This qualitative study investigated what factors kept teachers committed to teaching in one rural east Texas school district despite the perceived educational inequalities of rural districts compared to suburban and urban districts. When it comes to teacher retention, rural school leaders cite school environment and community lifestyle…

Theories of market-based school reform suggest that teacher labor markets may be inefficient, and perhaps inequitable, because union contracts, tenure protections, and government regulation limit school autonomy over hiring, evaluation, compensation, and working conditions. In a less restrictive setting, schools could incentivize performance by…

During the 2017 General Session, the Legislature passed House Bill 212, "Incentive for Effective Teachers in High Poverty Schools," which provides an annual salary bonus to eligible teachers in high poverty schools. This report is provided to the Education Interim Committee to evaluate the extent to which a salary bonus improves…

Background: School systems have struggled to staff special education positions for decades (Billingsley, 1993; Cowan et al., 2016; Mason-Williams et al., 2020), but recent data suggest special education staffing challenges are now a crisis. As of October 2023, 21% of schools, and 30% of high-poverty schools, reported at least one special educator…

House Bill 21-1010 tasked the Colorado Department of Higher Education (CDHE) and the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) to convene a workgroup dedicated to identifying obstacles to increasing the diversity of Colorado's educator workforce and to develop recommendations for meeting the challenge. This report is a result of the workgroup's…

Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of school districts have broken from tradition to offer pay outside of the rigid step-and-lane salary schedules. In particular, many districts are now offering flat-dollar raises or non-recurring bonuses, incentives to address long-standing recruitment and retention issues, or compensation to shape teacher…

In recent years the UK higher education sector has made great progress increasing the representation of Black academics, but more work is needed so every early-career academic has equal opportunity to develop their career. In this report, Dr. Becca Franssen and colleagues draw on survey results and in-depth interviews to paint a picture of the…

The COVID-19 global pandemic impacted the United States' educational landscape by intensifying the teacher shortage. In particular, significant help is wanted in filling public school vacancies in specialty areas, which has resulted in non-instructional staff teaching in classrooms and impacting school operations. Federal, state, and local…

Effective teacher management -- aimed at building teachers' status, skills, motivation, wellbeing, and retention -- is a key policy lever that can help Uganda to achieve its aim of developing and sustaining a high-quality, inclusive, and equitable education system for all learners, including refugees and vulnerable Ugandans. This policy brief aims…

Educational reforms have occurred throughout the history of public education. In 2009, the federal Race to the Top initiative was born and included many educational reform models. To have these reform models gain traction at the state level, a call was made by the U.S. Department of Education (Race to the Top Program Executive Summary, 2009) for…

After an active election season, State of the State addresses offer time for new and incumbent governors to outline policy priorities and celebrate state accomplishments. Since 2005, we've tracked, analyzed and identified education policy trends in governors' State of the State addresses to help you understand trending education issues across…

Attracting and retaining high-quality teachers is a pressing policy concern. Increasing teacher salaries and creating more attractive compensation packages are often proposed as a potential solution. Signed into law in March 2023, the LEARNS Act increased Arkansas's minimum teacher salary from $36,000 to $50,000, guaranteed all teachers a minimum…

A major teacher shortage exists in the United States. As teachers leave the classroom in droves, administrators are forced to hire unlicensed educators in order to fill vacant positions. Teachers have decided to change professions due to a lack of competitive salaries, fear of personal safety, and a lack of support from education stakeholders.…

Teachers who are satisfied with their job are more likely to teach well, which in turn should enable their students to better learn while in school. Sub-Saharan Africa is currently experiencing a learning crisis, with close to nine out of ten children not able to read and understand a simple text at age 10. This affects all types of schools and…

Retention of Called teachers within the Lutheran school system is becoming increasingly more difficult with each passing year. With the retirement of baby-boomer teachers and the limited amount of Called workers already in the field or qualified new graduates, the purpose of this study is to identify strategies that Lutheran schools are…