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Contemporary educational theory holds that one of the pivotal causes of inadequate school performance is the inability of schools to adequately staff classrooms with qualified teachers ... [and] that these school staffing problems are primarily due to shortages of teachers, which, in turn, are primarily due to recent increases in teacher retirements and student enrollments. This analysis investigates the possibility that there are other factors - those tied to the organizational characteristics and conditions of schools - that are driving teachers turnover and, in turn, school staffing problems. ... The results [of 2 surveys] indicate that school staffing problems are not primarily due to teacher shortages, in the technical sense of an insufficient supply of qualified teachers. Rather, the data indicate that school staffing problems are primarily due to excess demand resulting from a \"revolving door\" - where large numbers of qualified teachers depart their jobs for reasons other than retirement. Moreover, the data show that the amount of turnover accounted for by retirement is relatively minor when compared to that associated with other factors, such as teacher job dissatisfaction and teachers pursuing other jobs. (DIPF/ Orig.)

This review critically examines 15 empirical studies, conducted since the mid1980s, on the effects of support, guidance, and orientation programs—collectively known as induction—for beginning teachers. Most of the studies reviewed provide empirical support for the claim that support and assistance for beginning teachers have a positive impact on three sets of outcomes: teacher commitment and retention, teacher classroom instructional practices, and student achievement. Of the studies on commitment and retention, most showed that beginning teachers who participated in induction showed positive impacts. For classroom instructional practices, the majority of studies reviewed showed that beginning teachers who participated in some kind of induction performed better at various aspects of teaching, such as keeping students on task, using effective student questioning practices, adjusting classroom activities to meet students 'interests, maintaining a positive classroom atmosphere, and demonstrating successful classroom management. For student achievement, almost all of the studies showed that students of beginning teachers who participated in induction had higher scores, or gains, on academic achievement tests. There were, however, exceptions to this overall pattern—in particular a large randomized controlled trial of induction in a sample of large, urban, low-income schools—which found some significant positive effects on student achievement but no effects on either teacher retention or teachers' classroom practices. The review closes by attempting to reconcile these contradictory findings and by identifying gaps in the research base and relevant questions that have not been addressed and warrant further research.

Induction support programs for beginning teachers is an education reform whose time has come. The national data indicate that over the past couple of decades the number of beginning teachers has ballooned in the U.S. Simultaneously, there has been a large increase in the number of states, districts, and schools offering induction programs. Importantly, the data also indicate that induction can help retain teachers, improve their instruction and their students' achievement. However, the data also tell us that the kinds and amounts of support greatly vary, and research suggests the effects depend on how much induction one gets and for how long. (Contains 3 tables.)

This study examines the magnitude, destinations, and determinants of mathematics and science teacher turnover. The data are from the nationally representative Schools and Staffing Survey and the Teacher Follow-Up Survey. Over the past two decades, rates of mathematics and science teacher turnover have increased but, contrary to conventional wisdom, have not been consistently different than those of other teachers. Also, contrary to conventional wisdom, mathematics and science teachers were also no more likely than other teachers to take noneducation jobs, such as in technological fields or to be working for private business or industry. The data also show there are large school-to-school differences in mathematics and science turnover; high-poverty, high-minority, and urban public schools have among the highest rates. In the case of cross-school migration, the data show there is an annual asymmetric reshuffling of a significant portion of the mathematics and science teaching force from poor to not-poor schools, from high-minority to low-minority schools, and from urban to suburban schools. A number of key organizational characteristics and conditions of schools accounted for these school differences. The strongest factor for mathematics teachers was the degree of individual classroom autonomy held by teachers. Net of other factors such as salaries, schools with less classroom autonomy lose math teachers at a far higher rate than other teachers. In contrast, for science teachers salary was the strongest factor, while classroom autonomy was not strongly related to their turnover.

There is much alarm about the current teacher shortage resulting from the pandemic and its aftermath. But teacher shortages have long been a perennial issue in K-12 education. Researchers Richard Ingersoll and Henry Tran analyzed data from the National Center of Education Statistics to compare rural schools to urban and suburban schools to understand their teacher staffing problems. They found that rural teacher shortages are worse than elsewhere and are driven by teacher turnover and hence won’t be solved just by focusing on new teacher recruitment. High-poverty rural schools and rural schools with high levels of students of color face the most extreme teacher turnover of all schools, experiencing departures of between a quarter and a third of teachers annually. Their reasons for leaving include lack of classroom autonomy and the inability to be included in schoolwide decision making.

This study seeks to empirically ground the debate over mathematics and science teacher shortages and evaluate the extent to which there is, or is not, sufficient supply of teachers in these fields. The authors' analyses of nationally representative data from multiple sources show that math and science are the fields most difficult to staff, but the factors behind these problems are complex. There are multiple sources of new teachers; those with education degrees are a minor source compared to those with degrees in math and science and the reserve pool. Over the past two decades, graduation requirements, student course taking, and teacher retirements have all increased for math and science, yet the new supply has more than kept pace. However, when preretirement teacher attrition is factored in, there is a much tighter balance between supply and demand. Unlike fields such as English, for math and science, there is not a large cushion of new supply relative to losses—resulting in staffing problems in schools with higher turnover

In recent years there has been an increase in the number of programs offering support, guidance, and orientation for beginning teachers during the transition into their first teaching job. This study examines whether such programs - collectively known as induction - have a positive effect on the retention of beginning teachers. The data used in the analysis are from the nationally representative 1999-2000 Schools and Staffing Survey. The results indicate that beginning teachers who were provided with mentors from the same subject field and who participated in collective induction activities, such as planning and collaboration with other teachers, were less likely to move to other schools and less likely to leave the teaching occupation after their first year of teaching. (DIPF/Orig.).

This research examines national data on the status of the minority teacher shortage--the low proportion of minority teachers in comparison to the increasing numbers of students of color in schools. The authors show that efforts over recent decades to recruit more minority teachers, and place them in disadvantaged schools, have been very successful. But, these efforts have also been undermined because minority teachers have lower retention--largely because of poor working conditions in their schools. (Contains 2 figures.)

Empirical research on the supply and demand of math and science teachers finds some surprising results. The employment of qualified math and science teachers has more than kept pace with the demand, and most schools find qualified teachers for those positions. However, about a third of public schools--particularly high-poverty, high-minority, and urban public schools--have difficulty finding math and science teachers. This is caused by the high rates of teacher turnover in these schools. (Contains 3 figures.)