Staffing At-Risk School Districts in Texas: Problems and Prospects

Teacher supply and demand issues are of critical importance as our society enters the 21st century. Over the next decade, about two million new teachers will be needed largely because of a dramatic increase in enrollments and high attrition rates as an aging teacher workforce becomes eligible for retirement. It is important to understand where these teachers will come from and where they will teach. This is especially important for high-poverty districts that tend to have large numbers of students at risk of educational failure. These districts, which also tend to be disproportionately minority, are already facing difficulty recruiting and retaining qualified teachers. Given this, it is important to ask whether we will be able to staff high-risk and high-minority districts. National data show that these districts are staffed predominantly by minority teachers. Thus, the answer to the question of who will staff these districts revolves around whether we will have enough minority teachers. This report aims to fill part of this information gap by examining demand and supply of minority teachers in Texas.

Mark Berends (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison) is a social scientist at RAND whose areas of expertise include the sociology of education, stratification, organizations, and school reform.

SHEILA NATARAJ KIRBY (Ph.D., Economics, George Washington University) is a senior economist at RAND in Washington DC.

CHARLES SCOTT NAFTEL (Ph.D. Program, Political Science, George Washington University) is a research programmer analyst at RAND in Washington DC.