Teacher evaluations and support during COVID-19 closures
In this unprecedented time of school closures, districts must walk a fine line regarding teacher evaluations.
Tenure decisions and teacher effectiveness
Tenure serves as a key milestone in a teacher's early career. Tenure status can play a role in multiple aspects...
How evaluation ratings impact teacher pay
Over the last decade, pay reform and teacher evaluations were put forward hand in hand. As teacher evaluations became more...
Ensuring strong and stable substitute teacher pools
What do substitute teacher pools look like across the largest school districts in the country and how can districts use...
You don't get what you pay for: paying teachers more for master's degrees
This month, the District Trendline looks at the role of advanced degrees in how teachers are paid.
Three steps for creating and retaining a strong STEM teaching corps
Districts report the most difficulty not only filling STEM and special ed vacancies but keeping them filled with strong, effective...
The ins and outs of teacher salaries
This month, the District Trendline takes the teacher salary conversation back to the basics. We take a look at how...
Collective bargaining and teacher strikes
This month, the District Trendline highlights the role of collective bargaining in teacher strikes, takes a look at what teachers...
Words matter: the language of evaluation ratings
"What's in a name?" Juliet famously asks as she pleads her case to Romeo...
The use of teacher effectiveness in layoff decisions
Given the importance of great teaching for student learning, including effectiveness data when making layoff decisions is essential.
Teacher transfers: finding the right fit
Teachers are not interchangeable parts in a school district. That's why principals need to have the final say about the district's decision...
How do school districts compensate teachers for advanced degrees?
Among the largest districts in the country, 88 percent offer an increase in pay to teachers who earn master's degrees.
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Does Opportunity Culture bring students more opportunities to learn?
About 20 school districts have adopted new staffing models known collectively as Opportunity Culture, each designed to maximize the impact...
How will the upcoming Janus Supreme Court case impact teachers in each state?
In light of the upcoming Supreme Court oral arguments on the highly significant Janus vs. AFSCME case, we took a...
A new look at performance pay
A new study suggests that offering performance bonuses to a smaller segment of high performing teachers than is typical in...
Location, location, location
Local context matters. It's true when it comes to teacher shortages, and it shouldn't come as a surprise that it would be...
Border walls between states and their impact on kids
Despite how some organizations tend to discuss teacher supply, the United States doesn't have just one teacher labor market, but...
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October 2017: Does low pay shut teachers out of the housing market?
Teacher salaries are always in the news, but in the last few months we've noticed that housing affordability for teachers...
August 2017: Involuntary transfers and reassignment
Every year, shifts in school enrollment, programs, or other factors require schools to transfer some teachers out of their current position at...
May 2017: Differentiated Pay
This month, District Trendline asks the question "Just how common is differentiated pay for teachers?" To answer, we look at...
April 2017: Health insurance premiums
One key component of teacher compensation is health insurance. It gets less attention than salaries and pensions, but as the...
March 2017: Evaluation systems
In recent years, teacher evaluation policy has been front and center in the quest to improve teacher quality. This month,...
January 2017: New year, new Trendline!
District Trendline, previously known as Teacher Trendline, provides actionable research to improve district personnel policies that will strengthen the teacher...
December 2016: Recap of 2016 Trendlines
District Trendline, previously known as Teacher Trendline, provides actionable research to improve district personnel policies that will strengthen the teacher...
Feel the Churn
If there's one thing that research has shown us time and again, it's that being a brand new teacher is...
October 2016: Class size
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, in the 2011-2012 school year, average class size across all public schools in the...
BYOE: Build Your Own Evaluation
Passing a good law and implementing it with fidelity are two very different tasks. Earlier this summer, Indiana University researchers took...
September 2016: Teacher leave
This month, we take a look at how much leave time teachers receive each year and what policies school districts...
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August 2016: Student and teacher school year
This month, we analyze school calendars for the 2016-2017 school year to answer some key questions. Is school really starting...
July 2016: How much time do teachers get to plan and collaborate?
In order to be well prepared for daily instruction, teachers need time without students to plan and collaborate. This month, Trendline...
Teacher salaries - what to expect
In this post, you will learn how teachers are paid, what kind of salaries you can expect, and some tips...
June 2016: Substitute teachers
This month, the Trendline takes a look at substitute teachers' required qualifications, salary, and benefits. We find some significant changes...
The power of partnerships
In the face of all evidence on the (apparently) utter uselessness of most professional development, might there be something that...
May 2016: Teacher Tenure
This month's Trendline takes a look at the length of probationary periods across districts in the Teacher Contract Database and how much...
April 2016: Teacher transfers and mutual consent
In this edition of the District Trendline, we take a look at the policies that govern voluntary and involuntary transfers, plus...
March 2016: Observations
Observations are an essential component of teacher evaluations that receive far less attention than student growth, yet affect more teachers. This...
Déjà vu all over again in Chicago
For all intents and purposes, Chicago Public Schools appears to be out of money—having recently borrowed $725 million just to...
February 2016: Chicago
With contract negotiations in Chicago attracting national attention, this special edition of the Trendline takes a look at how the Windy City...
Better evaluations, better teachers?
As any district can attest, overhauling teacher evaluations represents a huge lift for all involved. The temptation to look for...
January 2016: Layoffs
The first Trendline of 2016 takes a fresh look at our most popular topic from 2015: layoffs.
December 2015: Recap of 2015 Teacher Trendlines
Over the course of the year, the Trendline covered everything from hot topics like teacher evaluation and salary (including this interactive map) to the...
November 2015: The role of student achievement and teacher performance in evaluations, compensation and dismissal
This month, the Trendline takes a look at the role of student growth in evaluation ratings and how districts connect...
October 2015: Length of contracts
This month's Trendline considers the characteristics of teacher contracts and school board policy documents that govern the relationship between teachers...
The $8 billion question
At this point, we figure that everyone else has already written about the more interesting and insightful takeaways about TNTP's...
September 2015: Lifetime Earnings
This month's Trendline updates NCTQ's analysis in Smart Money: What teachers make, how long it takes and what it buys...
July 2015: Teacher Leave
This month's Trendline examines how much sick and personal leave the nation's biggest districts give each year and also how...
Who stays? Following teacher retention from the beginning
Back in 2007, the National Center for Education Statistics began collecting data for a study that would, for the first...
June 2015: Planning and collaboration time
In June's special anniversary edition of the Trendline we explore how much time teachers get for planning and collaboration, the...
A snapshot of substitute teacher policies
Substitute teachers have been in the news frequently as of late. In our most recent Teacher Trendline we laid...
May 2015: Substitute Teachers
In May's edition of the Trendline we explore substitute teacher policies, including education and licensing requirements, pay and health benefits.
Myth Busters: Scholar asserts reports on American teachers' teaching time are grossly exaggerated
The myth: U.S. teachers spend upwards of 50 percent more time in front of their students than teachers in other countries...