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The U.S. has witnessed a resurgence of labor activism, with teachers at the forefront. We examine how teacher strikes affect compensation, working conditions, and productivity with an original dataset of 772 teacher strikes generating 48 million student days idle between 2007 and 2023. Using an event study framework, we find that, on average, strikes increase compensation by 8% and lower pupil-teacher ratios by 0.5 students, driven by new state revenues. We find little evidence of sizable impacts on student achievement up to five years post-strike, though strikes lasting 10 or more days decrease math achievement in the short-term.

The expansion of early childhood education (ECE) and increased spending have benefited children and supported families. However, these investments have not addressed inequities within the ECE workforce. ECE providers face economic insecurity, earning an average of $14 per hour, which is below a living wage. In rural communities, this median wage drops to $11.42, and in Tennessee, it is even lower at under $10 per hour. Women of color, especially in rural areas, are disproportionately affected by poor compensation and benefits. To address these issues, this project partners with an organization called Tennessee Early Childhood Training Alliance (TECTA) to understand the experiences of ECE providers in an effort to raise awareness of: (1) the benefits of the TECTA program and the resources they provide; (2) the key challenges and barriers they navigate on the pathway to their education; and (3) the need for program expansion to enable opportunities for social and economic mobility. This study underscores the need for systemic changes to support ECE providers, particularly in rural areas and other marginalized communities. By addressing economic insecurity, professional recognition, training disparities, and policy inconsistencies, we can create a more equitable and effective ECE workforce.

The United States is facing growing teacher shortages that may disproportionately affecting schools serving high proportions of students of color, low-income students, and those in rural or urban areas. Special education teachers (SETs) are particularly in demand. Each year, nearly half of all vacancies are filled with teachers switching from one school to another, yet little research has addressed the nuances of within-career sorting, especially by subject. Utilizing longitudinal data covering 27 years and over 1.2 million teachers in Texas, this study examines SET switching patterns relative to core subject teachers, utilizing discrete time hazard modeling, fixed-effect regressions, and geographic information system mapping. Results show SETs switch schools at much higher rates, associated with experience, salary, and student demographics, yet generally transfer shorter distances than their peers. These findings highlight differential subject-specific labor market dynamics, suggesting targeted recruitment and retention strategies to address widespread shortages.

This report explores the dramatic increase in Head Start teacher turnover during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using data from the Head Start Program Information Report (PIR) from 2010 to 2022, the study investigates trends in teacher turnover across all Head Start program types and examines the reasons behind teacher departures. The report finds that teacher turnover surged significantly in both 2020-21 and 2021-22, with the 2021-22 year experiencing a particularly sharp increase exceeding 28% of teachers. Turnover rates varied by program type, with Early Head Start programs exhibiting higher turnover than traditional Head Start programs, and American Indian Alaska Native (AIAN) Early Head Start programs seeing the highest rate at 37.1%. The study reveals that compensation remains the most common reason cited for teachers' departures, both before and during the pandemic. However, COVID-19 related factors also emerged as prominent reasons for departure. This research underscores the urgent need to address the challenges of teacher turnover in the Head Start sector, particularly in the wake of the pandemic. The report advocates for policy initiatives aimed at improving teacher retention through enhanced compensation.

This is the technical document for the report, "Centering Quality, Centering Equity: Lessons Learned in Increasing Early Childhood Educator Credentials." The report explores Early Childhood Education (ECE) credential requirements in California (CA) and Washington, D.C. (D.C.) for two key reasons: 1) both recently raised these requirements and 2) both are in the process of implementing the new changes. The study does not seek to advocate in favor of or against the adoption of increased credential requirements. Rather, its purpose is to shed light on the need to center racial and economic equity in policy design and implementation--focusing on the impact of increased credential requirements on early childhood educators in states pursuing these changes. The appendices in this technical document are: (1) Make-up of Early Care and Education Workforce; (2) Center-Based Early Educator Characteristics by Role; (3) Center-Based Early Educator Work Experience and Credentials by Role; (4) Center-Based Early Educator Time Worked, Income, and Wages by Role; (5) Lead Teachers' Work Experience and Credentials by Race and Ethnicity; (6) Lead Teachers without a Postsecondary Degree, Characteristics by Race and Ethnicity; (7) Focus Group Interview Protocol for California; (8) Focus Group Interview Protocol for Washington, D.C.; (9) Hourly Wages for Early Childhood Educators; and (10) Comparison of D.C. Teacher Salaries in 2022 and Minimum Salaries Required in Fiscal Year 2024 for Programs Receiving Pay Equity Funds.

