When Districts Encounter Teacher Shortages: The Challenges of Recruiting and Retaining Mathematics Teachers in Urban Districts

Abstract

Administrators in six urban districts were interviewed to understand the nature and extent of their problems with recruiting and retaining high quality mathematics teachers. Findings suggest that the math staffing challenge is quite complex, and administrators have had to make difficult compromises because of deficiencies in the quantity and quality of candidates. In these districts, supply is tight, demand is high, and competition with other districts is fierce. Three additional sets of factors further exacerbate the staffing challenge: policy factors, organizational factors, and administrators' own views about the qualities necessary to teach successfully in urban schools.

Research for this article was supported by MetroMath: The Center for Mathematics in America's Cities, a Center for Learning and Teaching funded by the National Science Foundation under Grant #ESI0333753. Any opinions, finding, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. Aubrie Swan and Deena Khalil participated in this research project as MetroMath graduate student fellows. MetroMath Fellows Tom Cain and Peter Herbst also participated during the initial planning of this project.

Notes

1. Throughout this article, pseudonyms are used in place of the actual district names. Names of great jazz musicians were used as the pseudonyms.

2. The individuals we interviewed held a variety of administrative titles. To maintain anonymity and confidentiality, we are referring to those interviewed by certain generic titles—such as human resources director, math supervisor, and principal—even though these titles do not always match individuals' actual titles within their district. For instance, administrators who held the titles of assistant superintendent of human resources, director of personnel, executive director of human resources, etc., are all referred to as “human resources director.” In one district, two individuals participated in the HR interview, and one is referred to as “assistant HR director.” In districts that had more than one math supervisor, we interviewed the supervisor(s) in charge of secondary mathematics.

3. The Northeast and mid-Atlantic are regions that suffer from a “considerable” shortage of math teachers (American Association for Employment in Education, 2007), compared with the more severe shortages that can be found in other, more rapidly growing regions, such as the Far West and Southeast.

4. Three out of the four states in which the participating districts were located had passed early retirement incentives in recent years.

5. One state in our study had very loose requirements for getting a provisional teaching license: teachers could receive it just by holding a bachelors degree and passing a state literacy and content-area exam.

6. The transfer system refers to a system in which teachers already working in the district can request a transfer to another school that has an opening. The excess system refers to the system by which tenured teachers whose positions have been eliminated (either due to changes in enrollment or in academic programming) are placed in new positions since they have guaranteed employment in the district. These two systems may be linked or may operate separately. Also, districts vary in terms of the role that seniority plays in determining whose transfer request gets approved or where “excessed teachers” are placed.

7. For researchers, our findings raise the possible relevance of Merton's (1957) classic distinction between “locals” and “cosmopolitans” in terms of understanding teachers' career decisions or in terms of understanding how districts' human resource efforts might have to be different to address the different orientations of these two groups.