Teacher Recruitment

Education Program

Teacher Recruitment

This site contains the text of a recent report written by Eric Hirsch at NCSL as part of a larger project on teacher mobility in collaboration with the State Higher Education Executive Officers (SHEEO), the National Governors Association (NGA) and the North Central Regional Education Laboratory (NCREL). A formatted copy of this report, "Teacher Recruitment: Staffing Classrooms with Quality Teachers," with notes and an appendix of legislation enacted during the 2000 session can be downloaded. A description of the project and links to the other reports completed as part of this joint project are also available on the SHEEO web site.

Summary

Many states are pursuing aggressive strategies to recruit high quality elementary and secondary teachers in response to teacher shortages caused by high enrollment growth, teacher retirements and attrition, and recent efforts to reduce student-teacher ratios.

This brief focuses on two particular areas:

Increasing the pipeline of potential teachers, and
Providing incentives for educators to work in areas of highest need.

The paper analyzes the recent trends and offers suggestions for strengthening the recruitment of high quality teachers. It proposes improving the collection and analysis of teacher supply and demand data, integrating recruitment initiatives into comprehensive strategies to address teacher quality, systemically evaluating recruitment policies, and modifying policies based on emerging knowledge of effective practices.

Background

The nation faces an impending teacher shortage, especially in specific high demand areas. The U.S. Department of Education estimates that school districts will need to hire more than two million new teachers over the next decade. According to recent reports by the American Association for Employment in Education, current shortages of licensed teachers are most severe in traditional high demand areas of special education, mathematics, science, bilingual education, and technology education - and it will worsen in the coming years.

There is a double challenge of increasing both the number and the quality of teachers. States are creating more rigorous licensure standards at the same time that they seek to hire more teachers. The need to find and to keep good teachers is especially critical if states and local districts are to meet rigorous education goals aimed at raising student achievement levels. Recent studies in Tennessee, Boston, and Texas confirm that students taught by the most qualified and effective teachers achieve at higher levels.

The need is especially great in low performing schools because they tend to get the most poorly trained teachers. The deficiency of qualified teachers is most prevalent in low-income urban and isolated rural schools and places students in these schools at risk of not achieving full educational opportunities. Indeed, a recent study by Education Week reports that the poorest schools were the most likely to employ teachers with the lowest college entrance examination scores. Further, a joint study by The Council of Great City Schools and Recruiting New Teachers, Inc. reported that more than 82 percent of urban districts allow "noncredentialed" individuals to teach because they cannot find qualified educators.

To ensure that all students are taught by high quality teachers, policymakers and education leaders in every state will need to carefully examine the complex factors that both challenge and support the recruitment and retention of the teaching workforce.

Shortages in the states' teacher workforces

National and state studies have forecast impending teacher shortages every year during the past decade. Predictions for the growing demand for teachers have been based for the most part on the following factors: the number of prospective teachers in traditional and non-traditional teacher preparation programs, anticipated growth in K-12 enrollments, expected teacher retirements, and estimates of licensed teachers who will leave the profession altogether. Further, some recent studies also have focused on the impact that new or proposed state education policies - such as initiatives to reduced class size - will have on local communities. The following snapshot shows some of the key areas of concern in the teacher workforce pipeline:

Student enrollments are growing. In the fall 2000, a record 53 million students entered the nation's public and private K-12 classrooms. This enrollment level is expected to remain constant over the next decade. These high enrollments are creating demands for additional educators, especially in western and southern states. The U.S. Department of Education reports that while eight of the nine northeastern states are expecting a decline in the student population, western states such as California, Idaho, Nevada, and New Mexico are projected to have double-digit increases in enrollment. Further, class size reduction policies in approximately one-half of the states will necessitate serving these new students with more staff than ever before.

Many students preparing to teach never enter the classroom. Recent college graduates make up a significant source of new teacher hires. In 1990-91, one-third of new hires in public schools and one-fifth of new hires in private schools entered teaching directly from college. Over the past decade, a growing number of college students have indicated interest in teaching and have entered teacher preparation programs. However, upon graduation many of these students - especially those in high demand fields - decide not to apply for teaching jobs or do not accept positions when they are offered. According to a recent U.S. Department of Education study, of the 1992-93 graduates who had prepared to teach, only 9 percent of mathematics, computer science, and natural science majors entered teaching compared with 58 percent of education majors and 16 percent of humanities majors.

