PREPARATION,
RECRUITMENT, AND RETENTION OF TEACHERS
James M. Cooper
Amy Alvarado
CONNECTING
PREPARATION, RECRUITMENT, AND RETENTION
The preparation, recruitment, and retention of
teachers are interrelated, but typically there is no policy framework that links
them together in a coherent fashion and that is connected to national and state
educational goals and standards.
International
context
The preparation, recruitment, and retention of teachers can be viewed as
a pipeline that springs leaks over time. In many developing countries, the
number of new teachers cannot keep up with population growth. In Western
countries, where suffi cient
numbers of teachers are prepared, many newly prepared teachers either choose
not to teach at all or leave teaching within a few years. In the
Research findings
Until the early 2000s in the
Policy
implications
Although the challenges of implementing a policy framework that links
teacher preparation, teacher recruitment, and teacher
retention are great, they must be met. Some of the more important of these
challenges have been listed below:
• Align teacher preparation with the needs of diverse learners, content
standards, and contemporary classrooms.
• Simplify and streamline hiring processes so teachers are not
discouraged from teaching, particularly in “hard-to-staff” schools.
• Ensure that all new teachers participate in quality induction and
mentoring programmes.
• Address working conditions so that schools become learning communities
for both educators and students.
• Reinvent professional development for teachers so that it supports
sustained growth and is organized around standards for accomplished teaching.
• Ensure better pay for teachers who demonstrate knowledge and skills
that contribute to improved student achievement.
• Design incentives for increasing the diversity of the teaching force
and for teaching in critical shortage areas.
To create and maintain an effective policy framework aimed at teacher
quality, governments must develop and use a system for collecting data to
inform policymakers of the results of various policy initiatives. Policy
coherence is difficult enough when policymakers are dispersed among separate
jurisdictions. However, without effective data gathering and analysis, policy
coherence is virtually impossible. Many of the issues touched upon in this principle
have been elaborated in the five principles that follow.
Sources
Cobb (1999); Darling-Hammond,
TEACHER SUPPLY AND
DEMAND
The teacher supply and demand balance is affected by
policy considerations, local labour market
conditions, institutional practices, and societal attitudes toward teaching.
International
context
In some countries (for example, the United Kingdom,
Research findings
Keeping the supply and demand of quality teachers balanced requires a
consideration of several factors. There are three major components of teacher
demand: pupil enrolment, pupil-teacher ratios, and turnover. With respect to
pupil-teacher ratio, for example, these ratios have slowly declined over the
years in several Western countries, particularly in primary grades. In
contrast, the ratio of primary pupils to teachers is three times higher in the
least developed countries than in developed ones. As important as enrollment
and pupil-teacher ratios are, however, the demand for teachers in any given
year is affected most by teacher turnover (see Issue 5). The supply of teachers
also depends on several factors, including the number of students graduating
from teacher preparation programmes, the proportion of these students who
choose to enter teaching, the number of teachers licensed through alternative
programmes, and the number of returnees from the reserve pool of teachers, including
retired teachers. Other factors influencing the supply of teachers include
salaries and benefits, working conditions, difficulty of licensure standards,
presence or absence of incentives to attract teachers, and public perception of
teaching as a profession. In Western countries, the supply of teachers is less
an issue of numbers than one of teaching field and distribution. For example,
the
Policy
implications
Governments should continue to experiment with various strategies for
attracting high calibre teachers, especially since
the research base is not strong enough to rule out particular approaches.
Increasing teacher salaries is not likely to attract people into teaching who
don’t have the “calling.” However, adequate salaries to support a family and to
save money for children’s education are likely to keep teachers who do heed the
calling. All new teachers, whether graduates of traditional or alternative
programmes, should be held to high academic and performance standards. It makes
no sense to strengthen the requirements for college-based teacher education
programmes, while at the same time ignoring standards for those coming through
alternative licensure programmes.
Based on the review of teacher recruitment initiatives, the following
practices are effective and should be considered by policymakers.
• Collect and analyze data on the supply and demand of teachers at
national, state, and local levels to direct recruitment efforts.
• Cast a “wide net” in recruiting, including targeting secondary school
students, paraprofessionals already working in schools, and mid-career
professionals in other fields.
• Develop multiple pathways to becoming teachers while maintaining high
standards for all new teachers.
• Develop a comprehensive, research-based strategy to recruitment,
rather than multiple initiatives that may not relate to each other nor fit with
other initiatives.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of these initiatives, including the
effectiveness of teacher recruits and their retention.
