Patrick Murphy and Erin Novak, Annie E. Casey Foundation
2002
The Annie E. Casey Foundation is the publisher of this 66-page "resource guide" by Patrick Murphy and Erin Novak of the University of San Francisco. Its goal is "to assist a district in dealing with the myriad of variables that must be considered in developing a strategy to respond to the teacher shortage." Because it is district-focused, it tends to accept the political and policy constraints within which public school systems operate and thus not to tackle the ways by which teacher shortages could be radically reduced via policy action at the state level (e.g. easing conventional certification requirements) and by fundamentally reshaping teacher compensation systems. Within its limits, however, it does a nice job of explaining the ins and outs of teacher shortages and profiling sundry programs that districts might adopt or adapt in order to ameliorate those shortages and strengthen their teaching force. It's more "how to solve your immediate problem," though, than "how to get to the bottom of this mess and come up with sounder long-term policies." You can download it from
http://www.aecf.org/publications/pdfs/teacher_shortages.pdf or order a free copy by dialing 410-223-2890. (For multiple copies, send an email to [email protected])