The teaching population is aging rapidly. According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, almost one-half of all elementary and secondary education school teachers were 45 years old or older in 1998. While these figures illustrate a teaching corps with vast experience - nearly one-third of teachers have been in the profession for more than 20 years - they also point to new staffing dilemmas for schools. Nearly one-half of current teachers will become eligible to retire during the next decade. The impact of an aging teaching pool will affect some states more than others. About 30 percent of the teachers in 20 states have more than 20 years of classroom experience; these states are predominately in the central and northeast regions of the country.

Poor working conditions influence many well-qualified teachers to leave the profession prematurely. On average, 30 to 50 percent of teachers leave the profession altogether within the first five years. Surveys of teachers who have left reveal that working conditions have the greatest affect on whether or not they stay. Teachers claim that their decisions to leave teaching were based primarily on their dissatisfaction with administrative support and leadership, student behavior, school atmosphere, and a lack of autonomy.

Challenges to recruitment of quality teachers in high demand areas

In addition to the number of teachers available, state leaders are concerned about the quality of their teaching workforce. State and district leaders want qualified teachers to teach high demand subjects, and they need stronger teachers to increase the achievement levels of students in the disadvantaged urban and rural schools that have traditionally been difficult to staff. However, several obstacles to effective recruitment and hiring act as barriers to finding these qualified teachers.

There is a mismatch in the supply and demand of quality teachers. Many students preparing to become teachers are not majoring in subject areas that match the needs of schools and districts experiencing shortages. Even in states that produce enough new teachers to meet overall demand, there remain acute shortages in mathematics, science, bilingual, and special education. Moreover, many teaching candidates prefer suburban districts. They are unwilling to teach in many urban and rural schools.

This mismatch in the supply and demand of teachers is exacerbated by the lack of targeted state strategies. For example, few states collect or analyze data that can project the hiring needs of local districts. Also problematic are gaps in communication between state and local K-12 agencies and higher education systems and institutions concerning hiring needs. State strategies that encourage institutions to reduce programs that oversupply teachers and build programs that will produce teachers in critical fields could help alleviate shortages and strengthen relationships between the K-12 and postsecondary education sectors.

Local school districts are pressured to hire minimally qualified teachers. Without an adequate supply of qualified teachers, schools and districts have hired teachers who have yet to meet state licensure requirements. Recent state studies show that these educators tend disproportionately to teach in low performing schools and schools serving low-income students. For example, more than 10 percent of the California teaching force (approximately 28,500 people during the 1998-99 school year) worked on an emergency permit. In 1999, 16 percent of California teachers in schools serving populations with the greatest proportion of students receiving free or reduced lunch did not have appropriate credentials; this compares to 4 percent of teachers in schools serving fewer low-income children.

In addition to hiring teachers without appropriate credentials, districts are also filling open positions with teachers who are teaching in a subject where they do not have a college major or minor. In North Carolina, a 1998 study found that teachers in low-performing districts are much more likely to be teaching "out of field" or with a substandard license. Out-of-field and unlicensed teachers also are prominent in specific subject areas such as mathematics and science. For example, more than one-half of districts in Colorado report difficulty finding qualified math teachers.

Low salaries and lack of incentives may discourage qualified individuals from entering and staying in the profession. Many college students and teachers view low teacher salaries as a prime deterrent to entering and staying in the profession. State and local leaders complain that salaries that are below those offered in neighboring districts or states make it difficult to find and keep good teachers. The average beginning salary for teachers nationwide was $26,639 in 1998-99, ranging from over $31,000 in Connecticut and Alaska to under $20,000 in North Dakota. In today's job market, these salaries can not compete with what is being offered in other professions. According to a recent survey conducted by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), "During the past five years, salary offers for college graduates in all fields have grown at twice the rate as those for new teachers." Well-qualified college students majoring in mathematics, science, or foreign languages see significant disparities when they compare teacher salary levels with beginning salaries in other professions. For example, AFT reports that average beginning teacher salaries are about $7,500 less than the expected starting salary in marketing and $15,000 less than that for computer scientists.

These challenges point to the need for a comprehensive, multifaceted approach to recruiting and retaining teachers. Every state's situation is complex, and an array of strategies will be necessary to ensure that enough qualified teachers are available across all subject areas. In addition to the challenges raised above, strategies also will need to support teachers who are willing to relocate to fill high demand positions and increase diversity of the teaching workforce.

