138 results found
The Ford Model T: revolutionary 100+ years ago, impractical now. Similarly, our outdated classroom model doesn't meet the needs of today's students and teachers. We explore the evidence driving schools...
What can the education field learn from Netflix? How to revolutionize staffing to better meet the needs of those you serve. Our outdated model of teaching makes it hard for...
Our classrooms haven't kept pace with innovation. The Ford Model T represented breakthrough technology in its day—more than 100 years ago—but it wouldn't serve us well today. Likewise, our traditional...
Some suggest that teachers are "lured" out of the profession into more lucrative fields. But a new study of pre-pandemic data paints a more complex picture of who leaves the...
Classes are shrinking, but student performance is stagnant. NCTQ examines class size policy changes in the largest U.S. districts to see how the landscape has changed in recent years.
New research examining ESSER's impact on school district hiring in Washington state confirms potential teacher layoffs as the funding wanes.
District incentives to recruit and retain teachers will likely fall short if they lack specific attention to the needs of hard-to-staff subjects and schools. In this District Trendline, we examine...
The proportion of individuals in educator-support roles (paraprofessionals, counselors, etc.) has consistently grown over the last decade. Compare state and national changes in school staffing across support and teaching roles.
As ESSER funding depletes and teacher layoffs set in, school districts should consider teacher performance and other alternatives to last-in-first-out.
In March 2023, Arkansas passed the Literacy, Empowerment, Accountability, Readiness, Networking and School Safety Act (LEARNS). A recent research brief from the University of Arkansas analyzes how LEARNS has influenced...
Apprenticeships offer a promising model to help expand and diversify the teacher workforce. But NCTQ President Heather Peske cautions: We're long on enthusiasm for apprenticeships and short on the details...
New research found measurable differences in teacher quality between different generations of teachers—with Baby Boomers being least effective.
Non-teaching staff can have a big impact on student outcomes, yet little research explores how their turnover rates vary and what effects that could have on the school. New research...
Districts nationally are struggling to build strong pools of substitute teachers. Yet in 40% of the large districts we analyzed, entry-level substitute teachers are paid less than what they would...
How popular of a career choice is teaching? New data analysis shows trends in teacher prep program enrollment and completion.
Despite robust research that shows that teachers of color increase positive academic, social-emotional, and behavioral outcomes for all students, particularly students of color, new data and analysis from the National...
Filling those hard-to-staff teacher vacancies doesn't have to be so hard. Making a few straightforward adjustments to compensation, incentives, and partnerships can change the game.
A recent working paper shows a simple hack school leaders can use to ease teaching vacancy woes: Automate data collection.
A new study examines a program in Dallas—Accelerating Campus Excellence or ACE—that sought to boost teacher pay for stellar educators willing to teach in high-poverty schools. Compared to similar schools...
Lack of affordable housing exacerbates the teacher staffing challenges that many school districts face.
The answer (perhaps less satisfying than policy wonks would like) is that It depends on the school context.
Several school district leaders shared how they've accomplished recent gains in building a more diverse teacher workforce.
New research from Illinois reiterates that the nature of the teacher shortage problem is one of inequity.
New research looks into how teachers select or are selected into positions based on their preferences and those of the principals hiring them.
The most-read Teacher Quality Bulletin posts of 2022 reflect the questions, overturned assumptions, and trade-offs that face education leaders.
The most popular District Trendline posts of 2022, with topics ranging from pay increases for substitutes to building a positive school climate
Given both the importance—and dearth—of nuanced, local data on teacher supply and demand, NCTQ set out to understand the key data elements states are currently collecting, which data is missing,...
New research finds that paraprofessional support, time, caseload, resources, and professional development all play major factors in retention.
A focus on teacherrecruitment without appropriate attention to retention is like trying tocollect water in a sieve.
We examine if and how 148 large U.S. school districts use strategic pay to recruit and retain teachers.
Salaries are one of the most powerful policy levers states and school districts can use to attract qualified, effective, and diverse teachers. However, strategic pay remains underutilized as a tool...