Teachers of color often work in schools with few colleagues from the same racial or ethnic background. This "racial isolation" may affect their work experiences and important job outcomes, including retention. Using longitudinal administrative and survey data, we investigate the degree to which Tennessee teachers who are more racially isolated are more likely to turn over. Accounting for other factors, we find that racially isolated Black teachers are more likely to leave their schools than less isolated teachers. This turnover is driven by transfers to a different district and exiting the profession altogether. Consistent with an explanation that isolated teachers' work experiences differ, they also report less collaboration with colleagues and receive lower observation scores.

The academic and economic benefits of school spending are well-established, but focusing on these outcomes may underestimate the full social benefits of school spending. Recent increases in U.S. child mortality are driven by injuries and raise questions about what types of social investments could reduce child deaths. We use close school district tax elections and negative binomial regression models to estimate effects of a quasi-random increase in school spending on county child mortality. We find consistent evidence that increased school spending from passing a tax election reduces child mortality. Districts that narrowly passed a proposed tax increase spent an additional $243 per pupil, mostly on instruction and salaries, and had 4% lower child mortality after spending increased (6-10 years after the election). This increased spending also reduced child deaths of despair (due to drugs, alcohol, or suicide) by 5% and child deaths due to accidents or motor vehicle accidents by 7%. Estimates predicting potential mechanisms suggest that lower child mortality could partly reflect increases in the number of teachers and counselors, higher teacher salaries, and improved student engagement. [Funding for this report was provided by the Gilead Foundation Creating Possible Fund and the Population Studies and Training Center at Brown University.]

Despite the popularity of teacher leadership since the 1980s, little research examines its effects on student achievement. In this paper, I assess the influence of the New York City Department of Education's Teacher Career Pathways program, a teacher leadership initiative, on student achievement in grades three through eight. Using difference-in-difference approaches, including new event study estimators, I find that where school leaders staffed teacher leaders into formal roles with defined responsibilities, positional authority, and commensurate salary increases, student achievement in ELA and math improves. Moreover, the improvement in scores compounds over time, with schools exhibiting increasing gains in each year following the initial introduction of teacher leaders. Schools that do not staff teacher leaders do not observe similar outcomes. I consider these results in the context of democratic policymaking and teacher empowerment, suggesting that teachers must be formally empowered in schools to lead meaningful changes that ultimately improve student achievement.

The author's statement to the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions on the challenges faced by America's classroom teachers focuses on a few of the factors that lead to teacher frustration and burnout that higher pay, however well-intended, does not change. They include, but are not limited to, poor teacher preparation, deteriorating classroom conditions--specifically classroom disorder and disruption--shoddy curriculum, and increasingly the expectation that they will not just teach reading, math, or their subject areas effectively, but also play a quasi-therapeutic role in response to students' behavioral and mental health needs. We are asking teachers to do too many things to do any of them well at any salary.

Attracting and retaining high-quality teachers is a pressing policy concern. Increasing teacher salaries and creating more attractive compensation packages are often proposed as a potential solution. Signed into law in March 2023, the LEARNS Act increased Arkansas's minimum teacher salary from $36,000 to $50,000, guaranteed all teachers a minimum raise of $2,000, and added flexibility allowing school districts to deviate from seniority-based traditional salary schedules. To study school districts' adjustments to the new legislation, we collected information about districts' teacher compensation policies one year before and the first year of implementation. We also integrated this data with teachers' administrative records to study patterns of teacher retention and mobility. Our results reveal a more equitable distribution of starting teacher salaries across districts, with minimal variation. The LEARNS Act notably increased funding for rural and high-poverty districts, mitigating the negative association between starting salaries and district poverty rates. However, the initial effects on teacher retention and mobility were modest. While some positive trends emerged, such as reduced probabilities of teachers transitioning to non-instructional roles and increased new teacher placement in geographic areas of shortage, broader impacts on retention and mobility were limited in the first year of implementation.