Sources
TEACHER
RECRUITMENT
A variety of teacher recruitment strategies should be
employed to expand the teacher pool and improve the pipeline into teaching.
International
context
Internationally, recruiting quality teachers is a problem due primarily
to the low status of teaching (as evidenced in some countries by very low
salaries) and the lack of appeal found in the profession. In a study of ten
Asia- Pacific countries,
Research findings
Although sufficient numbers of teachers graduate from teacher
preparation programmes each year, teacher shortages exist in part because
graduates either do not enter teaching, or a significant number of those who do
enter leave within three to five years. To combat this shortage, as well as to
address the issue of bringing greater diversity and quality into the teaching
profession, a variety of teacher recruitment strategies need to be employed at
various points in the education pipeline. Teacher recruitment can begin at the
secondary school level. Secondary school students can participate
in Future Teacher or Future Educator clubs, internships, or formal coursework
in pedagogy and/or educational foundations. Efforts made at the secondary
school level address another important recruitment issue; namely, attracting high
quality and diverse students into teaching. University settings provide another
opportunity for teacher recruitment. Examples include forgivable loans and
scholarships, paid internships in school systems, and opportunities to work
toward an advanced degree through five-year programmes. Partnerships between schools
and universities can provide incentives that are helpful in attracting teacher
candidates. Such incentives include bonus or salary increments for teachers
willing to teach in hard-to-staff schools, earlier job offerings, and
streamlined job application processes. Many of these programmes attempt to
counteract the reasons that pre-service teachers give for not entering the
teaching profession. Paraprofessionals are another group of potential recruits.
These adults, currently working in schools, have the advantage of already
knowing the school and the students. They tend to come from diverse backgrounds
and are familiar with the social and cultural contexts in which students live.
Programmes for paraprofessionals include financial assistance to pursue a
degree, academic and social supports including work with a cohort of other paraprofessionals
and faculty mentors, and flexible teaching arrangements which allow them to
continue working in their current positions while taking classes and fulfilling
practicum requirements. Mid-career, post-baccalaureate professionals working in
other fields (for example, private industry, and the military) provide a fourth
arena for teacher recruitment. Programmes geared toward this group often focus
on hard to- staff fields such as science and mathematics as well as hard-to-staff
schools. Participants in these programmes may be seeking to change careers or
have retired from one career and are interested in teaching as a second career.
Many enter teaching through alternative licensure programmes. Although some
view these programmes as “back door” routes into teaching that are less
rigorous than other programmes and that lead to less-than-high quality
teachers, these programmes can be quite effective provided that they “provide
options to the traditional undergraduate teacher education programme without lowering
existing standards” (Darling-Hammond, Berry, Haselkorn,
and Fideler, 1999, p. 208).
Policy
Implications
There are three policy areas related to teacher recruitment: school-university
partnerships, recruiting teachers for hard-to-staff subjects and schools, and
using two-year colleges. There are several advantages of school-university
partnerships. They can enhance pre-collegiate recruitment efforts by providing
secondary students with early opportunities to engage in teaching experiences
and take courses aimed at understanding the profession. They can also provide
opportunities for paid internships and early employment as well as signing
bonuses for agreeing to teach in hard-to-staff areas or schools. School-university
partnerships have been found to be successful in recruiting new teachers into
the profession, particularly recruitment into hard-to-staff subjects and
schools. These partnerships make it possible to use incentives such as
scholarships and forgivable loans. These incentives encourage students to
attend college and, specifically, to enter teacher preparation programmes. Two-year
colleges (for example, community colleges, technical colleges) can be important
players in the recruitment-preparation sequence. For the sequence to be
operative, however, there must be clear articulation agreements between
programmes at two-year colleges and teacher preparation programmes at four-year
universities. These agreements allow for smoother transitions for students and
help the programmes fit together more seamlessly.
Sources
American Council on Education (1999); Bolam (1995); Bristor, Kinzer, Lapp, & Ridener
(2002); Darling-
TEACHER
PREPARATION
Effective teacher preparation programmes, both
traditional and alternative, must include high standards for entry and require
strong content preparation, substantial pedagogical training, and supervised
clinical experiences in schools.
