Local supply, temporal dynamics, and unrealized potential in teacher hiring

Abstract

We explore the dynamics of competitive search in the K–12 public education sector. Using detailed panel data on teacher hiring from Boston Public Schools, we document how teacher labor supply varies substantially across vacancies even within a single district depending on position type, school characteristics, and the timing of job postings. We find that early‐posted positions are more likely to be filled and end up securing new hires that are better qualified, more effective, and more likely to remain at a school. In contrast, the number of applicants to a position is largely unassociated with hire quality, suggesting that schools may struggle to identify and select the best candidates even when there is a large pool of qualified applicants. These patterns persist even when we restrict comparisons to only positions within an individual school using school fixed effects. Our findings point to substantial unrealized potential for improving teacher hiring.

No Child Left Behind and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act: Examining Special Educators’ Outcomes

“…Cultivating a robust, skilled special education teacher (SET) workforce to serve all students with disabilities has been a long-standing challenge for policymakers and leaders (Mason-Williams et al, 2020), a challenge that continues to the present, as SET shortages challenge schools’ efforts to find sufficient numbers of well-qualified personnel to fill open positions (e.g., Goldhaber et al, 2022; James et al, 2022). Policy initiatives are both a potential lever to address these challenges and a potential contributor to the problem, as they may have unintended negative effects on current and prospective SETs (Sindelar et al, 2010).…”