For More Information:
NEA Communications: 202 822-7200

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 6, 2003

News Release

New Guide Offers Best Practices for Recruiting, Retaining Teachers 

"Everything A State Needs to Know - From Soup to Nuts"

Washington, D.C. - Nevada is making teachers out of Mormon missionaries. Maryland is rehiring retired teachers for critical shortage areas. Mississippi is offering a free college education to students who commit to teaching in districts with critical shortages. And California is providing financial and academic support to prepare instructional assistants and teachers' aides to become credentialed teachers.

Teacher recruitment used to be a bland business, consisting of career fairs and trade journal advertisements. But the scramble for teachers is driving many states and school districts to get creative and ditch their old routines.

Backed by solid data and the most current research available, The NEA Resource Guide for Recruiting and Retaining Quality Teachers captures the best practices nationwide for attracting more new teachers and keeping experienced teachers in the classroom. Just released, this new guide offers states and school districts a "Yellow Pages" of programs and strategies for improving marketing and outreach campaigns, providing financial incentives, nurturing and preparing new teachers, and creating nontraditional routes into the teaching profession.

"This guide covers everything - from soup to nuts - that a state or district would ever need to know about recruiting and retaining the best teachers," says National Education Association President Reg Weaver. "No more speculating about what works and what doesn't...this is a readily available resource with answers."

In honor of Teacher Appreciation Week - May 4-10, 2003 - more than 2500 copies of the guide will be distributed to Association representatives across the country for use with local school districts and state education departments.

"A sufficient quantity of talented teachers is the most basic ingredient in creating successful schools," adds Weaver. "We cannot afford to allow the trend to continue where new college graduates ignore the teaching profession or experienced teachers leave it altogether."

The guide is available online.

# # #
The National Education Association is the nation’s largest professional employee organization, representing 2.7 million elementary and secondary teachers, higher education faculty, education support professionals, school administrators, retired educators, and students preparing to become teachers.