Education Endowment Foundation:Recruiting, retaining, and supporting teachers

Recruiting, retaining, and supporting teachers

A summary of the evidence for school leaders

High-quality teaching is the most powerful lever we have to improve pupil learning. To make sure all pupils have access to excellent teaching, we must recruit strong candidates into the profession, support their development, and retain them in schools.

This report provides a summary of the evidence for school leaders on how to recruit and retain teachers. It summarises existing research from both the EEF and other sources.

While there is a clear evidence gap, several promising approaches emerge. We found four areas with high potential to improve teacher recruitment and retention:

  • Making teacher workload more manageable
  • Improving access to flexible working
  • Strengthening school leadership and supporting positive school climates
  • Effective use of financial incentives and other benefits

The full evidence summary and a short key findings overview can be accessed below.

School leaders can also explore our accompanying reflection tool, which offers question prompts and practical examples to help you to reflect on how the evidence in the summary could inform action.

For further information about the EEF’s work on teacher recruitment and retention, including research projects we have commissioned, please see our Teacher Recruitment and Retention theme page.