Over a three-year period from 2016-2019, CMS hired 4,264 teachers. A factsheet from the Education Policy Initiative at Carolina (EPIC) answers key questions about the pipeline of these “new entrants” to the district, as compared with peer district Wake County.

New entrants in CMS tend to be less effective and have lower retention, compared with new entrant peers in Wake County. Thirty-one percent of CMS new entrants entered through alternative/lateral routes, compared to only 17% of Wake County, though CMS hired significantly more teachers of color: 42% of CMS new entrants were non-white, while less than 24% of Wake new entrants were non-white.

When examining student teachers, EPIC found that there is an opportunity to optimize cooperating teacher selection in CMS, particularly given the impact cooperating teachers have on their student teachers’ future effectiveness. Having done their student teaching in CMS and then being hired by the district was a strong predictor of future retention amongst new entrants.