Factors influencing the local supply of teachers.

摘要

Today's teacher shortage in difficult-to-staff schools has become a persistent issue in education. Despite a number of incentive programs aimed at increasing the supply of teachers into these schools, each year districts and schools across the country continue to struggle to adequately staff their schools. If more effective solutions to this problem are not found, the cycle of inadequate education in our nation's hard-staff-schools will continue, and new generations of public school-educated students will suffer the consequences. Solving this problem requires an understanding of the dynamics of teacher labor markets. This dissertation contributes to our understanding of the teacher labor market, particularly teacher supply, with three distinct papers. The first paper explores the unequal allocation of effective teachers across schools. A general overview of the characteristics of the teacher labor force is presented with particular attention paid to those qualifications that have been linked to increasing student outcomes. The systematic sorting of teachers across schools is addressed, as well as the factors that govern these distributional patterns. The second paper identifies how teachers' preferences for geographic location differentially impact the supply of teachers across schools. Teachers are found to have a particular affinity for teaching near the town in which they attended high school. When compared to other occupational markets the preference for living close to one's hometown stands out as a feature unique to the teacher labor market. The implications of teachers' strong preferences for living close to home for hard-to-staff schools are explored. The final paper examines the role community colleges play in postsecondary educational attainment and the preparation of teachers for the labor force. Using propensity score stratification and instrumental variables techniques, the availability of and attendance at a community college are both found to have a negative effect on bachelor degree attainment and entry into the teacher labor market.