Since 2021, unprecedented increases in energy costs, rapid increases in food costs and substantial increases in the cost of housing via higher rent/mortgage costs have driven a dramatic rise in the cost of living across England. Despite inflation having fallen from its peak in winter 2022, costs remain high compared to incomes and cost pressures are expected to persist for years to come. These cost-of-living pressures have had a profound impact on pupils and their families, alongside directly impacting on the expenditures of schools. Drawing on an online survey of over 1200 teachers and senior leaders in mainstream schools in March 2024, this research builds on previous research into the impact of the cost of living and explores how cost-of-living pressures, alongside wider financial pressures, are impacting schools a year on. This research aims to establish: (1) has the level of need among pupils changed since last year?; (2) what support are schools providing to pupils and how has this changed over the last year?; and (3) what is the ongoing impact of cost pressures, including cost of living increases, on schools' provision and financial positions? The findings highlight the scale of the pressures impacting families and schools which has entrenched high levels of need among pupils. As a result, schools are continuing to take unprecedented steps to meet need. The level of unmet need among pupils, coupled with the significant resourcing pressures affecting schools, is likely to impact on pupil attainment outcomes in both the short and long term and widen longstanding gaps between disadvantaged pupils and their more advantaged peers.

Early childhood educators play an essential role in providing child care for families and learning and development supports for young children, yet they have long faced challenges due to low wages. Recognizing this, the District of Columbia (DC) introduced the Early Childhood Pay Equity Fund in 2022. This first-of-its-kind initiative aims to bridge the pay gap between early educators and teachers at public schools, addressing historical inequities and improving recruitment and retention efforts. This report provides an in-depth exploration of early educators' experiences with the Pay Equity Fund during its initial year of implementation. Drawing on data from surveys conducted in May 2023 and follow-up focus groups, the report offers insights into the transition from direct payments to an opt-in payment structure by employers in FY 2024. It covers educators' introduction to the Fund, their application and payment experiences, financial impacts, and perceived benefits for child care programs and the broader early childhood education field.

The data presented in this report provide facts about the extent to which local, state, and national governments commit resources to public education. The level of commitment to education varies on a state-by-state basis. National Education Association (NEA) Research offers this report to its state and local affiliates as well as to researchers, policymakers, and the public as a tool to examine public education programs and services. Part I of this report -- Rankings 2023 -- provides state-level data on an array of topics relevant to the complex enterprise of public education. Part II of this report -- Estimates 2024 -- is in its 80th year of production. Estimates provides data tables projecting public school enrollment, employment and compensation of personnel, and finances, as reported by individual state departments of education. Part III of this report -- National Trends 2015-24 -- presents summary data of national trends in student enrollment and attendance, staff salaries, sources of school funding, and levels of educational expenditures in the previous 10 years. [For "Rankings of the States 2022 and Estimates of School Statistics 2023. NEA Research," see ED628838.]

This is the executive summary for the full report, "Centering Quality, Centering Equity: Lessons Learned in Increasing Early Childhood Educator Credentials." Thriving communities depend on a strong early childhood education (ECE) system--one where both young children and members of the workforce are served and supported. In recent years, state government leaders have increasingly focused on changing qualifications for specific ECE roles, as increasing credential requirements has sometimes been associated with increasing quality. However, across the country, early childhood educators face significant barriers to economic security and continuing education--all while supporting children, parents, and their communities with specialized education services.

To help address funding and teaching resource disparities across districts in the state, Texas leaders developed the Teacher Incentive Allotment (TIA). The Allotment aims to make the teaching job more appealing and sustainable, particularly in rural areas and in areas with a high concentration of economically disadvantaged students. This document discusses how the TIA program works and the impact of the program.

