International faculty contribute to the global knowledge exchange between countries and are increasingly important to colleges and universities as a mechanism for internationalization. This study, guided by resource dependence theory, examined international faculty employment during and after two recessions -- the 2001 Recession and the Great…

Background: Early childhood teachers play a key role in creating positive teacher-child relationships, which are shown to promote child outcomes. However, turnover rates of early childhood teachers are strikingly high, which may compromise the quality of teacher-child relationships. Lack of early childhood education program policies (i.e., wage,…

This study investigated the relationship between teachers' job satisfaction and teachers' satisfaction with their salary, the number of years teaching, and the principals' communication about the kind of school they want. Teacher attrition in the K-12 public school system is a well-documented problem citing many motives and causes. The recruitment…

Attracting and retaining high-quality teachers in the profession is a matter of significant policy concern. Increasing teacher salaries and creating more attractive compensation packages are often proposed to achieve this goal. However, average real teacher salaries have remained stagnant over the past decade and have not fully recovered from the…

Fixed-term contracts are a relatively recent, yet growing category of employment for teachers in the public school system in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. In this article, we draw on quantitative and qualitative data from a large state-wide survey (N = 18,234) of members of the public-school teacher union, the NSW Teachers' Federation, in…

The COVID-related financial market decline and economic recession have raised new concerns regarding the financial sustainability of retirement plans for state and local government employees, the largest group of whom is public school teachers. Using data from the Public Plans Database and the National Income and Product Accounts, I analyze…

Most teachers have tenure protections that constrain dismissal. Some argue that tenure improves recruitment and retention by mitigating the risk of monopsony employment and substituting job security for lower salaries. Others argue that tenure reduces performance incentives making it difficult to dismiss ineffective teachers. We examine…

Economic downturns can cause major funding shortfalls for U.S. public schools, often forcing districts to make difficult budget cuts, including teacher layoffs. In this brief, we synthesize the empirical literature on the widespread teacher layoffs caused by the Great Recession. Studies find that teacher layoffs harmed student achievement and were…

Business-inspired school reform policies in the United States date back to the late 19th century. In the last four decades, however, while school reformers have continued to borrow policies and practices from the business world, the dominant business model itself has changed dramatically as part of the financialization of the economy. Once a…

This dissertation is about an approach to music teacher education that attempts to prepare pre-service music teachers to find employment while also preparing them to improve the realities of school teaching and learning for themselves and their students. Approaches to music teacher education in the United States have moved from broad…

The success of preschool programs is largely dependent upon a high-quality teaching workforce. Preschool educators are critical in supporting a child's socio-emotional development, motivation, school readiness, achievement, and overall learning. While expected to be professionally prepared similarly to their colleagues from elementary and…

We use data on over 14,000 teacher candidates in Washington state, merged with employment data from the state's public schools and Unemployment Insurance system, to investigate the career paths and earnings of teacher candidates in the state. Around 75% of candidates are employed in some education position in each of the 5 years after student…

Background: Despite being an important component of teacher compensation, government-sponsored teacher pensions are only 72 percent funded on average and have total unfunded liabilities exceeding $600 billion nationally (McGee, 2019; Novy-Marx & Rauh, 2011; "Public Plans Data," 2020). Annual per pupil teacher retirement costs account…

The education students deserve starts with great and diverse teachers. But while many states have made impressive progress on diversifying the teacher workforce, that progress could be at risk. This is because school districts commonly use seniority--"Last In, First Out," or LIFO--to determine which teachers to lay off. But LIFO is not…

This article seeks to contribute to the knowledge base regarding efforts to increase the supply of employed Indigenous teachers. In addition to supporting the learning and well-being of Indigenous students, increasing Indigenous teachers is critical for remote Indigenous communities with chronically understaffed schools. This study was conducted…