Tackling Recruitment: How States Are Attracting Teachers

In general, local districts currently design and support their own recruitment programs. These isolated approaches often create inequities across the state as the wealthiest districts have the resources that poor districts lack to recruit and retain a quality workforce. To address recruitment and retention challenges, some state policymakers have developed new strategies to expand the supply and provide incentives to teachers who work in areas of highest need. In addition to intrastate efforts, plans are underway in some regions to establish interstate agreements that support teacher recruitment across state lines. The following synthesizes approaches recently implemented in states across the country.

Expanding the Pipeline: Strategies to Attract Prospective Teachers to the Profession

Many states have attempted to expand the production pipeline in order to increase the number of potential teachers entering the profession. Their diverse strategies include stimulating early interest in teaching through secondary school and community college cadet programs, making it easier for potential educators to complete their degrees by offering scholarships and forgivable loans, and expediting the process for earning teaching credentials through alternative routes to licensure.

In addition, many states have increased beginning salaries to attract high caliber individuals to the teaching profession. Some states are working with districts to develop policies to provide differentiated compensation for teachers in high demand fields.

Increase Salaries for Teachers

States and school districts compete with each other and the public and private sectors for teaching personnel. The strong job market for recent college graduates that began in the late 1990s made it more difficult to find quality school staff. Swaying these new entry-level professionals are data showing that in 1999 new college graduates in all fields received average salary offers in excess of $37,000 compared to an average beginning salary of $26,639 for teachers. Some states are using these current labor force data to push for salary increases for teachers.

Both to attract new entrants and to keep experienced teachers in the profession, several states recently have passed legislation to increase salaries. Eleven states passed legislation to increase salaries for teachers in 2000. Complementing this trend, the American Federation of Teachers' 1999 teacher salary survey found a 3.3 percent increase nationally in the average teacher salary, from $39,278 in 1998 to $40,574 in 1999.

These states hope that more competitive salaries give them an important recruitment tool to attract the best and brightest teachers while at the same time increasing the quality of the statewide teaching workforce. For example, under the Excellent Schools Act enacted in 1997, North Carolina increased teachers' salaries by 11.3 percent over the previous year, but in return, teachers must meet more rigorous requirements for licensure and tenure. Alabama provided an 8.5 percent cost of living adjustment in 1998. Pending increases in education trust fund revenues designed to place teachers' salaries at the national average, the state approved additional pay raises in 2000. The current average teacher salary in Alabama is about $36,000 and starting salary is more than $29,000.

These salary increases are creating intense competition for educators among states in the same region. Supply and demand studies in Oklahoma, for example, show educators crossing the border to Texas where $1.7 billion has been allocated to provide $3,000 annual raises for full-time teachers over the next two years. In an attempt to keep more teachers in the state, Oklahoma raised teacher salaries $3,000 in 2000 and established a statewide minimum starting salary of approximately $27,000.

Strengthen Early Outreach -- Teacher Cadet and Future Teachers Programs

Raising students' interest in teaching as a career is another strategy for building a teacher workforce pipeline. Today's students are aware of many options, and those who may have once considered a teaching career are choosing other professions. A recent study shows that the appeal to become a teacher among college freshmen has declined from 10 percent in the early 1990s to 8 percent in 1999.

To rebuild interest, many states have developed strategies to begin teacher recruitment before college through career fairs, education clubs, and early exposure to teacher preparation programs. Currently, 12 states have state-level programs that recruit at the high school level and six offer programs at community colleges.

The South Carolina Center for Teacher Recruitment is an impressive example of a comprehensive state-level approach to pre-collegiate teacher recruitment. In elementary school, students learn about how to become a teacher through career fairs. Middle school students may enroll in a year-long ProTeam Program that promotes teaching as a career and encourages students to make the necessary academic choices for college entry and success. Three programs target high school students: the Teacher Cadet Program, Teaching Assistant Program, and the Teaching Fellows Program. Students selected for these programs are enrolled in challenging coursework and provided extensive hands-on exposure to classroom teaching.

The state investment in these efforts is showing positive results. For example, the Teacher Cadet Program that began in 1985-86 now serves over 2,500 academically able high school students annually and operates in 149 high schools across the state. Twenty-two of the state's 30 colleges and universities with teacher education programs provide support to the Teacher Cadet sites, and over two-thirds of the college partners grant college credit for satisfactory completion of the course. More than 2,000 former cadets are currently teaching and an average of 35 percent of participants indicate plans to pursue teaching credentials. Districts in 18 states currently offer programs that replicate the Teacher Cadet Program.

