A Review of the Research on Teacher Hiring in the United States (2001–2021)

Abstract

Hiring quality teachers that best meet localized needs to provide students with authentic learning opportunities is crucial to both school and student success. Despite the clear importance of teacher hiring, especially in the current teacher labor market, a review of literature that synthesizes the entire body of teacher hiring literature has long been missing from the field. This review, which utilizes inclusion criteria for quality in addition to relevance, covers 80 empirical studies in an era of federal accountability (2001–2021) and provides a full portrait of K–12 teacher hiring research. In so doing, we identify what is known while also unearthing the many knowledge gaps that exist due to factors such as sample and methodological limitations. As such, this review of the literature provides practitioners and policymakers with a number of guideposts to help them with hiring decisions. This review also signals to researchers where and how they might build off of the current knowledge base.