International
context
There is great diversity in teacher preparation programmes internationally
depending in large part on the economic, political, and social contexts that
exist within each country. In countries such as
Research findings
There are four components of teacher preparation programmes that
contribute to their effectiveness. The first is the existence of high standards
for entry. Over the past two decades, there have been increases in the entry-level
qualifications of students enrolling in teacher education programmes, both in
terms of undergraduate grade point average and standardized test scores. The
second and third components of effective teacher education programmes are
strong content (subject matter) preparation and substantial pedagogical
training. Heated debates have occurred as to the relative importance of these
two areas, but essentially both are keys to effective preparation. In terms of
content preparation, most researchers believe in the importance of solid
subject matter knowledge. However, the idea that more content is better is not
always necessarily true. Rather, there may be a point after which additional
content courses produce minimal value. What seems to be needed is not necessarily
more content preparation but rather having sufficient knowledge of content to
teach it well. In addition, teachers need to know how to organize and present
the content in a way that makes it accessible for increasingly diverse groups
of learners. Shulman (1987) calls this knowledge,
“pedagogical content knowledge.” The link between content and pedagogical
knowledge shapes teachers’ decisions about materials, instructional approaches,
and assessment. In addition to pedagogical content knowledge, teachers must
possess general pedagogical knowledge, including competencies in the areas of
classroom management and discipline. To ensure that subject matter expertise
and pedagogical expertise receive sufficient emphasis, many programmes in the
Policy
implications
High standards of quality for teacher preparation programmes are the key
to preparing high quality teachers for our schools. Although teacher shortages
require implementation of a variety of recruiting strategies, it is essential
that all teacher preparation programmes contain high entry standards, a
combination of subject matter preparation and pedagogical training, and a long term,
supervised clinical practicum. Additionally, more research is needed on efforts
to combine subject matter and pedagogical preparation by having teachers in
various university departments work together to
enhance teacher development. Quality teacher preparation is not the sole
responsibility of Colleges of Education; faculty in a variety of departments
throughout the university must be involved.
Sources
Allen (2003); American Council on Education (1999); Ben-Peretz (1995); Bristor, Kinzer, Lapp, & Ridener (2002);
Cobb (1999); Coleman & DeBey (2000); Darling- Hammond
(2000); Darling-Hammond (1997); Galluzzo & Arends (1989); Jarrar (2002); Kolstad, Coker, & Kolstad (1996);
Morris & Williamson (2000); Shulman (1987); Wilson,
Floden, & Ferrini-Mundy
(2001); Hanushek and Rivkin
(2004).
TEACHER RETENTION
Teachers are primarily attracted to teaching by
intrinsic motivation, but extrinsic factors play a major role in retaining
them.
International
context
With the exception of the United Kingdom and the United States, where
from 30 to 50 percent of teachers leave within the first three to fi ve years, overall attrition
rates in many other developed countries are low to negligible: Germany (less
than 5 percent); France (insignificant); Hong Kong SAR (less than 10 percent);
Australia (18 percent for female teachers in the age group 25-29 years of age;
only data available); and Portugal (insignificant). Because the student
population in some of these countries (
Research findings
Most teachers choose to enter teaching because they believe that
teaching is important work and contributes significantly to society. An
overwhelming majority of new teachers in the
Policy
implications
While policy efforts are often directed to the supply side of the
equation, school staffing problems are primarily the result of the demand
created by teachers leaving for reasons other than retirement. Since the
primary cause of teacher turnover seems to be due to poor or difficult working
conditions, changing the culture of schools should be the primary target of
policy efforts. This cultural change would involve the creation of learning
communities – schools that are learner-centered, assessment-centered, knowledge-centered,
and community-centered. Schools should be places that support learning by
teachers, as well as students. According to Ingersoll (2001), cultural change
would “contribute to lower rates of turnover, thus diminish school staffing
problems, and ultimately aid the performance of schools.”
Sources
Darling-Hammond & Sclan
(1996); Darling-Hammond,
INDUCTION AND
MENTORING PROGRAMMES
Induction support, including well designed mentoring
programmes, can improve retention rates for new teachers.
International
context
International interest in teacher induction has existed since the 1960s,
but only in a relatively few countries. Research conducted since the 1980s has
focused on five areas: (a) mentors for novice teachers; (b) release time for
both novices and mentors; (c) planned, schoolbased support
activities; (d) planned, external support activities; and (e) increased
administrative support. In general, when retention is a greater problem,
induction receives greater emphasis.
Research findings
One approach to stemming the high attrition rates in teaching is to
redefine novice teacher needs. Consistent with recent research, the fi rst years of teaching need to
be viewed as a phase of learning that follows and builds on the learning that
occurred prior to entry into the profession. If teachers receive no support
during this time, one of two outcomes typically occurs. First, the teacher may
leave the profession (attrition) or transfer to other schools in search of
support (migration). Second, the teacher may stay in the profession but learn
poor practices in an attempt to cope with his or her struggles. Although novice
teachers indicate that induction support is important in their development as
teachers, there is a great deal of disparity in terms of both the quality and accessibility
of induction programmes found in schools. Three reasons can be given for this
variability.
