The Impact of Incentives to Recruit and Retain Teachers in “Hard‐to‐Staff” Subjects

We investigate the effects of a statewide program designed to increase the supply of teachers in designated “hard‐to‐staff” areas, such as special education, math, and science. Employing a difference‐in‐difference estimator we find that the loan forgiveness component of the program was effective, re...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of policy analysis and management Vol. 37; no. 1; pp. 112 - 135
Main Authors: Feng, Li, Sass, Tim R.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Hoboken Wiley-Blackwell 2018
Wiley Periodicals Inc
Subjects:
Attrition
Cost analysis
Cost benefit analysis
Cost Effectiveness
Dropping out
Forgiveness
High Schools
Incentives
Learning outcomes
Mathematics Education
Mathematics Teachers
Middle School Teachers
Payments
Program Effectiveness
Science Teachers
Secondary School Teachers
Secondary schools
Special education
Special Education Teachers
State Programs
Student Loan Programs
Teacher Persistence
Teacher Recruitment
Teacher Supply and Demand
Teachers
ISSN:0276-8739, 1520-6688
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:We investigate the effects of a statewide program designed to increase the supply of teachers in designated “hard‐to‐staff” areas, such as special education, math, and science. Employing a difference‐in‐difference estimator we find that the loan forgiveness component of the program was effective, reducing mean attrition rates for middle and high school math and science teachers by 10.4 percent and 8.9 percent, respectively. We also find that the impact of loan forgiveness varied with the generosity of payments; when fully funded, the program reduced attrition of special education teachers by 12.3 percent, but did not have a statistically significant impact when funding was substantially reduced. A triple‐difference estimate indicates that a one‐time bonus program also had large effects, reducing the likelihood of teachers’ exit by as much as 32 percent in the short run. A back‐of‐the‐envelope cost‐benefit analysis suggests that both the loan forgiveness and the bonus program were cost effective.
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ISSN:0276-8739
1520-6688
DOI:10.1002/pam.22037