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By coupling statewide vacancy/application records with administrative data, we find that activity on the teacher labor market is substantially greater than previously documented, with 53% of novice teachers searching for new positions after their first year and 27% changing schools or leaving the public system. The empirical evidence favors preference alignment theory, showing that first-year teachers are more likely to reenter the labor market after their first year when their preferences and their current employment context diverge. This finding is particularly true for the individuals with a preference for a suburban locale and for school and student characteristics, such as the proportion of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. Once an individual has initiated a job search, preference alignment appears to be unrelated to subsequent mobility. The findings suggest that processes that can facilitate a stronger initial match of novice teachers to their desired employment situations may help mitigate turnover in the following year.

Although numerous studies confirm the importance of school principals, schools often experience high turnover rates and principal shortage. However, we know little about the staffing challenges in rural schools and what promotes applicants to apply for and be hired for principalship. In partnership with the Wisconsin Education Career Access Network, we examine the principal labor dynamics in rural schools using statewide job-openings and application information in Wisconsin. We find that all rural communities--"rural fringe," "rural distant," and "rural remote"--receive equal or high number of applications compared to urban districts. Female candidates are significantly less likely to apply to rural districts, while working in the same district is a considerable advantage to being hired. Among district characteristics, the percentage of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch tends to reduce the number of applicants in rural schools. Our results highlight the need for policies that are better attuned to the subtle differences in rural contexts.

This study introduces a new approach to measure effectiveness of teacher preparation programs at U.S. universities (TPP) by examining to what extent TPPs produce employable teacher candidates. We use teacher application data in Wisconsin public schools from 2014-15 through 2016-17. We find that attending a specific university's TPP makes a difference for novice teacher applicants' job outcomes. However, the competitiveness of a TPP is inextricable from the geographic locale in which it operates. These findings call into question the validity of a contextual and absolute TPP rankings. Our results suggest that graduates of TPPs with strong school and community partnerships are more competitive in the local labor market.

This study develops, validates, and applies a typology of teachers using labor market data. We construct our typology by applying a correlated topic model to 17,000 personal statements teachers submitted as part of their applications to open positions in Wisconsin public schools. We identify seven types of teachers active on the labor market: Inclusivists, Idealists, Nurturers, Generalists, Classroom Experts, Guides, and External Experts. Using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods, we explore trends within and among types as well as demographic relationships and labor market behaviors. This research provides novel insights into the philosophies, mission, vision, and values of teachers; links these characteristics to teachers' job market preferences; and provides a sound psychometric foundation for these measures of teacher type to be applied in subsequent research.

Representative bureaucracy suggests that supervisors are representative of their employees based, in part, on shared values and identity. In education, we often observe representative asymmetries among school principals and the teaching faculty, particularly by race. This study explores the ways in which race congruence (or incongruence) between teachers and principals relates to key labor market behaviors, in particular, job searching, changing, applying, and hiring. Using an unprecedented and large-scale vacancy-application database coupled with administrative staffing records in Wisconsin, this study demonstrates that representative bureaucracy based on race operates at the stages of job searching and applying. The congruence effect is only notable for Minoritized teachers at the hiring stage, while White teachers show a greater effect when changing positions. Comparing the differences in marginal probabilities by racial combinations, we conclude race congruence effects are greatest for Minoritized teachers.

A pervasive challenge for Wisconsin and states across the nation is accurate assessment of teacher labor supplies at the state and local levels. Demand measures based on predictions of changing teacher and student demographics have been wildly inaccurate. This report presents findings on key features of the Wisconsin teacher labor market, including mobility, attrition, supply, and demand. The authors use data from multiple sources (including state staffing and credentialing files, application and vacancy information, and statewide survey data on perceptions of staffing challenges) to: (1) establish a common vocabulary around categories of labor supply--specifically which positions are high supply, which are medium supply, and which are low supply; (2) provide a baseline against which subsequent reports can build and future policies can be assessed; (3) provide a common base of empirical evidence to focus and foster debate; and (4) identify aspects of the teacher labor market that are problematic. This report provides evidence on teacher supply and demand in Wisconsin to help policymakers see which avenues are available to influence the complex dynamics of differential mobility, attrition, licensure, and selection across educator labor markets. This portrait of Wisconsin's teacher labor market illustrates and defines key features to create a common understanding and vocabulary to engage emerging and persistent challenges. The authors organized this report around the following questions: (1) What are the prevailing trends in teacher attrition and mobility?; (2) What is the current supply of teachers?; (3) How are districts responding to staffing challenges?; and (4) Is there a teacher shortage in Wisconsin?

A considerable body of work has addressed teacher labor markets and the sorting of teachers within and among school districts. Many studies have focused on urban schools within teacher labor markets, but far less research has examined teacher supply and demand among rural school districts. This study examines the pool of applicants vying for teaching vacancies in 311 Wisconsin districts to determine how applicants differ across geographic categories, particularly with regard to education, experience, and geographic preferences. We find no evidence to support claims of a rural teacher shortage; however, applicants do appear to be averse to rural contexts. Some factors, such as enrollment in particular universities and rural student teaching experiences, increase applicants' interest in rural vacancies. Similarly, districts' proximity to educator preparation programs increases applicant pools for all locales, yet rural districts tend to be further from universities and have fewer programs within a 40-mile radius.

Initiatives to increase leadership accountability coupled with efforts to promote data-driven leadership have led to widespread adoption of instruments to assess school leaders. In this paper we present a decision matrix that practitioners and researchers can use to facilitate instrument selection. Our decision matrix focuses on the psychometric properties of the instrument; the model of leadership used to construct the instrument; the feasibility of implementation; and the extent to which feedback lends itself to changes in behavior (actionability). We apply this decision matrix to two of the most prominent leadership feedback instruments, CALL and VAL-ED. We find substantial similarities between the instruments, yet each has unique strengths and drawbacks. We discuss the implications of the comparative strengths and drawbacks of the two instruments and how they might be most effectively deployed to improve leadership practices.