Significant improvements in student learning require real change at the heart of instruction: the interaction of students and teachers around the content to be learned. This paper suggests a set of design specifications for strengthening this interaction of student, teacher and content and increasing student performance across a school district.…

This guide for managers of distance education programs consists of five chapters, each with its own appendix. Chapter 1 considers characteristics of good distance educators, possible sources of instructors, and limitations in recruiting instructors. The appendix to this chapter outlines the recruiting process followed at a particular academic…

Incentives to encourage teacher excellence for the purposes of teacher attraction, retention, improvement, and enhancement are examined in this report. Motivators involving monetary plans, career status, awards and recognition, professional responsibility, and workplace conditions are described, as well as the issues of cost, planning, and…

This monograph on teacher labor market research is divided into six major sections. The first, a survey of related literature, describes the general context of teacher labor market research derived from the educational reform movement and then focuses on the particular issues of supply adequacy, teacher quality, career choice, attrition, and…

A New Jersey plan to turn people without education degrees into schoolteachers is discussed. Some New Jersey education officials are concerned that schools have hired relatively few of the new provisional teachers, and some are critical of the quality of preparation the teachers receive. (MLW)

A typology is developed of the dimensions along which a teacher's contribution can be assessed and a pay plan projected that emphasizes each of these dimensions. Several issues cutting across various pay-reform proposals are discussed, notably the balance between rewarding veteran and novice teachers, and its effect on teacher recruitment. (RDN)

The California State Department of Education has appointed a Master Plan Committee to develop methods to reform education. As a main objective the committee formulated a model for high school graduation requirements. The issues of teacher education and shortage of capable mathematics teachers are also addressed. (DF)

This document summarizes the findings of a report by the Education Commission of the States (ECS) designed to help policymakers gain a better understanding of both the nature of the teacher workforce and of promising recruitment and retention strategies. ECS reviewed 91 studies on teacher recruitment and retention in search of answers to eight…

If recent efforts to raise student achievement are to succeed, all school children must have access to highly skilled teachers. Research increasingly demonstrates that teachers are critical influences on student learning. In addition to discussion of how to produce an adequate supply of teachers with the requisite skills, research reveals much…

Research increasingly demonstrates what common sense has long made apparent to educators and parents: Teacher quality matters--a lot. Teachers' knowledge and skills are the most vital in-school factors influencing children's learning. And, for children from disadvantaged backgrounds or troubled home environments, quality teaching is even more…

Explores the roles of substitute teachers in public high schools by focusing on recruitment, socialization, the round-of-work, task demands, and adaptations of order maintenance and assignment execution. (AOS)

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…

A little over a year ago, the New Hampshire State Board of Education declared attracting and retaining quality educators to be its number one priority. Teacher shortages are looming throughout New England. But in the rural northern tier of New Hampshire, the challenge of recruiting teachers is especially tough. While New Hampshire is the…

Recent research demonstrates that teacher quality has a greater impact on student achievement than any other educational factor. Yet there is concern that overall teacher quality is variable, and hard-to-staff schools (i.e., high poverty and minority schools) have an even more difficult time recruiting and retaining quality teachers. The No Child…