MUSIC TEACHER LABOR MARKETS: THREE STUDIES ON MARYLAND EARLY-CAREER MUSIC TEACHERS

Abstract

In these three studies, I analyze data from the Maryland Longitudinal Data System (MLDS) to investigate how labor markets for early-career music teachers are related to the ongoing music teacher shortage in Maryland. In the first study, I explore the transition from postsecondary graduation into the public-school music teacher workforce. In the second study, I examine early-career music teachers' retention and attrition patterns. In the final study, I consider the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on these two critical stages of the music teacher pipeline. In the final chapter, I evaluate evidence from these three studies alongside the broader teacher labor market literature to provide policy recommendations that may ameliorate the worsening music teacher shortage in Maryland. Leveraging data from the MLDS, I used a variety of analytic strategies to describe the workforce transition of individuals who graduated from Maryland institutions of higher education with degrees in music education between 2008 and 2020 (N = 700). I used linear probability modeling to examine the individual factors associated with entry into the public-school music teacher workforce in Maryland. I used descriptive statistics to examine the teaching responsibilities of new teachers and the characteristics of schools in which new teachers worked. Finally, I explored the characteristics of high schools from which the new teachers had graduated and how these characteristics compared to the schools in which new teachers were employed. Results indicated that approximately 60% of new graduates entered Maryland's public-school music teacher workforce. The majority (60%) found employment in elementary schools, and 59% taught general music as part of the instructional responsibilities. Overall, new teachers tended to come from high schools with higher overall socioeconomic status, larger student enrollment counts, and student body demographics with higher proportions of White students compared to state averages. New music teachers in Maryland also taught in schools that were a farther distance from home compared to previous national estimates for all teachers. In the second study, I examined early-career music teachers' retention and attrition patterns between 2013 and 2020 (N = 6,430). On average, 74% of early-career music teachers retained their current position each year, 8% moved to a different school in Maryland, and 18% of left public school music teaching in Maryland. Teachers who moved schools tended to have different teaching responsibilities in their new position. About half of the teachers who moved schools changed the grade levels that they taught, and the vast majority of this change (77%) was to an older student population. On average, teachers tended to move to schools with higher average socioeconomic status and to schools whose demographic composition had a higher proportion of White students. I used discrete-time survival analysis to examine the teacher-, school-, and district-level characteristics associated with whether and when an individual would leave public-school music teaching in Maryland. Kaplan-Meier survivor functions showed that half of all music teachers left public-school music teaching in Maryland within their first five years of teaching. Attrition risk was greatest in years two and three. Other factors associated with attrition risk included sex, race, ethnicity, school grade level, aspects of school culture, the student body, school and district urbanicity, and the number of teachers employed by the school district. In the final study, I exploit the exogenous nature of the COVID-19 pandemic to explore its impact on the workforce transition and attrition of early-career music teachers in Maryland. Using an interrupted time series analysis, a quasi-experimental design that can yield causal insights, I demonstrate that attrition of early-career music teachers was likely not impacted by the pandemic. Analyses for the workforce transition were not as conclusive: There was a drop in the workforce entry rate in the first year of the pandemic, but the second year came with a sharp rebound to a much higher rate of workforce entry. Still, the number of provisionally-licensed music teachers, an indicator of shortage severity, has been increasing steadily for nearly a decade. Although media narratives have sounded the alarm on the COVID-19 pandemic’s potential impact on the teacher shortage, it would be disingenuous to suggest solving pandemic-related problems would reverse the trend. I conclude this dissertation with a discussion of policy implications for Maryland local education agencies and music teacher preparation programs. Additionally, I discuss the unique substantive and methodological contributions to the broader music education literature. Substantively, these studies provide a novel framework for examining music teacher labor markets. Methodologically, these studies illustrate a blueprint for music education researchers to leverage the rich data available within the underutilized State Longitudinal Data Systems to explore issues of access, uptake, equity, and pipelines throughout K-12 and postsecondary music education.