Research
Peer-Reviewed Articles
Educators’ Job Burnout and Intentions to Leave During the COVID-19 Pandemic
2025
in Instructional Survival in the Midst of the Perfect Storm
Looking Back and Moving Forward: COVID-19’s Impact on the Teacher Labor Market and Implications for the Future
2024
Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis
Abstract
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic teachers reported high levels of stress and burnout, raising concerns about a potential increase in teacher turnover and future teacher shortages. We use administrative data from the 2018 to 2019 through 2022 to 2023 school years to examine how the pandemic affected teacher turnover in Arkansas. We find relatively stable turnover entering the 2020 to 2021 and 2021 to 2022 school years but an increase of 5 percentage points (20%) over pre-pandemic levels entering the 2022 to 2023 school year, representing both higher rates of transitions out of the education sector but also more likely movements to other positions outside regular teaching within the education sector. Importantly, we also find significant heterogeneity in turnover by teacher and school characteristics suggesting a decline in aggregate teacher quality, diversity, and experience. These results suggest potential lasting effects on the composition and quality of the teacher labor force.
Revisiting Ethnic Differences in In-Person Learning During the 2021-22 School Year
2023
Journal of School Choice
Abstract
During the 2020–21 school year, Black students were less likely to learn in person than white students. We examine whether this difference persisted as the pandemic progressed. We find that the rate of in-person learning increased in 2021–22 but remained lower for Black students compared to white students. While several factors helped explain observed racial differences in learning modality in 2020–21, only modality offerings continued to be an important explanatory factor in 2021–22 and a Black-white in-person learning gap persisted after controlling for offerings and other factors. These findings suggest a mismatch between Black families’ preferences and the options offered by their schools.
Determinants of Ethnic Differences in School Modality Choices During the COVID-19 Crisis
2021
Educational Researcher
Abstract
A growing body of research and popular reporting shows racial differences in school modality choices during the COVID-19 crisis, with White students more likely to attend school in person in the fall of 2020 and spring of 2021. This in-person learning gap raises serious equity concerns. We use unique panel survey data to explore possible explanations. We find that a combination of factors may explain these differences. School districts’ offerings, political partisanship, perceived risk from the pandemic, and local COVID-19 outbreaks are all meaningfully associated with and plausibly explain the in-person learning racial gap. Our results illustrate how not only policy decisions but also political leanings and individuals’ beliefs could contribute to inequality in access to learning and illustrate the need for a better understanding of the factors behind observed racial inequalities in education.
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Working Papers
Trajectories into Teaching of Arkansas Educator Preparation Program Enrollees
2025Abstract
Teaching is one of the largest and most important professions in the United States, but there are
important concerns about the current health of the profession, including some acute geographic
and subject area shortages, declining professional prestige, dwindling student interest in pursuing
teaching as a career, and a marked drop in enrollment in traditional Education Preparation
Programs (EPPs). As a result, it is increasingly important to understand how teachers move
through their preparation programs and into the teaching workforce. A better understanding of
the early teacher pipeline could help states design policies and programs that strengthen the
pipeline and alleviate teacher shortages. In this respect, prior research from Washington State
found that a significant proportion of recently certified teacher candidates start their public
school careers in non-teaching positions but transition to teaching within 5 years (Goldhaber et
al., 2022). If such a “bench” of teachers exists in a state like Arkansas, which has documented
teacher shortage areas, policies could potentially be designed to help place these qualified
teachers in areas of need. In this paper, we present a comprehensive analysis of Arkansas EPP
enrollees’ labor market trajectories, using rich, statewide, linked administrative data capturing
the universe of traditional public and charter school employees from higher education to the
labor force. Our results indicate the presence of a “bench” of teachers in Arkansas who start their
careers in non-main teacher positions (4%), but of a much smaller size than the one reported in
prior work. We then study factors associated with the “bench” of teachers and find that this
bench is partially explained by certification area and salary differentials across school districts.
The Effects of the Four-Day School Week on Teacher Recruitment and Retention
2025
Revise and Resubmit
Abstract
School districts across the United States are increasingly adopting the four-day school week,often in the hope of addressing teacher staffing challenges. We examine the effects of the four-day week on teacher recruitment and retention in Missouri, where three in ten districts currently use it. After presenting qualitative data showing that school and district leaders, and teachers, believe the four-day week improves recruitment and retention, we estimate the effects of the four-day week on these outcomes using difference-in-differences models. We find no evidence that the four-day school week improves teacher recruitment or retention.
Untapped Potential? Understanding the Paraeducator-to-Teacher Pipeline and its Potential for Diversifying the Teacher Workforce
2024
Revise and Resubmit
Abstract
Paraeducators are among the largest categories of public education employees and are increasingly seen as a pool of potential teachers. However, little is known about paraeducator-to-teacher transitions. Using statewide administrative data, we show that while paraeducators may be more racially/ethnically diverse than the teacher workforce, Black and Hispanic paraeducators are less likely than White paraeducators to transition into teaching. We additionally show that teachers with paraeducator experience are similarly effective to teachers without paraeducator experience. Lastly, we use simulations to show that the potential for the paraeducator-to-teacher pipeline to diversify the teaching profession may be limited unless they are highly targeted. Our results have policy design implications for efforts to expand the paraeducator-to-teacher pipeline or to diversify the teacher workforce.
Teacher Salary Raises and Turnover: Evidence from the First Year of the Arkansas LEARNS Act
2024
Revise and Resubmit
Abstract
Attracting and retaining high-quality teachers is a pressing policy concern. Increasing teacher salaries and creating more attractive compensation packages are often proposed as a potential solution. Signed into law in March 2023, the LEARNS Act increased Arkansas's minimum teacher salary from $36,000 to $50,000, guaranteed all teachers a minimum raise of $2,000, and added flexibility allowing school districts to deviate from seniority-based traditional salary schedules. To study school districts’ adjustments to the new legislation, we collected information about districts' teacher compensation policies one year before and the first year of implementation. We also integrated this data with teachers' administrative records to study patterns of teacher retention and mobility. Our results reveal a more equitable distribution of starting teacher salaries across districts, with minimal variation. The LEARNS Act notably increased funding for rural and high-poverty districts, mitigating the negative association between starting salaries and district poverty rates. However, the initial effects on teacher retention and mobility were modest. While some positive trends emerged, such as reduced probabilities of teachers transitioning to non-instructional roles and increased new teacher placement in geographic areas of shortage, broader impacts on retention and mobility were limited in the first year of implementation.
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Reports & White Papers
Missouri Student Growth Report: Beating-the-Odds Three-Year Special Edition
2025
PRiME Center at Saint Louis University
Missouri Student Growth Report: Rural Schools Special Edition
2025
PRiME Center at Saint Louis University
Missouri Student Growth Report: Statewide Three-Year Special Edition
2025
PRiME Center at Saint Louis University
Missouri Student Growth Report: Beating-the-Odds 4th Edition
2025
PRiME Center at Saint Louis University
Missouri Student Growth Report: Statewide 4th Edition
2025
PRiME Center at Saint Louis University
Administrators' Views of Teacher Salary Changes Under the Arkansas LEARNS Act
2024Missouri Student Growth Report: Beating-the-Odds 3rd Edition
2024
PRiME Center at Saint Louis University
Missouri Student Growth Report: Statewide 3rd Edition
2024
PRiME Center at Saint Louis University
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