Develop "Grow Your Own" Programs

"Grow your own" programs allow schools and districts experiencing severe shortages to create their own pipeline of new teachers by partnering with colleges to recruit, prepare, and retain teachers. "Grow your own" programs tend to target paraprofessionals and classroom aides already working in local schools. Further, these programs enable administrators to tailor preparation programs to the specific needs and resources in their communities and schools.

To date, few states have enacted policies that facilitate the creation of these programs; rather, districts and institutions of higher education have come together to design initiatives. These efforts could be expanded in the states through incentive funding or grant programs to partnerships of higher education institutions and districts.

The U.S. Department of Education's Title II Teacher Quality Enhancement Recruitment Grant program is supporting several "grow your own" efforts. For example, using federal grant dollars, the Los Angeles Unified School District partnered with the California State University System to begin its own recruitment program - the In-House Teacher Recruitment Program (ITRP). The ITRP includes a high school internship program where participants are prepared to work as paraeducators and to study at one of the California State University campuses upon graduation. Following high school graduation, participants enroll in a university program while concurrently working as paraeducators in the schools. The program provides support services such as stipends, scholarships, and mentors. Upon completion, students will have earned a bachelor's degree and a preliminary teaching credential. Through California's federal grant, similar "grow your own" recruitment programs are being implemented in the Salinas Valley, Oakland, and San Jose.

Provide College Scholarships, Forgivable Loans, and Tuition Assistance

Twenty-seven states offer college scholarships, forgivable loans, or tuition assistance to recruit more high quality teachers and to motivate teachers to serve in shortage areas. In 1999, $81 million was budgeted nationwide for these programs. Programs in 11 states specifically target academically talented candidates who are required to commit a designated number of years to teaching in K-12 schools.

For most students in these programs, the primary incentive is the financial assistance to cover the cost of their college education. However, the North Carolina Teaching Fellows Program established in 1986 offers even more. Along with scholarships of $6,500 per year for four years, fellows are involved in extensive enrichment activities (e.g., conferences, workshops, and visits to schools across the state). Program graduates currently work in 96 of the state's 100 counties.

These student aid programs also seek to increase the diversity of the teaching workforce and to recruit teachers who have the skills needed to work with a multicultural student population. Approximately 87 percent of the teachers in public schools are non-Hispanic Caucasian, but they are teaching a student body that is approximately one-third minority. To increase the numbers of underrepresented teachers of color working in local schools, 10 states have developed scholarships or forgivable loans specifically for minority candidates. Connecticut implemented a program in 1998 that provides incentive grants of up to $20,000 to encourage minority students to become teachers. Grants are available for up to 50 students per year who enter teacher education programs in their junior or senior years at four-year colleges or who are enrolled in post-baccalaureate certification programs.

Support Effective Alternative Certification Programs

Alternative routes to achieving teacher licensure - often designed to encourage minorities and mid-career professionals to enter teaching - have grown in popularity in recent years. A combination of teacher shortages, a need to provide preparation for post-baccalaureate recruits, and criticism of traditional teacher preparation programs have made these alternative routes an attractive option for policymakers and potential teachers.

According to a National Center for Education Information (NCEI) report published in 2000, more than 115 alternative certification programs currently are operating in 40 states and the District of Columbia. To date, these programs have prepared more than 125,000 teachers. State leaders who support them have argued that they help address the recruitment and development of teachers for shortage areas and that they are preferable over emergency credentials and misassignments.

Many studies over the past decade have examined the characteristics of individuals most likely to enter teaching through alternative routes. They provide strong evidence that alternative programs have added minorities and men to the teaching ranks in urban areas. The three largest state programs are in states with large minority and urban student populations - New Jersey, California and Texas - where between 16 and 22 percent of new teacher hires earned certificates through alternative routes.

Based on NCEI and other studies, alternative certification programs deemed to be the most successful have the following criteria in common:

They are directed to individuals who already have a baccalaureate degree.
Successful candidates have passed rigorous screening.
The programs are based in schools.
The programs include coursework in professional education studies before or during teaching assignments.
Candidates work closely with quality mentor teachers.
Candidates meet high performance standards for completion of the programs.

