Principals should select a new teacher's initial assignments carefully, set clear goals, welcome feedback, establish an encouraging and nonthreatening environment, and provide opportunities to interact with experienced colleagues and parents. The community should recognize new teachers' accomplishments and invite them to participate in various activities. Salary differentials often pit one state against another. Florida's legislature instructed its department of education to set up a teacher recruitment and retention services office to advertise positions in targeted states, provide information related to alternative certification, and sponsor the Florida Future Educator Program. For critical shortage areas the legislature created a program that forgives loans in exchange for teaching service.
Various organizations participate in South Carolina's recruitment efforts.
It also provides financial assistance, counseling, and tutoring. Regardless of state policies, rural schools and their communities have many tools at their disposal for recruiting and retaining teachers. They can create local programs, possibly in cooperation with a nearby college or university, to attract local youth into teaching. Districts can develop orientation programs and mentoring, and support joint school-community efforts to help new teachers feel more at home. Most importantly, schools and communities should publicize the advantages of teaching in a rural community.