About

Brendan Bartanen is an Associate Professor of Education in the department of Education Leadership, Foundations & Policy in the School of Education and Human Development, and an Assistant Professor of Public Policy by Courtesy at the University of Virginia's Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. His research focuses on increasing understanding of the labor market for principals and teachers, specifically examining intersections among educator turnover, measures of effectiveness, high-stakes evaluation systems, and educator diversity. Bartanen has been recognized with the 2019 New Scholar Award from the Association for Education Finance and Policy and the Outstanding Dissertation Award from the American Educational Research Association (Division L). He is also a research affiliate of the Tennessee Education Research Alliance, a partnership between Vanderbilt University and the Tennessee Department of Education. His work has been published in leading journals across education, public policy, and economics, and includes research on the impact of principals on school racial composition, the validity of observational evaluations of preservice teachers, and rates of assistant principal mobility. His current projects include investigating race and gender biases in teacher observations, the validity of principal value-added models, and the returns to principal experience.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Sociology
• Pedagogy
• Medicine
• Social psychology
• Psychology
• Statistics
• Mathematics
• Economic growth
• Anthropology
• Economics
• Gender studies
• Mathematics education
• Medical education
• Library science

Selected publications

• The Associations Between Preparation and Pathways and the Composition, Distribution, and Stability of Special Educators

  Open MIND · 2026-01-01

  otherOpen access

  Teacher preparation is a potentially important contributor to the composition, distribution, and stability of the special educator workforce. This study uses data from up to seven states to examine how the prevalence of special educator preparation pathways has changed over time and the extent to which pathways and program characteristics are associated with the composition, distribution, and stability of the special educator workforce.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Associations Between Preparation and Pathways and the Composition, Distribution, and Stability of Special Educators

  OSF Preprints (OSF Preprints) · 2026-02-18

  other1st authorCorresponding

  Teacher preparation is a potentially important contributor to the composition, distribution, and stability of the special educator workforce. This study uses data from up to seven states to examine how the prevalence of special educator preparation pathways has changed over time and the extent to which pathways and program characteristics are associated with the composition, distribution, and stability of the special educator workforce.

  Publisher

• “Refining” Our Understanding of Early Career Teacher Skill Development: Evidence From Classroom Observations

  Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis · 2025-01-10 · 3 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Novice teachers improve substantially in their first years on the job, but we know remarkably little about the nature of this skill development. Using data from Tennessee, we leverage a feature of the classroom observation protocol that asks school administrators to identify an item on which the teacher should focus their improvement efforts. This “area of refinement” overcomes a key measurement challenge endemic to inferring from classroom observation scores the development of specific teaching skills. We show that administrators disproportionately identify two skills when observing novice teachers: classroom management and presenting content. Struggling with classroom management, in particular, is associated with early career attrition. Using a returns to experience framework, we observe improvement in these skills among teachers who remain.

  PublisherDOI

• Tutoring the Tutors: Piloting Online Modules for Tutor Training

  Teachers College Record The Voice of Scholarship in Education · 2025-08-01

  articleOpen access

  Background: Despite intense national focus on the positive impact of tutoring, there is little empirical evidence on how best to train tutors. This is particularly pertinent given that tutors could serve as a potential pipeline into teaching. Objective: This mixed-methods study explores the implementation of modules about developing knowledge for high-quality instructional materials for tutor professional development. Research Design: The modules were distributed and completed within four tutoring-based sites in the United States that are part of a national network for aspiring teachers. Quantitatively, we examined pre-/post-assessment data to probe changes in tutor knowledge and career plans. Qualitatively, we interviewed tutors and their program trainers about their module experience. Conclusions: Results indicate growth in tutor knowledge as well as participant recommendations for specific improvements to technology and module engagement to enhance curricular experience. Findings suggest the value and limitations of tutor training within this model of training intervention.