Researchers have not achieved consensus about the impact of alternative programs on student achievement. Given the variety of programs currently in operation, most agree that comprehensive evaluations to assess this linkage are surely needed.

Streamline Hiring Processes

The complexity and timing of hiring decisions can create barriers to getting qualified teachers into classrooms. Information on district or school vacancies is not easily accessible to teachers searching for jobs. Teachers applying in several districts or at different schools must submit multiple and duplicative application forms and documentation. Because of delays in processing applications, districts often lose the most capable teachers to other competitors.

Several states have developed one-stop services in order to increase the number of applicants for open positions, to streamline the process, and to reduce the obstacles for hiring the best teacher candidates. Electronic web sites provide information about teaching opportunities across the state, allow districts to post job openings, and promote application uniformity.

In addition to state-based efforts, several national job banks, such as the National Teacher Recruitment Clearinghouse hosted by Recruiting New Teachers, Inc. (RNT), provide helpful information about how individuals can become a teacher and find a job, and how districts can locate and retain teachers. The RNT web site also contains a comprehensive job bank portal to national, state, and district job banks across the country.

Lure Retired Teachers Back to the Classroom

Given the difficulties of finding new teachers, a new trend is for states to draw on retired educators to staff classrooms. States are allowing teachers to draw full pension benefits while teaching full- or part-time. In 1999, California, Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Texas passed legislation that created new policies to attract retirees or altered existing regulations that capped returning retirees' salaries. Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, and Tennessee passed similar policies in 2000.

Some states are using these policies as incentives to lure retired teachers to hard-to-staff schools. For example, South Carolina's plan will help channel retired educators to "critical need areas." Similarly, in Texas, the new law targets retired teachers who specialize in math, science, or technology. Additional strategies to direct teachers to areas of highest need are described in the following section.

Redistributing the Workforce: Strategies to Recruit New and Veteran Teachers to Areas of Highest Need

Many states are exploring incentives to encourage new and veteran teachers to work in hard-to-staff schools and to prepare to teach in subject areas with critical shortages. These will be most successful, however, if teachers can move to take advantage of them without having to meet re-licensure requirements or to lose retirement benefits or credit for accrued work experience. Activities are underway in some regions to consider initiatives that will allow states through reciprocity agreements to accept the teaching credentials and accrued experience that teachers earn in other districts and states. In addition, some states and local districts have examined strategies to ease portability of pension benefits for teachers.

Provide Incentives for Accomplished Teachers in Critical Areas

In addition to the general increases in teacher salaries mentioned earlier, some states are using one-time signing bonuses or other rewards to lure qualified teachers into open positions. In 1998, Massachusetts began awarding $20,000 signing bonuses to newly hired teachers who meet qualification standards specified by the state and teach there for four years. The Massachusetts Signing Bonus Program for New Teachers is designed to attract mid-career professionals, recent college graduates, and college seniors with backgrounds in mathematics, science, and foreign language.

Other incentives to recruit teachers in shortage fields or to less desirable locations include bonuses, support to cover home loans, and relocation expenses. New York provides an annual stipend of $3,400 for up to three years to any certified teacher agreeing to work in a critical shortage area. In Baltimore, $5,000 is provided toward the closing costs on a home in the city and $1,200 to cover relocation expenses. This is in addition to a recent $3,000 starting salary increase. Similarly, Mississippi in 1998 passed legislation that targets teachers seeking a master's degree to locate in critical shortage areas. In exchange for three years of service, recipients receive tuition scholarships toward completion of a degree program, professional development opportunities, a computer, participation in a mentoring program, home loans, and up to $1,000 for moving expenses.

To increase teacher expertise and skill in the schools, 39 states and nearly 200 school districts offer a variety of incentives and subsidies for veteran teachers who are certified by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. For example, California enacted legislation in 2000 that pays a $20,000 bonus for National Board certified teachers who agree to teach in districts designated as low performing. New York created a similar program for National Board certified teachers by providing a $10,000 bonus as part of the Teachers of Tomorrow legislation

A new report published by the National Board found that compared to other teachers, board certified teachers were more effective educators and improved student learning in the schools where they taught. Although the scope of the study was narrow - based on 65 teachers in three states and the District of Columbia - it provides important preliminary evidence demonstrating the linkage between National Board certification and student achievement.