Beyond the important areas outlined in the Secretary's remarks, we see two big challenges to the goal of access and equity to quality teachers that have yet to be addressed.
Many states are moving to eliminate existing measures of content knowledge for aspiring teachers, citing concerns around possible teacher shortages.
Insights on what school districts can do to ensure every classroom is staffed with an effective teacher.
One thing we know for certain: K-12 educator workforce data is lagging, lacking, and limited.
Investing in resources, such as school guidance counselors, that help shape a positive school environment can set the stage for building and sustaining a stronger teacher workforce.
How school districts can use NCTQ's Teacher Prep Review Elementary Math standard findings in their recruiting and hiring decisions
One concrete step districts can take to build a stronger teacher workforce is to move up their hiring timelines.
An examination of incentives offered by states and large school districts.
Every now and then, conventional wisdom gets it wrong.
It's high time to implement specific and strategic policies to address teacher shortages.
As the challenge of recruiting a new generation of teachers gains increasing urgency, what's old is being made new again.
Given how disruptive it is for schools to deal with even a single absent teacher, you'd think we would know such things as how many teachers are quitting.
https://www.nctq.org/blog/Its-taking-a-really-long-time-to-get-state-longitudinal-data-systems-right
While most states have made progress in building out their data systems, key data connections are missing.
Our nation's educators and students are exhausted and embattled, but not beaten.
Teachers faced many difficulties last year due to the pandemic. Concerns about teachers not returning for the 2021-22 school year weren't unfounded. We looked at the incentives that 148 large...
What data do states collect and report on the teacher labor market? Do states connect data on supply and demand to better understand and address teacher shortages? Explore state policies...
A new working paper adds additional insight into the important question of how race impacts teacher hiring decisions.
An analysis of state rules on collective bargaining for teachers and the content of school districts' policies across 148 districts nationwide.
National jobs data suggests the wave of predicted teacher resignations has not come to pass.
Working conditions play a crucial role in teachers' wellbeing, especially after 18 taxing months of reinventing education due to the pandemic. A recent report uncovers that class sizes are a...
For school districts looking to fulfill staffing needs, hosting student teachers offers many advantages to creating a pool of effective new teachers.
New data show the extent of the mismatch between teachers' certification and the area in which teachers are needed.
A new analysis by the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) examines salary data and related compensation materials from 90 large school districts to determine lifetime earnings trajectories for teachers...
To attract teachers to rural areas we either have to come up with a significant and steady infusion of cash—or life in rural America needs to become a more attractive...
For school district leaders, a crucial strategy for hiring a strong, effective teacher workforce is to offer competitive salaries.
We examine the extent to which beginning teachers are receiving any form of compensating differentials that would help increase teacher retention during the first few years in the classroom.
As we close in on one year of the COVID-19 lockdown, we examine how resources are being used to recruit and retain effective teachers.
New data & analysis from negotiated agreements on school reopening, PPE, teacher eval, leave, & more.
A recently published study sheds some light on how teacher evaluation and accountability policies might affect the quantity or quality of new teachers available to schools.
Pervasive late hiring processes hinder districts'ability to hire high-quality teacher candidates, yet still many districts can'tseem to rise out of this rut. One large district figured out something to doabout...
Teacher turnover has proven to be not only costly for schools, but also detrimental to teacher effectiveness and student learning. Still, some teacher attrition is not always a bad thing,...
New analysis from Chelsea Coffin and Tanaz Meghjani at the D.C. Policy Center explores some of the teacher workforce data from D.C. public schools, and reports on how key education...
Researchers have spent decades investigating the most valid predictors and measures of teacher quality, with one of the hopes being that school districts will know exactly what to look for...
https://www.nctq.org/publications/NCTQ-Databurst:-Licensure-Requirements-for-Out--of--State-Teachers
New data from the National Council on Teacher Quality reveal that the majority of states do not ask for evidence of prior successful teaching for those teachers coming from out...
What do substitute teacher pools look like across the largest school districts in the country and how can districts use strategic compensation and other innovative practices to ensure a strong...
Our drum is beating for both better base pay and much more strategic use of compensation dollars by school districts to purchase what they most need and value.
