Public Policy Associates (PPA) in partnership with the Michigan Alliance for Student Opportunity has released a report on educator staffing problems facing Michigan’s K-12 schools and state and local strategies to address these challenges.
The report contributes teacher-focused strategies to strengthen the teacher labor market. Strategies include:
- Expanding the pre-service teacher supply pipeline vs. increasing in-service teacher recruitment and retention
- Direct financial incentives vs. non-financial regulatory action or programming
- More centralized state-run vs. decentralized district-led designs, funding, adoption, and implementation
A review of the evidence suggests that: (1) money matters, especially in the short run; but so does (2) teacher preparation and school working conditions.
For more strategies and key findings, read the report here.
This report is part of a larger study to better understand the state of the education labor market. This is the first of a series of reports with a final report being released in September 2023, aimed at describing strategies for both short- and longer-term policy and practice reform and improvement.
This study involves a highly qualified team of education researchers from PPA, as well as the University of Michigan and Michigan State University, and was authorized and funded by Section 27f of the most recent School Aid Act, 2022 Public Act No. 144 (July 14, 2022). The study is being led by principal investigators Nathan Burroughs, Ph.D., PPA’s Senior Methodologist, and Chris Torres, Ph.D., from the University of Michigan’s School of Education.
If you have any questions about this research, please feel free to contact Daniel J. Quinn, Ph.D., PPA’s Director for Education Policy, at dquinn@publicpolicy.com or (202) 854-8077 or Peter Spadafore, Executive Director, Michigan Alliance for Student Opportunity, at pspadafore@mialliance.com or (517) 492-1380.