Frontline Blog

Let’s talk Generation Z.

The teacher shortage isn’t anything new – and neither are the day-to-day challenges that come alongside it. This widespread issue has become even more glaring in recent years. School districts are experiencing high turnover rates — which can lead to a massive interruption of student learning.

The status of absence management within school districts throughout the pandemic has been a consistent topic on Talk Data to Me. As teacher absence rates have consistently climbed back to pre-COVID levels this school year, states have had varying success in rebuilding their substitute teacher pools and increasing the proportion of available substitutes who actively fill absences.

There is no denying that a school’s greatest resource is its teachers. Good teachers who deliver quality instruction help produce greater educational outcomes for their students. A school or district that can recruit many of these highly effective teachers can create a climate of success, providing students with lasting learning.

Substitute teacher shortages have been widely reported in national and local media outlets across the country. The shortages are so severe in some areas that they have forced school closures. Data from the Frontline Research & Learning Institute has consistently shown pandemic-induced drops in absence fill rates (the percent of teacher absences being filled by substitute teachers) and smaller than usual substitute teacher pools.

There has been a lot of recent discussion in K-12 spheres, including in past Frontline blogs, about the ongoing teacher shortage. Not only does the problem of large numbers of job openings with limited numbers of applicants available to fill them apply to teaching positions, but it also persists for mental-health-related positions.

An online search for “teacher shortage” will quickly return 435,000 results. Each day yields more headlines about school districts who struggle to hire enough teachers — more than half of school districts we surveyed in 2016 said they were experiencing a shortage.  

This past year, K-12 has tackled a mind-boggling number of new challenges as COVID-19 threw a wrench into nearly every aspect of our lives. However, one obstacle that many districts continue to face has posed a problem for years: the teacher shortage. And as you can expect, the pandemic certainly did not make the shortage any easier.