Districts report the most difficulty not only filling STEM and special ed vacancies but keeping them filled with strong, effective teachers. Given these shortages, what can districts do to recruit...
In spite of a federal law requiring states to take action to ameliorate the inequitable distribution of teacher talent, many states (and consequently their districts) aren't doing much.
It's safe to say that recessions are bad – people lose jobs, investments lose value, politicians lose elections. However, it turns out there's one group that benefits from an economic...
We all know that new teachers are more apt to get handed the toughest classrooms, a double whammy on student growth (where it's most needed) and teacher attrition rates. What's...
How can we fix well-documented disparities in the education experiences of children living in poverty?
Some noteworthy findings from Richard Ingersoll and his colleagues in the recent examination of how the teaching workforce has changed in the last thirty years...
A new study confirms, yet again, the positive benefits of students of color having a teacher of the same race.
In most job sectors,employers use their compensation dollars to purchase what they most value.
The right incentives can motivate a student to do homework, an employee to hit a quota, and even a child to finish her vegetables.
Coverage of teacher shortages tells of real struggles faced by districts, but it only tells part of the story.
Take your eyes off the pounding surf for a moment to read my top three interesting developments worth noting.
Paying teachers more to work in high-need schools and subjects—known as "differential pay"—is one of the most powerful tools school districts have on hand to secure the teachers they need.
It's teacher hiring season, and school districts are out in full force working to recruit teachers.
NCTQ's Strategic Teacher Compensation Databurst is a study of states' strategic teacher compensation policies which includes a snapshot of all 50 states' and the District of Columbia's teacher compensation policies...
As school districts plan for the coming school year, many are already considering where to recruit a fresh crop of new teachers - teachers eager to put everything they've learned...
No one is surprised when 9th and 10th grade students want to be rock stars, professional athletes, or YouTube celebrities. But when some of them want to be teachers, it's...
As many states struggle to staff all their classrooms, they might want to examine the degree to which their own policies discourage qualified teachers from applying.
The Teacher Shortages and Surpluses Databurst is an analysis of states' work to track teacher shortages and surpluses, and to implement the policy solutions to address these challenges. This resource...
Even today, high-needs schools struggle to attract and, more critically, retain effective and experienced teachers. We think teacher prep programs are missing a huge opportunity to tackle this issue, through...
There is a cautionary lesson from a new working paper examining Houston's bold talent initiative. In many ways, it yielded the results intended by retaining a higher number of great...
Localcontext matters. It's true when it comes to teachershortages, and it shouldn't come as a surprise that it would be true whenit comes to teacher retention, too.
See how states fared on our policy goals for differentiated pay in 2017.
See how states fared on our policy goals for licensure reciprocity in 2017.
Explore district-level data on differentiated pay from NCTQ's Teacher Contract Database.
Explore district-level data on class policies from NCTQ's Teacher Contract Database.
Despite how some organizations tend to discuss teacher supply, the United States doesn't have just one teacher labor market, but at least 50. Why is the labor market so fragmented?...
Permit me to draw my inspiration from scripture, referencing the basic human needs of clothes on our backs, food to eat, and a shelter over our heads. How better to...
Too often in education, education groups' pursuit of validation for their policy priorities and the media's desire for a strong narrative lead them to whip up a public frenzy at...
As a growing number of states across the nation look for ways to recognize and reward excellent teachers, a new study from the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) reveals...
Should schools of education steer their students to fields where they have the highest chances of being hired? Or should they allow students to major in fields in which the...
Data, data everywhere but not a drop to drink.
This month, District Trendline asks the question "Just how common is differentiated pay for teachers?" To answer, we look at two common types of differentiated pay: more compensation either for...
We've long been excited about the wealth of information – and its potential uses – coming from Tennessee's teacher prep report cards (see here and here). The state's Department of...
In the search for your perfect teaching job, there are a lot of compensation-related factors to consider.
April 13, 2017
Choosing the right district for you is not easy if you don't have the right information.
The fact that many of Nebraska's schools lack enough teachers, particularly in fields like science, mathematics, and special education, is likely not news to most. Year after year, nearly all...
