Frontline Blog

A few years ago Dr. George Fiore, superintendent of Kutztown Area School District in Pennsylvania, got together with a few of his colleagues — a handful of superintendents from neighboring districts. They looked around at the education landscape and, like most of the country, saw far fewer college graduates intent on teaching.

Of all the districts facing a teacher shortage, 34% say it’s because they have an issue with teacher turnover. You know what that means: you have to go searching for new talent each year.

No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, the Every Student Succeeds Act - all inspiring names, all painting a picture of education in which each student learns to her full potential. But what happens when well-intended laws yield unintended results? (We're looking at you, NCLB.)

The job of superintendent is one of the most challenging in a school district. Meeting school board and community expectations while ensuring high academic performance is no easy task — especially with tightening budgets and evolving federal mandates.  

The recent Learning Policy Institute (LPI) reports on teacher shortages have gotten a lot of attention nationally, from Education Week to NPR to the Washington Post. And with good reason; LPI’s comprehensive analysis casts “the emerging teacher shortage,” as characterized by the reports, in stark light: we face a crisis in the making. Our own forthcoming annual report on teacher shortages, based on a survey of instructional leaders across the country, only reinforces this finding.