Recruitment & Retention
Staff shortages. Grow-your-own programs. Turnover. Learn more about recruiting and retaining teachers and other school and district staff
The State of Teaching, 2026 Edition
New national data on the teaching profession, vivid reporting from classrooms, and resources to help support this essential profession.
Special Report
STEM Teachers: How to Find the Good Ones and Keep Them
See how schools are making progress, and where they are falling short, in addressing chronic teacher shortages in STEM fields.
Special Report
Strategies for Building a Diverse Staff
Delve into the link between diverse staff and students’ academic performance and explore strategies to recruit and retain diverse staff.
Staffing Our Schools
Special Report
Tackling the School Staffing Crisis
Modifying schedules, expanding the use of contractors and emergency certified teachers, and other tactics schools are trying.
Recruitment & Retention What the Research Says Where Do Teachers Who Leave Their Job Go? See the ChartsDistrict administrators may have more ability to guide teacher turnover than they think, new data suggest.Recruitment & Retention Webinar Hiring, Retention, and Fill Rates: A Data-Driven Sub StrategySponsorThis content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.Explore what keeps substitutes coming back and hear how one district rebuilt its substitute hiring process and improved its fill rate.
Recruitment & Retention How to Nurture Teacher Retention in Far-Flung Rural DistrictsWorking conditions and community involvement can top pay for rural educators.
Recruitment & Retention: Frequently Asked Questions
What are the best ways to recruit good teachers?
The ways that teachers find school jobs has changed in recent years. But recruitment hasn’t gone all virtual. According to a 2022 EdWeek Research Center survey of job seekers, only 5 percent said they find out about K-12 jobs through virtual job fairs. Many more job seekers find jobs by looking at district websites (54 percent), word of mouth (47 percent), and education-focused job websites (42 percent).
Some districts are turning to decidedly non-digital recruitment methods, like highway billboards, flyers in grocery stores, and reaching out to parents to ask them to become substitute teachers.
Some districts are turning to decidedly non-digital recruitment methods, like highway billboards, flyers in grocery stores, and reaching out to parents to ask them to become substitute teachers.
What qualities do principals look for when hiring teachers?
Many principals place the most weight on how a teacher will fit in with their school’s culture. That attribute was more valued by principals than whether the teacher’s certification aligned with their school’s needs, according to a 2022 survey by RAND.
The number of years of teaching experience a teacher had ranked relatively low in principal’s desired teacher qualifications, with less than a quarter of principals saying it was in their top three.
The number of years of teaching experience a teacher had ranked relatively low in principal’s desired teacher qualifications, with less than a quarter of principals saying it was in their top three.
How can schools retain teachers?
Here is some advice on retaining teachers from Principal David Arencibia of Colleyville Middle School in Texas:
· Be clear with teachers about job expectations.
· Create a positive school culture.
· Celebrate your staff.
· Listen to your staff.
· Be clear with teachers about job expectations.
· Create a positive school culture.
· Celebrate your staff.
· Listen to your staff.
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Recruitment & Retention Why This Governor Wants to Ban H-1B Visas for Teachers—and Why Schools Use ThemGov. Greg Abbott wants to ban schools from using H-1B visas to hire international teachers, a strategy used to fill key staffing gaps.
Recruitment & Retention Why Teachers Would—or Wouldn’t—Move to a High-Needs SchoolMoney and school culture—some factors that influence whether teachers want to work in such schools.
Recruitment & Retention What Does it Cost to Convince Top Teachers to Switch to High-Need Schools?New research underscores how hard it is to pull top educators to rural or high-poverty schools.
Recruitment & Retention Opinion We're Talking About Teacher Shortages the Wrong WayOversimplifying our K-12 staffing challenges makes them harder to solve.Recruitment & Retention Whitepaper How Virtual Instruction Is Solving Rural Staffing Shortages and Expanding Access for Every StudentSponsorThis content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.Fullmind's whitepaper, Learning Has No Address, argues that the teacher shortage in rural America isn't a pipeline problem — it's an acc....
Recruitment & Retention Opinion Want to Get Hiring Right? 3 Ways Principals Can Make Smarter Staffing DecisionsTo build exceptional teams, we need to break apart the mechanics of the hiring process.Recruitment & Retention Webinar New Hire, No Laptop, No Login: Preventing Day-One DisruptionSponsorThis content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.What happens before day one matters. Discover how districts are improving the new hire experience.
Recruitment & Retention From Our Research Center Hiring Teachers? Word of Mouth Still Leads the WayA national survey looked into the kinds of recruiting efforts that proved most effective.
Recruitment & Retention Why Teachers Say They Leave the Profession—Or Say They Want to QuitHere are some of the reasons listed in response to EdWeek questions on social media.
Recruitment & Retention Layoff Warnings Hit Thousands of School EmployeesSeven of the nation's 10 largest districts are looking to cut staff as pandemic-era funding runs out and enrollment keeps falling.
Recruitment & Retention Q&A A New Group Looks for Ways to Draw Men Into TeachingFewer men are becoming teachers, prompting new efforts to recruit and retain them.
Recruitment & Retention From Our Research Center Want to Recruit Teachers? Restrict Student Cellphone Use During SchoolMany school districts now limit student cellphone use during school hours.
Recruitment & Retention What the Research Says This State Invested in Helping High Schoolers Become Teachers. Did It Work?The decade-old program significantly boosted the pipeline of diverse new educators.
Recruitment & Retention Download Ease the Teacher-Hiring Process with AI (Downloadable)Clear criteria and privacy protections are critical when using technology to smooth the hiring process.
Recruitment & Retention AI Is Changing Teacher Hiring. Here’s HowTeachers may not be aware that AI underpins both commercial and DIY hiring systems, raising concerns.
