Economic Incentives as a Strategy for Responding to Teacher Staffing Problems

Abstract

Background: Many district and school leaders experience difficulties staffing their classrooms with qualified teachers. Economic incentives may motivate teachers to enter and remain in the workforce and entice teachers to work in less desirable districts and schools. However, very little is known about incentives in use, how they are used to address teacher staffing challenges, or their relative effectiveness in meeting teacher staffing needs. Purpose: This article presents a typology that organizes and differentiates among economic incentive policies. The typology provides a framework for understanding the alignment between incentive policies and dimensions of the teacher staffing problem and interactions among incentive policies across levels of the educational system. Research Design: The typology is based on a broad review of scholarly literature, state and district documents and websites, and research and interest group reports and briefings. The typology was tested and refined using descriptive case studies in four districts in two states. Findings: The authors’ findings confirm the typology’s applicability, highlight patterns in the use of economic incentive policies, and point to the importance of considering the incentive “packages” to which teachers may be entitled in policy making and research. Conclusions: The study makes both conceptual and empirical contributions. Conceptually, the authors develop and test a tool policy makers, educational leaders, and researchers can use to examine economic incentive policies and align policies with teacher staffing problems. Empirically, the study identifies patterns that raise important questions about the ways in which economic incentive policies are implemented and evaluated.