The Public School Forum's Top Education Issues outlines the Forum's priorities on what should be at the forefront of education policy decision-making each legislative biennium as the Forum works toward eliminating the systemic inequities that exist throughout the educational system and ensuring that every child has access to a high-quality education. The Forum's 2023-24 Top Issues identified a set of actions that they hoped to see policymakers address during the 2023-2025 legislative biennium. The top education issues for the 2024-2025 biennium include: (1) Ensure fair and competitive compensation for educators; (2) Address the root causes of mental health and school safety crises; (3) Grow, retain, and diversify the teacher pipeline; (4) Prepare students for the world they live in; and (5) Implement, monitor, and evaluate the Comprehensive Remedial Plan. Over the past twelve months, the Forum's team has worked toward and tracked progress on specific metrics for each of their policy priorities. This year's report presents an overview of progress made in year one of the biennium and the significant needs that remain in order to build a stronger and more equitable system of public education in North Carolina.

The tables have turned on Michigan's public school boards and other school officials. As a result of changes to the state's labor law in 2023, school districts face the risk of losing some authority to determine who should be teaching in their classrooms. Teachers unions are empowered once again to demand districts treat teachers as if they are interchangeable widgets, basing all decisions related to promotion, placement and pay on seniority. School officials have not had to bargain over these issues for more than a decade but will suddenly find themselves facing these concerns again. The report reviewed the teachers union contracts in the 200 largest school districts in Michigan, which enroll about 70% of the public school students in the state. It reveals that some districts have automatic revival language in their contracts, which will make the changes to collective bargaining take immediate effect. It also assesses how thoroughly districts complied with the 2011 reforms and offers suggestions for school officials to deal with this new bargaining reality. It concludes by suggesting school districts review their existing contracts, familiarize themselves with previously prohibited terms, and negotiate firmly to preserve contract terms that prioritize improving teacher effectiveness and educational outcomes rather than union priorities such as reestablishing seniority-based rules.

This report presents selected findings from the Current Teacher and Former Teacher questionnaires of the 2021-22 Teacher Follow-up Survey (TFS). The TFS is a longitudinal component of the National Teacher and Principal Survey (NTPS), which is a nationally representative survey of public and private K-12 schools, principals, and teachers in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The 2021-22 TFS followed up with a sample of 2020-21 NTPS teachers in the school year after the NTPS data collection and included those who left teaching, as well as those who continued to teach. When examined together, the results of the TFS and NTPS can provide insight on many different educational issues related to teachers, including the retention of teachers in public and private schools and teachers' job satisfaction. The purpose of this First Look is to provide summaries of the new data collected using tables of descriptive information. Selected findings presented in the tables and text show the range of information available on the 2021-22 TFS data files. Findings presented in the text do not include all differences between groups and do not emphasize any one issue. Results shown in this report are not causal. Many of the variables in the report relate to one another, but only simple comparisons are presented, which do not account for all possible relationships.

Commonfund Higher Education Price Index® (HEPI) data show that costs for colleges and universities rose 4.0 percent in FY2023, a decreased rate of inflation compared with 5.2 percent in FY2022 and up from 2.7 percent in FY2021. (FY2023 covers the period from July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023, and coincides with the budget year of most institutions of higher education.) This year, some of the biggest questions facing higher education are in the process of being answered -- will inflation continue to make headlines, and how will institutions respond, especially as high interest rates and market volatility persist? Price increases lingered longer than some anticipated throughout the real economy, impacting students, households, and institutional budgets. Commonfund understands the importance of having high-quality and relevant data inputs to anchor good governance and decision making for the long term. That's why Commonfund's annual HEPI isolates costs most relevant to the operation of higher ed. As this year's report shows, costs for a market basket of items making up those operating budgets increased at an annual rate of 4.0 percent in FY2023 compared with 5.2 percent in FY2022 (and 2.7 percent in FY2021). Inflation is easing, but for higher education institutions, it is still well above the prior decade's norm. [For the 2022 Update, see ED626333.]

The Oregon Statewide Report Card is an annual publication required by law (ORS 329.115), which reports on the state of Oregon's public schools. The purpose of the Statewide Report Card is to monitor trends among school districts and Oregon's progress toward achieving the goals referred to in ORS 329.015. This report also provides a tool that makes education data accessible to researchers, media, students, and families and creates a clear, complete, and factual picture of the state of education in Oregon. [For the 2021-2022 report, see ED628178.]