• The criteria for participation in mentoring programmes are variable,
especially in situations where the programmes are not adequately funded.
• The criteria for the qualifications and support of mentors are also
diverse, resulting in a wide variety of expertise.
• The structure of mentoring programmes is varied and is rarely set up
in such a way as to be most accessible and convenient for novices or their
mentors.
Effective induction programmes must address these areas if they are to
meet novice teachers’ needs and improve retention rates. Rather than focus on “fix-it”
approaches to specific problems (for example, classroom management), effective induction
programmes should focus on the subject-specific pedagogical strategies needed
by novice teachers to promote and foster student learning. Improving
instruction and student learning often proactively addresses the classroom
management issues experienced by many new teachers. To focus on such
pedagogical issues with novice teachers, mentoring programmes need to be
structured to accommodate professional discourse. Mentors need to be selected
based on high quality standards and trained to analyze and evaluate instruction
effectively and conduct discussions about their findings with novices.
Effective mentor programmes also include common planning time for mentors and novices
as well as release time available to both teachers so that each can observe in
the other’s classroom. Finally, incentives should be provided to mentors in an
effort to encourage high quality teachers to participate in the programme.
Mentor programmes that provide incentives for attracting mentors and for
quality mentor training tend to be more effective. High quality induction
programmes are effective in providing the support needed by novice teachers
during their first years of teaching. Novice teachers indicate that where such
programmes are supported and financed, the guidance offered them has increased
the likelihood that they will remain in teaching.
Policy
implications
It takes several years to become an effective teacher. Unfortunately,
many novice teachers leave the profession much too early. The following
recommendations are intended to change this pattern. The first is funding
research on models of developmentally staged supervision and induction. Support
for teachers that enables them to move along the developmental continuum is
also important. The second is funding the development of effective
mentor/induction programmes and quality assessments of these programmes.
Because student learning is the ultimate goal of classroom instruction, the
assessment of mentoring programmes must include the monitoring of student
learning. When funding for induction programmes is on a par with that provided
for recruitment of new teachers, both teachers and the educational system
benefit. The time, effort, and money necessary to mentor novice teachers are substantial.
Fortunately, the rewards in terms of teacher retention are also substantial.
Investing in the short term yields long-term payoffs in terms of higher quality
teachers who remain in the profession longer.
Sources
Bolam (1995); Darling-Hammond (2003);
Darling- Hammond (1997); Darling-Hammond, Berry, Haselkorn,
& Fideler (1999); Darling-Hammond & Sclan (1996);Feiman-Nemser
(2003); Gold (1996); Hirsch, Koppich, & Knapp
(2001); Ingersoll (2001a,b); Ingersoll & Smith (2003); Morris &
Williamson (2000).
REFERENCES AND
SOURCES OF INFORMATION
Allen, M. (2003). Eight
questions on teacher preparation: what does the research say?
American Council on Education. (1999). To touch the future: Transforming the way teachers
are taught.
Ben-Peretz, M.
(1995). Curriculum of teacher education programmes. In L.W. Anderson (Ed.), The international encyclopedia of teaching and
teacher education.
Bolam, R. (1995). Teacher
recruitment and induction. In L.W. Anderson (Ed.), The
international encyclopedia of teaching and teacher education.
Bristor, V.J., Kinzer, S., Lapp, S., & Ridener,
B. (2002). The teacher education alliance (TEA): A model teacher preparation
program for the twenty-fi rst
century. Education, 122 (4), 688-699.
Cobb, V. L. (1999). An international comparison of
teacher education.
Coleman, D. & DeBey, M. (2000). Weaving teacher education into the fabric of a liberal arts
education. Kappa Delta Pi Record, 36 (3), 116-120.
Darling-Hammond, L. (1997). Doing what
matters most.
Darling-Hammond, L. (2000). Reforming teacher
preparation and licensing: Debating the evidence. Teachers CollegeRecord, 102 (1), 28-56.
Darling-Hammond, L. (2003). Keeping good
teachers: Why it matters, what leaders can do. Educational
Leadership, 60 (8), 6-13.
Darling-Hammond, L.,
Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Darling-Hammond, L. & Sclan, E. (1996). Who teaches and why.