There is limited information about whether policies supporting salary increases and bonuses work. It appears that the most recent efforts are based on general market principles that higher salaries will attract more teachers. Some policy analysts have argued that to improve teacher quality, states should forego blanket salary increases and target their efforts on teachers filling critical shortage areas or demonstrating the greatest affect on student achievement. To ensure that monetary incentives to teachers meet their intended goals, states will need to evaluate their programs, examining the number of teachers recruited under the plans, retention rates, and the academic performance of schools and students where these teachers were hired.

Enhance Teacher Mobility

Nobody really knows the extent to which teachers are moving to take advantage of recruitment opportunities. However, a number of recent publications and public discourses on teacher quality have stressed the importance of teacher mobility. In addition, state and regional studies aimed at supply and demand and teacher salaries suggest that teachers will cross local district and state lines for jobs and better salaries. Further, the issue is being studied as part of new regional efforts sponsored by the Council for Basic Education and the North Central Regional Education Laboratory to ensure adequate supply of qualified teachers across states.

The stories of teachers who have encountered specific barriers restricting their ability to move from a teaching job in one district or state to another are driving these studies. These barriers include the lack of reciprocity of teacher licenses and certification, restrictions on pension portability, and the unwillingness or inability of most districts to pay them for accrued experience.

Available resources on teacher mobility, as well as examples of initiatives to provide reciprocity of state teaching licenses and portability of pension benefits for teachers, are identified and discussed in a reference guide and two other strategy briefs published in conjunction with this brief. These four documents are part of a national study on teacher mobility sponsored by the State Higher Education Executive Officers (SHEEO).

Improve Working Conditions through Induction Programs for Teachers

According to national reports aimed at explaining teacher attrition, job satisfaction appears to be influenced as much by working conditions and feelings of control as by salary and benefits. Thus, to ensure teachers remain in the profession after they are hired, state strategies also need to focus on initiatives that empower teachers and make classrooms more attractive work environments.

New teacher mentoring programs can help alleviate some of the factors that negatively affect job satisfaction. More than one-half the states have induction programs that support new teachers. However, there appears to be some disparity, even within the same state, on critical components of these mentoring programs. Research indicates that more effective induction programs include the following:

Programs should be based in schools and classrooms.
New models should be designed especially for novice teachers and differentiate between teachers in their first job, mid-career changers, and veterans who have changed grade levels or subject areas.
Programs need sufficient financial resources to compensate mentor teachers for their participation and to allow mentors to work with novice teachers during class time throughout the first years of teaching.
Programs should be evaluated and new or scaled-up efforts should be based on effective practice.
Comparative data across programs should be collected to identify program components and capacity to support beginning teachers.

California's Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment program (BTSA) includes many of these components and is showing successful results. Begun in 1992, new California teachers are provided an extensive induction experience consisting of assessment, individual support, advanced study, and frequent reflection on the practice of teaching. This level of support works to retain teachers. A recent evaluation of the first phases of the program shows that 37 percent of teachers who did not participate in the program left the field over the first five years of teaching compared to 9 percent of those who went through BTSA.

Hiring and Keeping Quality Teachers: Taking a Comprehensive Approach

Approximately 450 bills addressing teacher recruitment were introduced in 41 states during the 2000 legislative sessions. The Appendix lists state legislation adopted in the past year and illustrates that many states are relying on multiple strategies to support teacher recruitment.

While most legislation creating recruitment policies focused on district activities, a few states are taking comprehensive policy approaches that address both pipeline and redistribution issues. California, for example, is attempting to link recruitment of high quality teachers to its statewide goals for quality teaching and learning. California Senate Bill 1666, passed in 2000, created a comprehensive recruitment package aimed at addressing the state's severe teacher shortage. The bill's multiple strategies (described below) are designed to support a system that aligns different parts of the teacher pipeline using local and statewide strategies

Teacher Preparation: New programs are aimed at increasing the number and quality of students entering teacher preparation programs. California Teaching Fellowships provides $20,000 in competitive awards to teaching candidates who earn credentials and agree to teach in a low performing school for four years. The Assumption Program for Loans for Education (APLE) provides loan forgiveness awards to teacher education graduates. SB 1666 provides $43.6 million to increase the amount of annual grants from $1,500 to $2,500 to teacher interns. It also expands the intern and pre-intern programs from 7,300 to 12,700 students providing additional teacher trainees who will work in classrooms under mentor supervision while earning their teaching credentials.