For teachers, finding satisfaction in their classroom, school, and district is key to longevity and success.
Studies have shown teachers who have strong academic backgrounds tend to be more successful in the classroom.
No school district wants to lose their most effective teachers. But pension systems, which are under the purview of state legislatures, are one roadblock to retention. These pension systems often...
Teacher quality researchers made plenty of provocative headlines in 2016. They identified trends to monitor, new tips for the trade, and a few wins worth celebrating. Here are the papers...
Every consumer knows how the law of supply and demand affects prices. When demand is higher than supply, the price goes up. As suppliers increase production to match the demand,...
According to the NationalCenter for Education Statistics, in the 2011-2012 school year, averageclass size across all public schools in the United States was 21.6 students inelementary school, 25.5 students in...
Here's something I've been struggling to understand of late. What makes the prospect of a teacher shortage such an immediately compelling narrative, capable of spreading with all the speed of...
Today, the Learning Policy Institute (LPI), led by Stanford University education professor Linda Darling-Hammond, released a series of reports focusing on teacher shortages in the US. The reports estimate a...
One feature of an ideal school environment, webelieve, is that both students and their teachers reflect America in all of itsdiversity. Everyone, including children coming from privilege, benefits from adiverse...
Public schools are suffering from a well-publicized diversity problem. Students of color make up nearly half of all public school students, yet teachers of color comprise just 18 percent of...
Isn't it amazing how someone or some things gain traction when the facts clearly aren't on their side? Just like the media handed off most of its airtime and column...
A year ago a group of 20 out-of-state teachers filed a lawsuitin Minnesota over the state's teacherlicensing regulations which they claimed were inconsistent and incoherent. Thestate's Office of the Legislative...
What happens in DC has the potential toimpact districts across the entire nation.
When most companies are handing outmore pink slips than paychecks, getting a job in teaching starts to lookawfully attractive—including to people who hadn't initially planned on a careerin the classroom....
"It should not take this long."A simple sentiment, but one that likely resonates with almost any teacher who has ever moved to a new state only to then engage in...
Today, a test of yourpolicy chops.What do the followingthree statements have in common? 1. It'sbeen X years since A Nation at Riskand we still haven't solved [fillin blank];2. The...
Way backin 2010, NCTQ released Human Capital in BostonPublic Schools: Rethinking How to Attract, Develop and Retain EffectiveTeachers in partnership with the MassachusettsAlliance for Business Education. The typical life span...
Every district HR department looks to findways to limit the number of time-consuming interviews of new teacherapplicants. A few weeks ago, Politicoran a story about "Big Data" toolsdesigned to give...
Dallas IndependentSchool Districthires approximately 2,000 new teachers each year. It is transforming the wayits human capital team works, adopting data-driven strategies for recruitment,selection and hiring. One of the many sources...
If one Teach For America (TFA) corps member can boost studenttest scores at a higher rate than other teachers in the same school, wouldmultiple TFA corps members in the same...
While the recent landmark Vergara v. California court case focused on teachers who are or should be dismissed, the greatest portion of teachers are still those who don't stick around...
Joining the chorus of advocates calling for moving from highly qualified to highly effective teachers, NCTQ offers recommendations for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) so...
A report on Boston Public School policies that have an impact on teacher quality, concluding that while the district has many smart, strategic policies already in place, improving teacher rules...
In too many school districts, principals have little say over which teachers work in their buildings. NCTQ's new policy brief explores the staffing policies in 101 school districts and points...
In this paper, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) taps into its TR3 (Teacher Rules, Roles and Rights; www.nctq.org/tr3) database to examine district policies, some mandated by state law,...
State laws and regulations can either help or hinder the ability of school districts to hire effective teachers for STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects. State officials wanting to...
The focus of the country background reports is on the aspects of teacher policy that deal with how to attract, recruit, develop, and retain effective teachers. The report has the...
The importance of good teaching to the academic success of students is intuitively obvious to any parent and is well substantiated by a body of sound research. Correspondingly, ensuring that...