What will it take to attract, and keep, new teachers?

In today’s expansive job market, with its escalating definition of a competitive salary, teaching is underpaid. Graduates are actively recruited to work in investment banking, consulting, and technology, where beginning salaries average twice those of first-year teachers. Who will become the next generation of teachers? And what will it take to recruit talented people and keep them in the profession? These questions are particularly important since over the next decade, U.S. schools will need to hire an unprecedented 2.2 million new teachers in order to meet demand. Susan Moore Johnson is providing some answers. Moore says mentoring new teachers is especially important. “When schools don’t pay attention to new teachers,” warns Johnson, “there’s a real possibility that they will become bankers.”