced teachers are more effective at raising student performance than new or early…

Using data on charter and public school districts in Texas, we test the hypothesis that the labor practices in charter schools, in particular their ability to easily dismiss poorly performing teachers, diminishes the negative effect of teacher turnover on student achievement and graduation rates in comparison to public schools. We find some…

This dissertation is intended to complement the conversation in the social sciences about the challenging role of campus principals and the influence they have on teacher retention and job satisfaction. School principals are held accountable for creating positive change within the campus, therefore they supervise the operational and instructional…

This Special Issues Brief from the Center on Great Teachers and Leaders (GTL Center) outlines the unique characteristics of high-need schools, supports state and district leaders as they consider their role in implementing initiatives with a focus on equity, and explores how programs can be customized to meet the unique circumstances of a…

Many organizations use dashboards to monitor and analyze important performance measures. Data dashboards present the most important information (sometimes called key performance indicators, or KPIs) about processes and outcomes in a concise, easy-to-digest format. Dashboards get their name from the clusters of instruments and gauges drivers use to…

A growing body of research examines the impact of recent teacher evaluation systems; however, we have limited knowledge on how these systems influence teacher retention. This study uses a mixed-methods design to examine teacher retention patterns during the pilot year of an evaluation system in an urban school district in Texas. We used…

Researchers at NIET and elsewhere have studied the effectiveness of "TAP: The System for Teacher and Student Advancement" (TAP) in raising student achievement, improving the quality of instruction, and increasing the ability of high-need schools to recruit, retain and support effective teachers. This document provides summaries of some…

It is widely believed that teacher turnover adversely affects the quality of instruction in urban schools serving predominantly disadvantaged children, and a growing body of research investigates various components of turnover effects. The evidence at first seems contradictory, as the quality of instruction appears to decline following turnover…

NIET [National Institute for Excellence in Teaching] continually evaluates the impact of TAP: The System for Teacher and Student Advancement on raising student achievement, improving instruction and increasing the ability of high-need schools to recruit, retain and support effective teachers. In addition to national results in student achievement…

Pay-for-performance is a popular public education reform, but there is little evidence about the characteristics of a well-designed incentive pay plan for teachers. Some of the literature suggests that effective incentive plans must offer relatively large awards to induce behavioral changes. On the other hand, the experimental economics literature…