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Policy solution or hollow promise? Will mid -career entrants to U. S. public school teaching help avert a teacher shortage, reduce racial and gender imbalances, and fill vacancies in hard -to -staff subjects and schools

Posted on:2010-07-14Degree:Ed.DType:Thesis
University:Harvard UniversityCandidate:Marinell, William HFull Text:PDF
GTID:2447390002490173Subject:Educational administration
Abstract/Summary:
In the face of a predicted shortage of public school teachers, experts have identified "mid-career entrants" to teaching---teachers who enter the profession as a second career---as a source of supply of public school teachers that will be critical to tap in order to avert a staffing crisis (e.g. National Commission on Teaching and America's Future , 2007; Gordon, Kane, & Staiger, 2006). In addition, mid-career entrants have been heralded for their content knowledge and organizational insight (e.g. National Academies Press, 2000, 2005; Johnson et al., 2004), their interest in working in hard-to-staff schools (Natriello & Zumwalt, 1993), and their potential to help reduce the racial and gender imbalances that exist between teachers and students in U.S. public schools (Feistritzer, 2005; Ruenzel, 2002; Shen, 1997, 1998).;In my thesis, I use a linear contrast methodology and data from five administrations of the Schools and Staffing Surveys (SASS) from 1987 through 2004 to assess the legitimacy of policymakers' assertions that mid-career entrants will help avert a staffing shortage and improve teacher quality. In these two dissertation papers, I present descriptive profiles of mid- and first-career entrants and describe how their personal and professional characteristics changed over the period of observation. Further, I examine how the percentage of mid-career entrants among new teachers changed over time and whether this trend differs by race and gender. Lastly, I form tentative hypotheses about mid- and first-career entrants' mobility and attrition by examining their reported levels of satisfaction with aspects of their work and worksite.;I find that the percentage of mid-career entrants among first-year teachers nearly doubled---from 20% to 39%---between 1987--88 and 2003--04. Further, I find that mid-career entrants were more likely than first-career entrants to be male and from minority racial backgrounds. Despite these characteristics, mid-career entrants' increasing presence in the new teacher workforce has not ameliorated the gender imbalance and has played only a partial role in reducing the racial imbalance among first-year teachers. I do not find any evidence to suggest that mid-career entrants appear any more or less likely than first-career entrants to change schools or leave teaching.
Keywords/Search Tags:Entrants, Public school, Teacher, Shortage, Gender, Racial, Avert
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