How College Scholarships Shape Teacher Recruitment

• In Event: New Evidence on Teacher Recruitment and Workforce Diversity

Abstract

Motivation
Scholarships for prospective teachers are widely promoted as a strategy to address persistent teacher shortages and diversify the teacher workforce (Carver-Thomas, 2018), yet rigorous causal evidence on their effectiveness remains limited with existing causal studies focusing on slightly different contexts such as loan-forgiveness programs (Jacob et al., 2024) or post-baccalaureate fellowships to encourage already licensed teachers to work in high-needs schools (Steele et al., 2010). This study examines whether three scholarship programs in Maryland—the federal TEACH Grant (roughly $4,000 per year, Teaching Fellows for Maryland (covering full tuition and room/board), and the Workforce Shortage Student Assistance Grant (roughly $4,000 per year)—improve both near-term financial aid outcomes and longer-run entry into teaching. 

Research Questions
The study asks:
(1) Do teacher-focused scholarships increase total grant aid and reduce loans?
(2) Do they improve degree completion, teaching degree receipt, and entry into Maryland public-school teaching?
(3) Do effects differ across scholarship designs and across racial groups? 

Data and Methods
The analysis uses administrative data from the Maryland Longitudinal Data System for 2015–2025. The sample includes second-year students at participating four-year institutions who are education majors, or who have completed at least two education courses, and who filed the FAFSA. Two complementary approaches are used. First, covariate-adjusted regression models estimate associations between scholarship receipt and outcomes. Second, fuzzy regression discontinuity designs exploit prior-year GPA eligibility thresholds for the TEACH Grant (3.25 GPA) and Teaching Fellows for Maryland (3.3 GPA) to estimate intent-to-treat effects of scholarship eligibility. Because the Workforce Shortage program lacks a comparable cutoff, it is examined only in the associational analyses. 

FindingsResults differ sharply by program design. In associational models, receipt of all three scholarships is linked to more favorable outcomes, but these estimates likely reflect selection into receipt. In the preferred regression discontinuity analyses, TEACH Grant eligibility has no meaningful effect on degree completion or entry into teaching. One likely explanation is that TEACH does not increase total scholarship support or reduce loans in a meaningful way. By contrast, Teaching Fellows for Maryland, a more generous scholarship, produces meaningful gains in teacher pipeline outcomes. Eligibility increases teaching degree completion within four years by about 13 percentage points and becoming a Maryland public-school teacher within five years by about 10 percentage points, roughly a 50% increase over the control-group mean. 

Equity and Policy Implications
Positive effects of Teaching Fellows appear concentrated among white students, with less clear evidence of comparable gains for Black students. Black students are underrepresented among Teaching Fellows recipients relative to their representation among education majors and college students statewide, raising concerns about whether scholarship access and design align with diversification goals. Overall, the findings suggest that scholarship generosity, debt reduction, and interaction with broader aid packaging matter greatly for teacher recruitment policy.

Author

• David Blazar, University of Maryland, College Park
  Presenting Author