Graphic promoting an upcoming webinar titled “Leading Beyond the Classroom: Pathways from Special Educator to Administrator,” scheduled for May 18 at 2:00 p.m. ET. The speakers listed are Abby Foley (Lead IDEA Center Director), Roddy Theobald (SPARC Center Co‑Principal Investigator), LaRon Scott (SPARC Center Co‑Principal Investigator), and Jinseok Shin (University of Texas–Austin, to be determined). The SPARC Center logo and website, sparccenter.org, appear at the bottom.

Join us for an upcoming webinar discussing recent findings about #SpecialEducation teachers moving into leadership positions in VA, WA, & TX. Speakers include LaRon Scott, Abby Foley, @roddy-theobald.bsky.social, and Jinseok Shin.

🗓️May 18th, 2 PM ET
🔗Register: binghamton.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

CALDER Webinar: The Four-Day School Week: New Evidence for District Leaders and Policymakers Featuring Emily Morton and Andrew Camp Wednesday, April 22 at 1:00 ET

📢 Just TWO days away!

Join Emily Morton and @andrewmcamp.com this Wednesday, April 22 @ 1 PM ET for a webinar exploring the latest research on four‑day school weeks—what the evidence shows and how it can inform district decision‑making.

Register ➡️ bit.ly/4rNbwP3

Policymakers/practitioners, interested in improving your teacher hiring? I got a chance to participate in a terrific NASDTEC webinar on recruitment and selection processes.

Here's a recording of the event: www.nasdtec.net/page/PECWebi...

Presidential Essay: AEFP’s Role in an Evidence-Informed Education Ecosystem Historically, the U.S. federal government has invested in education research as a public good, with the implicit assumption that such research can support more efficient and effective educational oppo...

Presidential Essay: @aefpweb.bsky.social's Role in an Evidence-Informed Education Ecosystem via @efpjournal.bsky.social
direct.mit.edu/edfp/article...

Friends - please help amplify and share in your networks.

This small conference will convene multidisciplinary researchers w/ practitioners, non-profit organizers, & policymakers to share cutting-edge research on 🎓+🌎.

We have only 25 spots left. Join us!

CALDER Webinar: The Four-Day School Week: New Evidence for District Leaders and Policymakers Featuring Emily Morton and Andrew Camp

Four‑day school weeks are gaining traction—but do they deliver on their promises? Hear new findings from @nwea.bsky.social's Emily Morton & @annenberginstitute.bsky.social's @andrewmcamp.com on April 22 at 1 PM ET.

Register: bit.ly/4rNbwP3

Excited to talk about some of the research surrounding 4DSWs in just a couple weeks;

Register and join us ⬇️⬇️⬇️

🎙️In part 3 of NASDTEC's series on teacher hiring, CALDER's @cedr.bsky.social shares research from Spokane Public Schools showing how districts can improve teacher hiring with streamlined professional reference ratings.

Listen here: nasdtec.podbean.com/e/wgo-with-t...

Schools Hire Asian Teachers at Half the Rate of Other Groups, Research Finds Asian teaching candidates are more likely to boast an advanced degree, but less likely to get a job offer, according to a study of hiring data.

Terrific Kevin Mahnken piece on our new paper on which teacher applicants are making it through the hiring pipeline. We were surprised by the demographic differences, especially for Asian applicants. Here's the paper: caldercenter.org/publications...

www.the74million.org/article/scho...

There's a related upcoming webinar, too! Info here: www.nasdtec.net/events/Event...

Answering key questions about clinical practice starts with better data. A new CALDER & @nctq.bsky.social brief offers a clear framework and lessons from six states on how to build and use clinical practice data systems.

Read ➡️ caldercenter.org/publications...

Join us this week for the next instalment of the CEPEO seminar series. Dr David Blazar will share his research on the evaluation of a "Grow-Your-Own" teacher recruitment programme in Maryland.

🕒Thu 12th Mar, 3-4pm
📍Online or at B06, Drayton House, WC1H 0AX

Sign up:
ucl.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Promotional graphic that announces the launch of the SPARC Center Scholars Program. It includes that applications are due by May 1, 2026. The SPARC Center logo is featured in the graphic’s bottom left corner and it includes the website sparccenter.org

📢Just launched: the SPARC Center Scholars Program! This program aims to support early career scholars in conducting rigorous research on the #SpecialEducation teacher workforce. Learn more and apply by May 1:

sparccenter.org/sparc-center...

#CALDER2026 really interesting work on school principals

The Effects of Teacher Strikes on Compensation, Working Conditions, and Productivity #CALDER2026 caldercenter.org/publications...

Great paper on the effect of Arkansas LEARNS act on teacher turnover! #CALDER2026 caldercenter.org/publications...

Very cool opportunity for early career researchers interested in special education research:

Apply for access to at least one statewide longitudinal dataset with support from SPARC researchers to conduct a co-developed study on the special education workforce. sparccenter.org/sparc-center...

💡In a recent podcast, SPARC Center’s @afgilmour.bsky.social discusses the primary causes of #SpecialEducation teacher shortages, and how schools can address them.

Check out our new @caldercenter.bsky.social working paper studying the effects of AR LEARNS teacher base salary raises on retention caldercenter.org/publications...

Can’t wait to present and discuss our new results 👇

Title page for "Raising the Floor: Teacher Retention Effects of a Statewide Minimum Salary Increase"

Histograms showing the increase in teacher salaries for beginning teachers and teachers with 5 years of experience. These figures show a large increase in salaries while also showing substantial compression, indicating that pay differentials between districts shrunk.