School boards remain one of the most powerful forces in American education, helping to set curricula, evaluate teachers, and direct hundreds of billions of dollars in education funding. Yet teachers' unions play an outsized role in determining who serves on these boards. If the interests of teachers are perfectly aligned with those of students, then there may be no reason to worry about union dominance in school board elections. When these interests collide, union power likely encourages boards to prioritize the needs of adult employees over students. This report analyzes the nature of union power in school board elections, and in particular, how unions decide which candidates to support. Key findings include: (1) Union electioneering success is not simply a product of union mobilization. Rather, union endorsements increase voters' support for union-backed candidates by 6 percentage points; (2) The union seal of approval buoys candidates' electoral prospects because voters believe union-favored candidates hold shared interests on important education issues; (3) Voters are largely mistaken about what union endorsements convey and what drives endorsement decisions. The only consistent predictor of union support for incumbents is whether the district raised salaries for senior teachers prior to an election; and (4) The divergence between what union endorsements mean and how voters interpret them have troubling implications for democratic accountability and board-based governance. Groups wishing to counteract union dominance will need to find ways to ensure that ordinary voters are aware of the actual policy priorities of union-backed candidates.

State funding formulas shape how much money school districts have to spend, but districts usually have considerable discretion with how they distribute funds to schools. Because of this discretion, even if districts receive funds through a highly equitable state system, there is no guarantee that districts will distribute funding equitably to schools. This brief discusses district budgeting methods.

In recent years the UK higher education sector has made great progress increasing the representation of Black academics, but more work is needed so every early-career academic has equal opportunity to develop their career. In this report, Dr. Becca Franssen and colleagues draw on survey results and in-depth interviews to paint a picture of the experiences of Black early-career academics and develop a practical guide for how higher education institutions can work purposefully in this area. [The report was coproduced with GatenbySanderson and the Society of Black Academics.]

The cost-of-living has been rising sharply across England since 2021, including unprecedented increases in energy costs, rapid increases in the costs of food and significant increases in the costs of housing via higher rents/mortgage costs. Drawing on online surveys of over 2700 teachers and senior leaders in April and May 2023 in mainstream and special schools, this research aims to explore how the cost-of-living is affecting schools by asking the following questions: (1) what impact do teachers and senior leaders report cost-of-living pressures are having on pupils and their households?; (2) how has provision in schools been affected by cost-of-living increases??; and (3) what impact have cost-of-living increases had on school staff? The National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) collected data via an online survey sent to all state-funded mainstream primary and secondary schools and all special schools in England in April and May 2023. The findings highlight that cost-of-living pressures, together with existing pressures, are having a profound impact on schools. [This report was produced in collaboration with ASK Research.]

Despite the contributions of their work to the learning and development of young children, child care and early education (CCEE) educators are among the lowest paid workers in the United States and have high rates of turnover in their jobs. In a pioneering effort, Washington, DC has launched the nation's first large-scale, publicly funded program to supplement CCEE educator wages. The Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund (PEF) was created to achieve compensation equity with DC Public Schools teachers. This initiative, launched in Fall 2022, delivered initial lump sum payments ranging from $10,000 to $14,000 to approximately 3,000 CCEE educators across the city. This policy research brief shares findings from a study using quasi-experimental methods to examine the immediate impacts of these initial payments on CCEE employment levels in Washington, DC. The analysis uses synthetic control methods and data from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages for the period between 2019 and 2022.

We study the impact of a bonus policy implemented by Hawai'i Public Schools starting in fall 2020 that raised the salaries of all special education teachers in the state by $10,000. We estimate that the introduction of this policy reduced the proportion of vacant special education teaching positions by 32%, or 1.2 percentage points, and the proportion of special education positions that were vacant or filled by an unlicensed teacher by 35%, or 4.0 percentage points. The bonus policy did not have significant impacts on special education teacher retention; instead, the impacts of the policy were driven almost entirely by an increase in the number of general education teachers in the state who moved into open special education teaching positions. The effects of the bonus policy were also largest in historically hard-to-staff schools in which all teachers also received "tiered school" bonuses of up to $8,000. Hawai'i therefore represents a unique but instructive case of how strategic financial incentives can help address special education teacher shortages.

