This rapid evidence assessment identifies areas for future research on teacher quality, recruitment and retention, with
the aim of informing the focus of the Education Endowment Foundation’s (EEF’s) future research commissioning on
this topic. Given that ensuring access to quality teaching for disadvantaged pupils is expected to be a key mechanism
for narrowing the disadvantage gap in attainment, there is a strong rationale for the EEF to build the evidence base on
the recruitment and retention of quality teachers. The report set out to scope the field and summarise existing evidence
on this topic. The report also identifies gaps in the research; for example, areas that have been researched qualitatively
but not investigated experimentally or developed into a testable intervention.
The rapid evidence assessment includes two reviews, each summarising a key area of research:
- Review 1 focused on measures of (or proxies for) teacher quality commonly used in the literature.
- Review 2 focused on strategies for the recruitment, retention and distribution of quality teachers to schools
serving disadvantaged communities
