The United States is experiencing a critical teacher shortage impacting public schools in all regions. Unfortunately, high teacher attrition rates can contribute to educational inequity for students, creating situations in which some students receive a higher quality education than others. Unfortunately, teacher attrition tends to be most…

Purpose: Research in this field is becoming increasingly clear that a teacher residency program (TRP) has a strong potential for developing effective teachers in a teacher preparation context. There are specific features of a TRP that yield results in the development of teachers. However, there are often barriers to full implementation of a TRP…

This article documents a collaborative effort between university teacher educators and an urban school district in Wisconsin to address acute teacher shortages in bilingual education. The effort took shape as a Grow-Your-Own program based on the teacher residency model. Several innovations were required in program design and implementation to…

Discussing the topic of special education teacher shortages across the United States has become commonplace. Although more widespread, special education teacher shortages in rural areas have gained less attention. Teachers in these areas face unique challenges such as overcoming geographic barriers to providing high-quality services, the isolation…

Teacher residencies have been an ongoing discussion in the educator preparation world for nearly a decade. This paper describes a promising practice in program design at a university that offers alternative pathways to licensure to meet the demands of school districts, especially in economically disadvantaged communities in one region of the…

Underserved schools often have fewer resources and less capacity to rigorously implement improvement strategies. As a result, the districts and schools that most need support programs are often least likely to adopt and implement them successfully--a phenomenon that we call the "needs paradox." To address the needs paradox, we created…

In 2007, the Multilingual/Multicultural Teacher Preparation Center, a teacher education program, was featured in a "Teacher Education Quarterly," 34(4), special issue on diversifying the teaching workforce. Though this center has since ended due to the disbandment of the Bilingual/Multicultural Education Department, this commentary…

Recruitment and retention challenges are once again leading to teacher shortages across the nation. Especially in urban and rural school districts, low salaries and poor working conditions often contribute to the difficulties of recruiting and keeping teachers, as can the challenges of the work itself. As a consequence, in many schools--especially…

Recruitment and retention challenges are once again leading to teacher shortages across the nation. Especially in urban and rural school districts, low salaries and poor working conditions often contribute to the difficulties of recruiting and keeping teachers, as can the challenges of the work itself. As a consequence, in many schools--especially…

The purpose of this chapter is to digest the core chapters of this volume, which draws together some of the most sophisticated thinking on new teacher induction from the last decade. This chapter attends to five key understandings about induction programs, including their context, design, implementation, and outcomes. These understandings emerge…

In this webinar, Ellen Moir, CEO and founder of the New Teacher Center, shared research that shows evidence of the effectiveness of the NTC induction model in raising student achievement and its potential for reducing teacher attrition (Moir, 2009). This Q&A addressed the questions participants had for Ellen Moir following the webinar. The…

The National Middle School Association (NMSA) has long offered excellent guidance on the education of young adolescents in the "This We Believe" series, and by extension, for the education of educators of young adolescents. With many districts facing shortages of qualified teachers, having difficulty retaining those they have, and with an…

State oversight for teacher preparation programs mostly ignores the impact of graduates on the K-12 students they teach, and it gives little attention to where graduates teach or how long they remain in the profession. There is no evidence that current state policies hold programs to high standards in order to produce teachers who can help…

Our current system for holding U.S. teacher education programs accountable doesn't guarantee program quality or serve the needs of schools and students. State oversight for teacher preparation programs mostly ignores the impact of graduates on the K-12 students they teach, and it gives little attention to where graduates teach or how long they…

SMAR[squared]T: Science and Mathematics Academy for the Recruitment and Retention of Teachers is an NSF-funded project for the alternative certification of science and mathematics teachers. Since 2003, we have recruited 4 cohorts of students for 2 different routes to postbaccalaureate teacher certification for teaching grades 5-12. Because we did…