Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of financial factors on motivating college students to consider teaching in hard-to-staff rural schools. The role of perceived respectability of the profession was also explored. Design/methodology/approach This work relies on an explanatory sequential mixed-method design, that surveyed college students across all majors at a regional public university, then interviewed a subset of participants to improve understanding. Quantitative and qualitative results were compared and synthesized. Findings Results from an ordinal logistic regression demonstrate the importance of base salary, retirement benefits and respondents’ view of the respectability of the teaching profession as influential for their willingness to teach in the rural target school district. These findings were validated by the qualitative results that found perceptions of respectability had both a joint and separate influence with salaries. Results also demonstrate that most students were amenable to rural teaching and to lower starting salaries than their current chosen occupation, provided their individual minimum salary threshold was met ( x ¯ = 36 percent above the state average beginning teacher salary). Originality/value Few empirical studies exist that examine college student recruitment into rural hard-to-staff districts via a multimodal narrative. This study addresses this, focusing on college students across majors to explore both recruitment into the district and into the profession. This work is relevant considering the financial disinvestment in traditional public education and the de-professionalization of the teaching profession that has led to the recent season of teacher strikes in the USA.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present results from three years of a longitudinal “Assessment Attitudes and Practices” survey collected from a large school district in the Southern USA. Design/methodology/approach This paper focuses on both formative and summative “assessment practices” results from secondary (middle and high school) social studies teachers. Findings There was no statistically significant difference between secondary social studies teachers’ use of assessments and secondary teachers of other disciplines, nor was there a statistically significant difference in assessment use by year. Data results by assessment type were ranked in order of how often teachers claimed to use various assessment practices, and discussed in terms of assessment practices recommended by NCSS. Social studies teachers in this study were often more likely to report use of assessments of knowledge (including selected-response items) than performance-based assessment techniques (such as authentic assessments). Research limitations/implications The lack of statistically significant differences in assessment practices along disciplinary lines indicates homogeneity in the use of assessments that does not do justice to social studies. Practical implications Using Common Core standards or not, having a 1:1 technological environment or not, teacher respondents essentially reported using the same assessments, perhaps because high-stakes assessments did not change. Social implications There is a need for professional development that helps teachers see how performance-based assessments can be used to boost student performance on high-stakes assessments. Originality/value Studies of actual assessment practices (as opposed to ideas about how teachers should assess) are still quite rare, and provide a helpful window in understanding what is actually happening inside schools.

Low teacher engagement and retention are challenges faced by many schools, especially in high poverty contexts. In this case study, readers will draw on feedback and reflections provided by teachers that reflect realistic concerns current and aspiring school and districts leaders are faced with today in an endeavor to respond to these challenges. To aid with this, authors introduce the employee experience approach, a new employee management process that originates out of design thinking and Talent-Centered Education Leadership. Readers are walked through the process of adopting the approach and presented with important considerations to make while doing so.