No abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine selection practices of school districts by capturing the promotion of teachers to assistant principal positions to determine if: there is a relationship between employability and assistant principal promotion (within-school, within-district, and external); and if the state-specific educational leadership policy directly impacts the employability of assistant principal candidates. Design/methodology/approach Principals in the state of Georgia were the unit of analysis, and data collected included personal characteristics of each participant when entering their first assistant principal position, school characteristics of the place of promotion, and type of promotion (internally within-school, internally within-district, and externally). Both descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis were utilized to examine the impact of type of promotion as well as the state-specific educational leadership policy on participant employability at the time of promotion. Findings This study found a significant positive relationship between internal promotion (within-school) and employability as well as a negative association between participant employability and Georgia state-specific policy. Additional findings indicate a positive relationship between combination schools (i.e. grades K-8; 6-12) and participant employability. Originality/value This study advances the HRM literature concerning employee selection by expanding the scope of hiring practices outside of the private sector and provides focus on the public sector, specifically, the public school environment. In addition, the focal position (public school administrators in the state of Georgia) has yet to be utilized in employee selection research in the areas of internal and external promotion. Previous researchers have studied the probability of internal and external promotion based on demographic factors such as race and gender, however, this specific study uses distinctive predictor variables backed by literature to evaluate applicant employability.

Many school administrators face difficulties hiring teachers with the requisite job credentials and qualifications. In this paper, we argue for the potential of salary structures to influence teacher staffing. Specifically, the purpose of this study is to examine whether restructuring teacher compensation salary schedules is associated with attracting larger shares of teachers with the necessary baseline qualifications for the job (i.e., “highly qualified teachers” or HQT) in anon-collective bargaining state. Fixed effects regression using panel data from 2012-2014 for 80 of SouthCarolina’s public school districts was used to address the purpose of the study. The percent of classes not taught by HQT was found to increase as districts become more backloaded. This provides supporting evidence concerning the benefits of frontloading salary schedules. Additionally, potential drawbacks of frontloading salary schedules should be examined to improve the knowledge base of the potential costs relative to benefits of frontloading salary structures.

The purpose of this study was to contribute to the body of literature regarding decisions school leaders make when developing strategic plans to improve student outcomes. This study investigated whether there is a significant relationship between school climate and graduation rates for public high schools in the state of Georgia when controlling for potential covariates. Using an ordinary least squares multiple regression procedure, this study found a positive school climate increased high school graduation rates ( b = .164, p ≤ .01).

While teacher effectiveness literature has suggested a potential promising relationship between test-score-based teacher quality and student test score based growth, the question of whether teachers can improve student dropout rates is not as well understood. Grounding our work based on theories that suggest higher salaries may attract better teachers, we utilize panel analyses on three years’ worth of data (2012–2014) to estimate the potential impact of Florida public school districts’ teacher offerings on their dropout rates. We define teacher salaries in three different ways: (1) districts’ average teacher salary, (2) teachers’ earning potential with a given level of education (i.e., bachelor’s and master’s degree holders) within the districts, and (3) districts’ salary-level offering. Our findings support the assertion that improved pay is positively related to lower student dropouts. This finding contributes significantly to the teacher quality, teacher salary, and the high school dropout prevention literature and has policy implications.