In J. Sikula, T. Buttery, &
Delpit, L. (1995). Other
peoples’ children: Cultural conflict in the classroom.
Farkas, S., Johnson, J.,
& Foleno, T. (2000). A sense of calling: Who
teaches and why.
Feiman-Nemser,
S. (2003). What new teachers need to learn. Educational
Leadership, 60 (8), 25-29.
Galluzzo,
G. & Arends, R. (1989). The RATE project:
A profile of teacher education institutions. Journal of Teacher Education,
41, 56-58.
Genzuk,
M. & Baca, R. (1998). The paraeducator-to-teacher
pipeline: A 5-year retrospective on an innovative teacher preparation program
for
Gold, Y. (1996). Beginning teacher
support: Attrition, mentoring, and induction. In J. Sikula,
T. Buttery, &
Hallak, J. (2000).
Education: Quality counts too. OECD Observer. Retrieved March 31, 2005
from http: //www.oecdobserver.org/news/fullstory.php/aid/367/Education:quality_counts_too.html
Hanushek, E.A., Kain, J.F., & Rivkin, S.G.
(in press). Why public schools lose teachers. Journal of
Human Resources.
Hanushek,
E.A. & Rivkin, S.G. (2004). How to improve the supply of high quality teachers. In D. Ravitch (Ed.), Brookings Papers on Education Policy 2004
(pp. 7-25).Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.
Haycock, K. (1998). Good teaching
matters…A lot. Thinking K-16, 3 (2), 3-14.
Hirsch, E., Koppich,
J., & Knapp, M. (2001). Revisiting what states are doing to
improve the quality of teaching: An update on patterns and trends.
Hunter-Boykin, H.S. (1992). Responses to the African- American teacher
shortage: “We grow our own” through the teacher preparation program at
Ingersoll, R. (1997). Teacher turnover and teacher quality: The
recurring myth of teacher shortages. Teachers College Record, 99 (1),
41-44.
Ingersoll, R. (2001a). A different approach to
solving the teacher shortage problem.
Ingersoll, R. (2001b). Teacher turnover, teacher
shortages, and the organization of schools.
Ingersoll, R. & Smith, T. (2003). The wrong solution to the teacher shortage. Educational
Leadership, 60 (8), 30-33.
Kolstad,
R.K., Coker, D.R., & Kolstad, R.A. (1996). Examining the excellence of German schools and their teacher preparation
program. Education, 117, 280-284.
Ladson-Billings, G. (1994). The dreamkeepers:
Successful teachers for African American children.
Liu, E.; Kardos, S.; Kauffman, D.; Peske, H.; & Johnson, S. (2000). Barely
breaking even: incentives, rewards, and the high costs of choosing to teach.
Retrieved March 31, 2005from
http://www.gse.harvard.edu/~ngt/Barely%20Breaking%20Even%200700.pdf
McNeil. L. (1988). Contradictions of control: School structure
and school knowledge.
Morris, P., &Williamson, J. (2000). Teacher
education in the Asia-Pacific region: A comparative study.
National Commission on Teaching and
National Commission on Teaching and
Nieto, S. (2000). Affirming diversity: The sociopolitical context of multicultural
education.
Recruiting New Teachers, Inc. (2002). Tapping
potential: Community college students and
Shulman, L. S. (1987).
Knowledge and teaching: Foundations of the new reform. Harvard Educational
Review, 57, 1-22.
Siniscalco, M. T. (2002). A statistical profile of the teaching profession.
Smith, T., & Ingersoll, R. (2003,
April). Reducing teacher turnover: Do induction and mentoring programs help?
Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research
Association,
Snyder, T., & Hoffman, C. (2001). Digest of
Education Statistics 2001.
Stoel,
C., & Thant, T. (2002). Teachers’ professional lives: A view
from nine industrialized countries.
Villegas-Reimers,
E. & Reimers, F. (2000). The
professional development of teachers as lifelong learners: Models, practices
and factors that influence it. Paper presented at the meeting of the Board
on International Comparative Studies in Education (BICSE) of the National
Research Council,
Voke, H.(2002,
May 29). Understanding and responding to the teacher
shortage. ASCD Infobrief.
Wilson, S.; Ferrini-Mundy,
J., & Floden, R. (2001). Teacher
preparation research: Current knowledge, gaps, and recommendations.
Yasin,
S., & Albert, B. (1999). Minority teacher recruitment and
retention: A national imperative.
Prof. James M. Cooper,Professor Emeritus from the
Dr. (Ms.) Amy Alvarado, Assistant Professor at the