  PublisherDOI

• Backtalk: Where are the teachers of color? Getting cut out and lured away

  Phi Delta Kappan · 2024-10-28 · 1 citations

  articleSenior author

  Research has shown that having a diverse teacher workforce benefits students, but the population of teachers remains predominantly white, even as the student population becomes increasingly diverse. Andrew Kwok and Brendan Bartanen analyzed data from college applications in Texas and found that interest in teacher certification has declined in the past decade more than interest in other professions. Promisingly, the racial makeup of college applicants interested in teaching is relatively diverse. However, at every stage in the process toward becoming a teacher, the diversity decreases. They recommend that education leaders and schools of education make intentional efforts to reach out to students of color early about the possibility of becoming a teacher.

  PublisherDOI

• (Dis)connection at Work: Racial Isolation, Teachers’ Job Experiences, and Teacher Turnover

  American Educational Research Journal · 2024-10-12 · 7 citations

  articleOpen access

  Teachers of color often work in schools with few colleagues from the same racial or ethnic background. This racial isolation may affect their work experiences and important job outcomes, including retention. Using longitudinal administrative and survey data, we investigate the degree to which Tennessee teachers who are more racially isolated are more likely to turn over. Accounting for other factors, we find that racially isolated Black teachers are more likely to leave their schools than less isolated teachers. This turnover is driven by transfers to a different district and exiting the profession altogether. Consistent with an explanation that isolated teachers’ work experiences differ, they also report less collaboration with colleagues and receive lower observation scores.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Returns to Experience for School Principals

  American Educational Research Journal · 2024-07-30 · 2 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Despite increasing recognition of the importance of high-quality school leadership, we know remarkably little about principal skill development. Using administrative data from Tennessee, Oregon, and New York City, we estimate the returns to principal experience as measured by student outcomes, teacher hiring and retention patterns, and teacher and supervisor ratings of principals. The typical principal leads a school for only 3 to 5 years and leaves the principalship after 6 to 7 years. We find little evidence that school performance improves as principals gain experience, despite substantial improvement in supervisor ratings. Our results suggest that strategies intended to increase principal retention are unlikely to improve school outcomes absent more comprehensive efforts to strengthen the link between principal skill development and student and school outcomes.

  PublisherDOI

• Rethinking principal effects on student outcomes

  Journal of Public Economics · 2024-04-09 · 14 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Why Do You Want to Be a Teacher? A Natural Language Processing Approach

  Educational Researcher · 2024-09-23 · 5 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Heightened concerns about the health of the teaching profession highlight the importance of studying the early teacher pipeline. This exploratory, descriptive article examines preservice teachers’ expressed motivation for pursuing a teaching career. Using data from a large teacher education program in Texas, we use a natural language processing algorithm to categorize into topical groups roughly 2,800 essay responses to the prompt, “Explain why you decided to become a teacher.” We identify 10 topics that largely reflect altruistic and intrinsic (although not extrinsic) reasons for teaching. The frequency of topics varied substantially by preservice teacher gender, race/ethnicity, and certification area. Intrinsic enjoyment of teaching and experiences with adversity predicted higher clinical teaching performance and lower attrition as a full-time teacher.

  PublisherDOI

• From Interest to Entry: The Teacher Pipeline From College Application to Initial Employment

  American Educational Research Journal · 2023-07-15 · 21 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Strengthening teacher supply is a key policy objective for K–12 public education, but understanding of the early teacher pipeline remains limited. In this descriptive analysis, we leverage the universe of applications to a large public university in Texas from 2009 to 2020 to examine the pipeline into teacher education and employment as a K–12 public school teacher. A unique feature of Texas’s centralized higher education application is that it solicits potential interest in teacher certification. We document sharply declining interest in teaching over the period. Further, we show that students of color, men, and students with higher SAT scores are substantially underrepresented in teacher education. Particularly for race/ethnicity, these disparities are only partially explained by differences in interest at application.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Jason A. Grissom

  Vanderbilt University

  13 shared

• Andrew Kwok

  Texas A&M University

  10 shared

• Laura K. Rogers

  Hywel Dda University Health Board

  5 shared

• Aliza N. Husain

  3 shared

• David S. Woo

  University of Utah

  3 shared

• Francisco Arturo Santelli

  Vanderbilt University

  2 shared

• David D. Liebowitz

  2 shared

• Hajime Mitani

  Rowan University

  2 shared

Awards & honors

• 2019 New Scholar Award from the Association for Education Fi…
• Outstanding Dissertation Award from the American Educational…