July 30, 2021
This 30-minute public television program, produced with the REL Midwest Alliance to Improve Teacher Preparation and Detroit Public Television, presents research on the primary reasons that many certified teachers are not teaching in public schools and the core incentives that would motivate them to return to the classroom. The program focuses on the ways state policymakers and district leaders can develop recruitment and retention strategies that could address the teacher shortage by tailoring their efforts to the needs of certified teachers who reside in Michigan but are not teaching in public schools.
This documentary features the perspectives of district leaders as well as longtime teachers, those teachers who have left the profession and returned, and those who are certified but are no longer teaching in public schools. In addition, Leah Breen, director of the Office of Professional Preparation Services at the Michigan Department of Education, shares the state’s strategies for improving teacher recruitment and retention efforts. The program also features researchers Natalya Gnedko-Berry, PhD, REL Midwest, and Lisa Lachlan, PhD, American Institutes for Research, who discuss studies related to the teacher shortage and the incentives that would motivate nonteaching certified teachers to teach in public schools. The researchers provide information on the teacher shortage in Michigan and the importance of incentivizing teachers.
REL Midwest also produced a documentary viewing guide [584 KB 
] that is available for download. To learn more about our work in this area, visit the REL Midwest Alliance to Improve Teacher Preparation webpage.