This is the second in a series of three reports about the research on teaching quality that the Education Commission of the States (ECS) is producing through a grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Fund for the Improvement of Education (FIE). The focus of this report is on teacher recruitment and retention. This report is intended to…

Some 37.1 percent of education spending was earmarked for teachers in 2001-02, according to the American Federation of Teachers, and most of that money was paid out using traditional compensation systems. But as expectations for accountability increase, a handful of states are looking to pay-for-performance systems to attract quality…

"Teachers are leaders when they function in professional communities to affect student learning; contribute to school improvement; inspire excellence in practice; and empower stakeholders to participate in educational improvement" (Childs-Bowen, Moller, & Scrivner, 2000, p. 28). Enhancing teacher leadership can help schools and districts reach the…

After the quality of a school's teachers, the quality of a school's leaders is the most influential school-based factor affecting student learning, and research indicates that leadership impacts student achievement the most in academic settings serving students who traditionally have not done well in school. In an effort to provide high-quality…

The prevailing situation in which students of color represent over one-third of school enrollments, yet teachers of color represent merely one-tenth of the nation's teacher force, is an important yet rarely considered factor amidst the constant claims of teacher shortages. Urban and rural schools struggle with an inadequate supply of teachers, but…

The induction of teachers into the organization is a much discussed, but often neglected process. This presentation discusses the reform movement in teacher education and its effect on recruitment of students into the teaching profession; the "common sense" fallacies that guide the beginning teacher and how to cope with those fallacies;…

This paper applies the Carlsson-Robinson Theory of public employment wages to examine differences in salaries and quality of teachers using data from the Coleman Report. A modified Carlsson-Robinson model of quality determination is complemented with four testable hypotheses of salary determination. Teacher salaries were found to be determined by…

Reviews results of selected studies on teacher effectiveness; describes the difficulty of attracting quality teachers to provide "authentic instruction" to low-performing students in high-poverty and high-minority schools; identifies structural conditions that can produce good teaching; describes actions school leaders can take to recruit,…

The fields of Computer Information Systems (CIS) and Information Technology (IT) are experiencing rapid change. In 2003, an analysis of IT degree programs and those of competing disciplines at 10 post-secondary institutions concluded that an information technology program is perceived differently from information systems and computer science. In…

America's schools are facing a critical shortage of teachers just as student enrollments are rising and more rigorous assessments of student achievement are being implemented. The shortage is especially acute in hard-to-staff schools in urban and rural areas, as well as in high-demand subjects such as math, science, and bilingual and special…

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…

This report presents a proposed plan for addressing South Carolina's teacher recruitment and retention needs and ensuring that there is a highly qualified teacher workforce. Section 1, "Critical Issues Facing the Teaching Profession," describes the current status of teaching and includes background information and possible problems the…

In this essay, possible mechanisms which may lead to discrimination in the allocation of inputs to public education are discussed. A model of market discrimination in the supply curve for public school teachers is explained and tested using data from the Boston Metropolitan Area. The consequences for the distribution of teacher inputs in the…

Merit pay proponents argue that merit pay will: (1) attract higher caliber individuals to teaching; (2) retain good teachers; and (3) motivate teachers to improve instruction. These claims are investigated. Recommendations regarding effective alternatives to merit pay are discussed. (MT)

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…