Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Panel: Teacher Labor Markets

(Sustainable Social Services Across the Life Course)

Teachers are important. They are front-line service providers who interact with children nearly every weekday for nine months of the year, nurture students' cognitive and non-cognitive (socio-emotional) development, and are the only college-educated role model that many children from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds interact with on a regular basis. However, there are subject-specific shortages of teachers in many parts of the country, socio-demographic disparities in students’ access to effective teachers, and an underrepresentation of people of color in the teaching profession. Understanding how teacher labor markets function is crucial to devising effective teacher policy that attracts and retains talented individuals in the profession, increases the diversity of the teaching profession, and ensures an equitable distribution of effective teachers across schools and districts. This session incorporates four papers that enhance our understanding of four specific aspects of teacher labor markets. The first paper investigates entry into the profession through the lens of intergenerational mobility. Specifically, this paper addresses whether children of college-educated individuals, and specifically the children of teachers, are themselves more likely to become teachers. The second paper investigates how to attract and retain a more diverse group of teachers who are more representative of the students in their classrooms. Specifically, this paper measures racial differences in state-certification-test passing and retaking rates, eventual teacher licensure, job placement, and early career retention. Finally, the last two papers address potential causes of attrition from traditional public schools: mental health issues and the opening of new charter schools.