
Priced out: The growing challenge of teacher pay and housing costs
A new NCTQ analysis finds that despite salary increases since 2019, teachers are falling further behind in the race for housing affordability.
Learn more about evidence-based approaches to strengthening and diversifying your teacher workforce with NCTQ’s reports, guides, and articles.
A new NCTQ analysis finds that despite salary increases since 2019, teachers are falling further behind in the race for housing affordability.
May 8, 2025
Katherine Bowser
Math skills are critical for students’ success in other subjects and later in life, yet far too many teacher prep programs fail to give aspiring teachers the essential knowledge they need to be effective math teachers—undermining student learning before the first lesson even begins.
April 8, 2025
Graham Drake, Ron Noble, Heather Peske
Nationally, the diversification of the teacher workforce is slowing compared to the diversification of college-educated adults, but California, Texas, and Washington, D.C. are bucking that trend. Explore what factors contribute to their relatively high rates of teacher diversity and how their policies and practices will likely affect teacher quality.
February 1, 2025
Ron Noble
A new NCTQ analysis finds that despite salary increases since 2019, teachers are falling further behind in the race for housing affordability.
May 8, 2025
Katherine Bowser
Teachers with master’s degrees almost always get paid more than teachers without. But elementary math teachers who go through graduate-level teacher prep are often less prepared than teachers who go through an undergraduate program.
April 24, 2025
Heather Peske
Can AI truly support teachers in ways that improve teacher effectiveness? Here’s what the research says.
April 10, 2025
Michael Sheehy
Math skills are critical for students’ success in other subjects and later in life, yet far too many teacher prep programs fail to give aspiring teachers the essential knowledge they need to be effective math teachers—undermining student learning before the first lesson even begins.
April 8, 2025
Graham Drake, Ron Noble, Heather Peske
March 27, 2025
Heather Peske
The more teachers stay, the less districts need to hire and train new ones. While good working conditions play a role, new research confirms that compensation also matters—especially for certain positions.
March 27, 2025
Shannon Holston
New research examines what tools school hiring managers can use when hiring teachers and concludes that, when used well, they can help hire better teachers—but they’re not always used.
March 27, 2025
Hannah Putman
This brief outlines key findings regarding state teacher data systems and provides recommendations for enhancing them.
March 11, 2025
Shannon Holston
Teachers’ time is one of our most precious resources in schools. To design policies that make the best use of time to support teacher effectiveness, it’s helpful to see how school districts allocate it and how that compares across the country.
March 7, 2025
Michael Sheehy
Parents in Massachusetts are stirring up “some good trouble” by suing the authors and publishing companies who “peddled a raft of products and curricula that sought to diminish and even exclude systematic and daily phonics instruction.”
February 27, 2025
Heather Peske
As the field of neuroscience advances, so does our understanding of what works in teaching and learning. The best recent example of this? The reading movement. Our knowledge of how children’s brains learn to read has increased, and it has led to a revolution in how to teach children to read.
February 27, 2025
Ashley Kincaid
Mid-career professionals who transition into teaching bring years of career experience, a sense of purpose, and—according to recent research—a stronger likelihood of actually stepping into the classroom than their less experienced counterparts.
February 27, 2025
Christie Ellis
Teacher evaluation systems—if implemented well—can help districts make better workforce decisions. We examine whether large districts’ policies align with the research on what will likely make for effective and impactful evaluation systems.
February 13, 2025
Hannah Putman
Nationally, the diversification of the teacher workforce is slowing compared to the diversification of college-educated adults, but California, Texas, and Washington, D.C. are bucking that trend. Explore what factors contribute to their relatively high rates of teacher diversity and how their policies and practices will likely affect teacher quality.
February 1, 2025
Ron Noble
New research reveals that the share of well-prepared STEM teachers in high-need schools has been increasing over the last 15 years, though high-need schools still have a smaller share of these teachers than more affluent schools.
January 23, 2025
Sarah Almy
How targeted professional development in math and science can significantly boost student achievement—and which strategies truly make the difference.
January 23, 2025
Graham Drake
Dear Mr. President,
Congratulations on your inauguration. I write to you concerning a matter that is critical to the success of our great nation: teacher quality.
January 23, 2025
Heather Peske
Recent news of advances in state policy granting paid parental leave gives hope that policymakers increasingly recognize the importance for districts, teachers, and their families. But how much progress has there been? And what are the costs?
January 9, 2025
Katherine Bowser
NCTQ devotes the December edition of our Teacher Quality Bulletin newsletter to looking at the opinions and research we shared this year and spotlighting the pieces that most interested our readers.
December 19, 2024
Hannah Putman
NCTQ publishes our monthly District Trendline newsletter to provide district leaders with easy access to research and policy patterns. As we reach the end of the calendar year, we look back to see which topics most interested district readers.
December 12, 2024
Hannah Putman
A diverse teacher workforce benefits all students, especially students of color. Students of color who have experiences with teachers of color are more likely to achieve life milestones like high school graduation, college enrollment, and college completion.
Many states and districts have been trying to diversify their teacher workforces. Still, NCTQ’s Teacher Diversity Dashboard reveals a troubling trend: Even though the racial diversity of college-educated adults is increasing, the teacher workforce is not keeping pace. In other words, people of color who could be teachers are increasingly opting out.
This brief outlines how to explore the workforce trends in your state and consider possible policy solutions to create a more diverse teacher workforce.
December 1, 2024
Graham Drake, Heather Peske
When teacher layoffs are necessary, districts with thoughtful policies can minimize disruptions to schools and students, especially those facing greater disadvantages.
November 14, 2024
Hannah Putman
We are failing to give children daily opportunities to engage with a broad spectrum of people and their identities, perspectives, and experiences; and some children see no reflection of themselves in their teachers.
October 24, 2024
Heather Peske
The Ford Model T: revolutionary 100+ years ago, impractical now. Similarly, our outdated classroom model doesn’t meet the needs of today’s students and teachers. We explore the evidence driving schools to reimagine the teaching role.
October 10, 2024
Michael Sheehy
How much does reading policy work its way into classrooms? A new study exploring the state of reading across the U.S. underscores the need for consistent support and monitoring of reading policy implementation to make waves in classrooms.
September 26, 2024
Tina Tibbitts