Staffing At-Risk School Districts in Texas: Problems and Prospects PDF Download

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Languages : en
Pages : 98

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Book Description
The research reported here was supported by Grant No. R3O6F6O175 from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement's Field Initiated Studies Grant Program. Teacher supply and demand issues are of critical importance as our society enters the 21st century. Over the next decade, we will need about two million new teachers, largely because of a dramatic increase in enrollments and high attrition rates as an aging teacher workforce becomes eligible for retirement. It is important to understand where these teachers will come from and where they will teach as our society faces increasing racial, ethnic, and linguistic diversity. Amidst this diversity is a continuing concern that some racial/ethnic groups are disproportionately placed at risk. The larger project focuses on teachers of at-risk children, with special emphasis on the supply and demand patterns of minority teachers, who tend to be the ones primarily teaching in high-risk districts. This report analyzes longitudinal data on teachers from Texas between 1979 and 1996 to address this issue. Our results show that although Texas has been successful in attracting minority teachers, it has a long way to go in attaining the goal of the Texas State Board of Education: to have a teacher workforce that reflects the racial/ethnic composition of the state. These results should be of interest to researchers and policymakers dealing with issues of teacher supply and demand, particularly with respect to minority teachers.