The Teacher Talent Pipelines

Abstract

Issues of recruitment and retention of highly trained teacher candidates has been a consistent issue for rural U.S. schools. Of those teacher candidates hired to work in rural settings, a disproportionate amount have been found to be underprepared for the classroom. This causes high rates of attrition, which has been directly tied to student achievement. The ability to properly train and retain teachers for rural school settings requires a closer investigation of the work being done with and by teacher preparation programs. By providing teacher candidates with place-based instruction and structured support, more novice teachers may find opportunities to succeed in rural settings. Through the process of a systematic literature review, the authors of this chapter have reviewed existing literature from three major databases to synthesize the research connected to recruiting and retention issues in teacher education during a transformative period of virtual instruction and its impacts on rural education.