Teacher Recruitment: The Teacher Recruitment Incentive Program (TRIP) establishes teacher recruitment centers in six California regions where there is a demonstrated need to aggressively recruit qualified teachers to the state's most challenging schools. Funded at more than $9 million, centers will recruit college students and others to pursue teaching as a career and entice qualified veteran teachers to teach in schools with the greatest need. To support low performing schools, the Teaching as a Priority Block Grant Program (TAP) provides $118.6 million for discretionary grants to schools to recruit and retain quality teachers. Incentives may be used to award signing bonuses, improve working conditions, increase salaries, provide housing subsides, or establish a longer school year.

Teacher Salaries and Benefits: To encourage qualified individuals to enter teaching, $55 million is available to California school districts to increase beginning salaries to $34,000. A Teacher's Supplemental Retirement Account Program is aimed at increasing teacher retirement benefits. Members of the State Teacher's Retirement System (STRS) will be allowed to place 25 percent of their STRS contributions, or 2 percent of earnings, in a supplemental retirement account that will be available as a lump sum payment or an annuity when the member retires.

Teacher Retention: Three programs focus on retaining good teachers and rewarding them for their service to education. Beginning with the 2000 tax year, teachers who serve at least four years in public or private schools will be entitled to tax credits ranging from $250 to $1,500 based on their years in the profession. Teachers who achieve advanced certification under the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards will receive $10,000 bonuses. Finally, board certified teachers who teach in low performing schools for four years will receive a $20,000 bonus.

Next Steps for States

No simple solution can ensure that all students have access to quality teachers. State recruitment strategies need to be integrated into long-term, comprehensive initiatives that address both the supply and quality of the teaching workforce. The following suggestions can help state policymakers and education leaders to begin this process:

Gather data on teacher supply and demand

Most states do not systematically collect and analyze data to help state policymakers and local education leaders determine recruitment and hiring needs. Recruiting New Teachers, Inc. has identified some basic information that should be included in state data collection efforts:

Estimate the number of teachers needed based on attrition, student demographics, and retirement.
Identify diversity needs based on how well teaching staffs reflect the diversity of the student population.
Anticipate attrition rates of new teachers.
Assess the number of candidates coming from traditional and alternative sources of teachers, such as graduates from local universities, "grow your own" programs, recruitment programs aimed at underrepresented groups, and mid-career professionals, etc.

Along with state data collection, regional or national data collection also can help assess teacher shortages. Working together, states with an oversupply of educators in one subject area could help teachers find good jobs in states with severe shortages. But this sort of interstate cooperation is impractical without addressing barriers to teacher mobility, such as restrictions on licensure reciprocity and pension portability.

Integrate recruitment initiatives into comprehensive strategies to address teacher quality

Most states have initiated reforms aimed at strengthening the quality of teachers. In some states, these efforts are part of broad systemic efforts to link K-12 and postsecondary education. Recruitment initiatives should be integrated into this work. Formalized partnerships between higher education and K-12 schools will increase cross-sector communication and ensure that institutions are preparing teachers in grade levels and subject areas of particular need. Moreover, effective collaboration will support a seamless system of teacher preparation, recruitment, induction, and professional development that will benefit both K-12 and higher education systems.

Evaluate recruitment policies based on data and modify practices based on what works

Despite the numerous state strategies described in this brief, little is known about how effective they are at recruiting and retaining quality teachers. Constructive program evaluation will allow states to identify and eliminate ineffective efforts and scale up promising practices.

Conclusion

In 1997, the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future outlined an "audacious plan" to ensure a competent, caring and qualified teacher for every child. While keen interest to expand the supply of good teachers is apparent in the recent high volume of state recruitment policies, significant challenges still exist. This brief highlights many bold and innovative strategies to build the pipeline of qualified teachers and the special efforts to place them in schools and subjects that historically have been difficult to staff.

These actions, however, may not yield the most effective results without thoughtful planning. Comprehensive data collection and analysis on teacher supply and demand, integration of recruitment efforts into well-developed state teacher quality initiatives, and evaluation and modification of strategies based on evidence of success will help to ensure that states' interests are met and the "audacious" goal for quality teachers is achieved.

Additional information on the web:

Recruiting New Teachers

Education Week

National Commission on Teaching and America's Future

North Carolina Teaching Fellows Program

South Carolina Teacher Teaching Fellows Program

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