What happens when you shrink salary differences between districts, increase beginning teacher pay by over $10,000, and compress salary schedules?

@gzamarro.bsky.social, @jbmcgee.bsky.social, @taylornwilson.bsky.social, Miranda Vernon, and I find out in our new CALDER working paper: bit.ly/4l4b5hO

Principal Effects on Teacher Working Conditions Ataur Rahaman & Cory Koedel CALDER Working Paper No. 335-0226 February 2026 Abstract: Research on school principals highlights their role in shaping teachers’ work environments, but most evidence is qualitative or correlational. We provide plausibly causal estimates of how principals affect a broad swath of teacher working conditions using data from Illinois, where the State Board of Education collects detailed and comprehensive information annually on teacher working conditions in nearly all schools. We estimate the variance of principal effects by comparing correlations in working conditions over time in schools that do and do not experience principal changes. Under reasonable stationarity assumptions, the difference in the correlations can be used to back out the variance of principal effects. Unsurprisingly, we find principals have large effects on working conditions related to leadership directly. They also influence teachers’ professional work environments and their interactions with students and families, though their effects on these broader indicators are much smaller, particularly the latter.

What do we know about the impact of principals on teachers' working conditions? New CALDER paper from Ataur Rahaman & Cory Koedel uses data from IL to explore this relationship. 🔗https://bit.ly/4kQRpxC (1/2)

Roundtable discussion flyer for "What's Next? Education Research and Policy at a Crossroads" at Calder Conference 2026 on Monday, March 2. Speakers: Amber Northern, Cara Jackson, Nat Malkus. Moderator: Dan Goldhaber. Logos of Calder Center and AIR at the bottom.

Don’t miss the 17th Annual @caldercenter.bsky.social Conference on 3/2 in Arlington, featuring research on teacher working conditions, retention, and a forward‑looking panel on the future of education research and policy.

Register: caldercenter.org/events/17th-annual-calde...

17th Annual CALDER Research Conference March 2, 2026 8:30 AM - 3:45 PM ET Arlington, VA Register at caldercenter.org

📢 #CALDER2026 is less than TWO weeks away!

Join us on Monday 3/2 in Arlington, VA for a one-day conference featuring research from CALDER experts & discussion between researchers, policymakers & practitioners.

Register ➡️ caldercenter.org/events/17th-...
@cedr.bsky.social @airinforms.bsky.social

While the difference between a five-day school week & a four-day school week calendar seems straightforward, in practice, it can be unclear how different they actually are. New CALDER brief by Emily Morton & Jamie Klinenberg uses TX data to unpack variation in school schedules.

Read 👉 bit.ly/46N5KW3

:15 p.m.—3:45 p.m. Roundtable Discussion: What’s Next? Education Research and Policy at a Crossroads Panelists Amber Northern, Senior Advisor, Office of the Secretary, US Department of Education Cara Jackson, Research Manager, The Center for Outcomes Based Contracting (OBC) at Southern Education Foundation Nat Malkus, Senior Fellow and Deputy Director, Education Policy Studies, AEI Moderator: Dan Goldhaber, CALDER/AIR

We're at a crossroads—what's next for education policy and research?

Join us at #CALDER2026 on March 2 for a roundtable discussion with @carajackson.bsky.social, Nat Malkus (AEI), Amber Northern (U.S. Department of Education), and @cedr.bsky.social.

Register 👉 caldercenter.org/events/17th-...

Just saw @gzamarro.bsky.social give a preview of this work and can confidently say that if you're interested in teacher retention and/or compensation - YOU WILL WANT TO BE THERE.

Just a couple weeks away. Register soon!

12:45 p.m.—2:15 p.m. SESSION III: Who Becomes a Teacher? Selection Across the Preparation and Hiring Pipelines The Beginning of the Teacher Pipeline: Which College Students Apply to Teacher Education Programs? Presenter: John Krieg, Western Washington University Method or Measure? Investigating the Teacher Learning Curve Across Multiple Student Outcomes Presenter: Ben Backes, CALDER/AIR School System Selection Processes and Workforce Composition Presenter: Dan Goldhaber, CALDER/AIR Discussant: Sara Delano, Dean, School of Education, Dallas College

What factors determine who becomes a teacher?

Join us at the 2026 CALDER Conference on March 2 to dig into teacher preparation and hiring pipelines with John Krieg (WWU),
@brbackes.bsky.social, @cedr.bsky.social, and Sara DeLano (Dallas College).

Register now 👉 caldercenter.org/events/17th-...

10:45 a.m.—12:15 p.m. SESSION II: Evidence on What Makes Teachers Stay: Schedules, Salaries, and School Leaders Teacher Retention and the Four-Day School Week Presenter: Andrew Camp, Annenberg Institute at Brown University Teacher Salary Raises and Teacher Turnover: Evidence from the Arkansas LEARNS Act Presenter: Gema Zamarro, University of Arkansas/CALDER R&R Principals’ Special Education Experience and Special Education Teacher Retention Presenter: Roddy Theobald, CALDER/AIR Discussant: Mark Olofson, Executive Director of Education Data, Research, and Strategy, Texas Education Agency

What makes teachers stay? Join us at the 2026 CALDER Conference on March 2 to dig into teacher retention with @andrewmcamp.com, @gzamarro.bsky.social, @roddy-theobald.bsky.social, and the Texas Education Agency's Mark Olofson.

Register now 👉 caldercenter.org/events/17th-...

My anxiety countdown has officially started!