How K-12 Public School District Fiscal Incentives Are Impacting Teacher Recruitment: What Do The Data Tell Us?

Abstract

Federal, state and local policymakers have expanded the use of fiscal recruitment initiatives to recruit high quality teachers to districts with hard-to-staff subjects and locations. Yet, sparse empirical research has investigated the effects of fiscal recruitment incentives on the teacher labor market. This study uses data from four consecutive cycles of the Nation Center for Education Statistics’ Schools and Staffing Survey to analyze how district fiscal incentives are impacting teacher recruitment. Results from regression analysis suggest districts recruit more nontraditional teachers when they offer fiscal recruitment incentives for subject shortage areas. Findings also predict when a district switches from not having a fiscal recruitment policy for shortage fields to having such a policy, the same district attracts more high quality teachers, with high quality teachers defined as having a major in the shortage field they instruct. Estimated teachers’ salary equations indicate no evidence of fiscal recruitment incentives in the salaries of shortage field teachers working in districts offering financial rewards to recruit teachers of subject shortage areas.