Selection in Teacher Hiring Pipelines and Implications for Workforce Diversity

• In Event: The Teacher Pipeline Under Pressure: New Evidence on Interest, Certification, Hiring, and Retention

Abstract

This paper examines how school system hiring processes shape the racial and ethnic diversity of the educator workforce. While prior research has emphasized the importance of diversifying the teacher labor force—given evidence that students benefit from having demographically similar teachers—less is known about how hiring practices contribute to or mitigate disparities. We address this gap by analyzing novel administrative data that track applicants through multiple stages of the hiring pipeline across 18 public school districts and 24 charter school organizations.

We conceptualize hiring as a multi-stage process, including initial eligibility screening, district-level review, school-level engagement (e.g., interviews), and job offers. This structure allows us to examine where in the pipeline disparities arise. Our results show that non-White applicants are significantly less likely than White applicants to advance through early stages of the hiring process. These disparities are most pronounced in centralized screening stages, where decisions are based largely on application materials rather than personal interaction.

However, conditional on reaching later stages involving direct engagement with school personnel, Black and Hispanic applicants are as likely as White applicants to receive job offers. This pattern suggests that early-stage screening processes play a central role in generating observed disparities in hiring outcomes. In contrast, Asian applicants are less likely to advance at every stage of the process, resulting in substantially lower overall hiring probabilities.

We also document meaningful heterogeneity across organizational contexts. Charter schools and schools serving higher proportions of underrepresented minority students are more likely to hire Black and Hispanic applicants relative to traditional public school districts. These findings indicate that hiring practices are responsive to local contexts and may partially offset broader pipeline disparities.

Overall, our results highlight hiring as a critical and understudied mechanism shaping workforce diversity in education. Rather than reflecting preferential treatment for underrepresented groups, the evidence suggests that disparities emerge primarily through early-stage screening. Policies aimed at improving workforce diversity may therefore benefit from focusing on hiring processes, particularly the criteria and tools used in initial applicant evaluation.

Authors

• Dan Goldhaber, American Institutes for Research
  Non-Presenting Co-Author

• Aaron Sojourner, W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research
  Presenting Author