Guaranteed income (GI) pilots are increasing in popularity in cities and counties nationwide to improve compensation for early educators. By design, GI pilots focus on providing direct cash to participants with no strings attached. Direct cash is also a strategy sometimes used in early care and education (ECE) to increase income and help talented…

Recognizing the pressing problem of low teacher retention in urban schools, this qualitative study explores how two post-baccalaureate teacher education programs at the same university prepare candidates to persist in the profession. Through data analysis, it became clear that graduates of the Urban Teacher Residency program approached their…

Purpose: The purpose of this action research study was to design, implement and evaluate interventions that enhanced the induction program for new teachers in a P-12 school district. At the outset, we hoped the study would provide new teacher support resulting in improved teaching practices, increased job satisfaction and/or increased teacher…

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…

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…

Early career teacher attrition is a matter of economic, social, and educational concern in many countries. Usually induction programs, including mentoring, are seen to alleviate the problem of early career teacher attrition. Mentoring/induction programs as a solution to what is defined as the problem of early career teacher attrition and retention…

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…

Performance pay plans for teachers are a hot topic across the nation, so the country's largest program is bound to attract attention. But caution is advised. This is a state-sponsored program evaluation of Texas' most recent incentive pay program rather than research, and it suffers from two major constraints: data not collected and questions not…

District Awards for Teacher Excellence (D.A.T.E.) is a state-funded program in Texas that provides grants to districts for the implementation of locally-designed incentive pay plans. All districts in the state are eligible to receive grants, but participation is voluntary. D.A.T.E. incentive pay plans were first implemented in Texas districts…

The Quality Child Care Initiative, the federal apprenticeship program applied to the field of early care and education, has been implemented in over 40 states. This federal initiative was designed to reduce turnover, increase wages, provide a more stable environment for children, and lower the concern of parents. Rhode Island received funding in…

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…

A recent report published by the National Center on Performance Incentives (NCPI) presents findings from the second-year of a multi-year evaluation of the Texas Educator Excellence Grant (TEEG) program, a statewide educator incentive program that operated in Texas. As part of this larger study, evaluators examined how participation in the TEEG…

Pay for performance is a popular public education reform, and millions of dollars are currently being targeted for pay for performance programs. These reforms are popular because economic and management theories suggest that well-designed incentive pay programs could improve teacher effectiveness. There is little evidence about the characteristics…

In U.S. K-12 public education, incentive pay for educators remains firmly fixed as a high-interest policy topic and has recently become a popular reform initiative in many school systems. The Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF), created in 2006 by the U.S. Department of Education, is at the forefront of this policy movement and has provided hundreds of…