The District of Columbia Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund provides large and sustainable wage supplements for early childhood educators working in child care. Synthesizing qualitative evidence from 11 key informants, including DC early childhood education leaders, advocates, and implementation partners; 39 parents and legal guardians of young children enrolled in licensed DC child care facilities; and 29 child care center directors and home and expanded home providers, this case study highlights the historical context behind the Pay Equity Fund, the vision and goals of the fund, early implementation successes and challenges, and future goals. These findings can inform jurisdictions across the country as they design and implement compensation improvements for the child care workforce.

Research shows that students derive both social-emotional and academic benefits from a diverse educator workforce. The state has taken notable steps to prioritize a more diverse educator workforce in recent years. These include: (1) convening a California Department of Education (CDE) Educator Diversity Advisory Group, tasked with offering recommendations on recruiting and retaining greater numbers of educators of diverse backgrounds; (2) establishing coursework alternatives to standardized tests that have historically served as a barrier to access for candidates of diverse backgrounds who want to enter the teaching profession; and (3) making significant investments in teacher residencies and financial supports for teacher candidates. Nonetheless, the state has not yet established a clear vision and comprehensive action plan to recruit, prepare, and sustain an educator workforce whose diversity reflects that of California's students. To help set a statewide agenda, Californians for Justice (CFJ), The Education Trust--West (ETW), and Public Advocates (PA) partnered to develop a community-informed educator diversity road map. We reviewed research about educator diversity, including the recommendations issued by the CDE Educator Diversity Advisory Group, and compiled a list of proposals for the state on how to recruit, prepare, and retain educators of diverse backgrounds. Next, we recruited students, parents, educators, and administrators to participate in focus groups to discuss these proposals and offer insight and feedback. Although the focus group participants, particularly students, highlighted the need for and importance of an educator workforce that reflects the myriad identities that students hold, the primary foci of their input, and thus of this road map, were about how to recruit and retain more educators of color and multilingual educators. In addition, we use the term "educator" to primarily focus on teachers but also include school leaders, classified staff, and other adults who work with students in our public schools. After conducting focus groups and reviewing community feedback, we distilled six key recommendations that emerged from our conversations and offer several ways that the state, LEAs, and schools may implement these recommendations. [This report was produced with Public Advocates Inc.]

The data presented in this report provide facts about the extent to which local, state, and national governments commit resources to public education. As one might expect in a nation as diverse as the United States--with respect to economics, geography, and politics--the level of commitment to education varies on a state-by-state basis. Thus, NEA Research offers this report to its state and local affiliates as well as to researchers, policymakers, and the public as a tool to examine public education programs and services. Part I of this report--Rankings 2022--provides state-level data on an array of topics relevant to the complex enterprise of public education. Part II of this report--Estimates 2023--is in its 78th year of production. Estimates provides data tables projecting public school enrollment, employment and compensation of personnel, and finances, as reported by individual state departments of education. The influx of federal funding through COVID relief measures added a new layer of complexity to the development of financial projections. Part III of this report--National Trends 2014-23--presents summary data of national trends in student enrollment and attendance, staff salaries, sources of school funding, and levels of educational expenditures in the previous 10 years. [For "Rankings of the States 2021 and Estimates of School Statistics 2022. NEA Research," see ED620624.]

We use CUPA-HR data to analyze representation and pay equity for women and racial/ethnic minorities in higher education full-time faculty from 2016-17 to 2022-23, across tenure status, rank, discipline, and total operating expenses of institutions. Results indicate that, despite some growth in the representation of women and faculty of color in tenure-track positions, advancement to higher ranks remains a significant barrier across all faculty disciplines. In addition, women, Black, and Hispanic or Latina/o faculty are better represented in non-tenure-track than in tenure-track positions, indicating that these groups are best represented in the lowest-paid full-time faculty positions. Furthermore, Black and Hispanic or Latina/o non-tenure-track faculty and White women, regardless of tenure status, continue to face pay disparities compared to their White male counterparts. The report offers targeted recommendations to improve faculty equity, including a critical evaluation of promotion processes and underlying bias.