Frontline Blog

The teacher shortage isn’t a new problem. But over the past year and a half, the situation has ramped up drastically, leading to more research on the state (and future) of teacher shortages. Now, a lot of information has come out around teacher shortages over the past few months, including our own updated survey and report.

The end of the school year doesn’t mean the end of recruiting applicants: some districts report having open job opportunities throughout the summer and into the school year. Others manage to fill every vacancy, only to receive late resignations for positions that must be filled by the beginning of the school year.  These last-minute hires can be extremely stressful — and the teacher shortage doesn’t help. But with enough perseverance and the right tools, districts can keep their positions filled all year round.  

Here’s one history lesson you won’t find in your schools’ textbooks.  Have you noticed the deluge of news articles about the teacher shortage lately? Writers across the country declare that there’s a crisis upon us. Without enough teachers, class sizes are increasing and more schools are relying on long-term substitutes to lead classrooms — to the detriment of student learning. The reason for vacant teaching positions varies depending on whom you ask: teaching doesn’t pay as well as other careers, too few students graduate with education degrees, licensing requirements are too strict, or the current political climate is unfavorable to educators. But is this really a new problem for districts?

The Shortage Stats District HR departments and school administrators across the country have all been seeing applicant pools shrink. The teacher shortage is a very real problem: 62% of districts surveyed have a problem finding enough applicants for open positions. Some struggle to find qualified candidates only in specific areas — namely special education and secondary math and science. Others have difficulty finding any applicants at all. “The applicants just don’t exist. We can’t even get applicants for elementary ed positions.”

In a recent survey, we found that two-thirds of all districts have a teacher shortage. That’s a lot of open positions gathering dust while districts stress over finding applicants. And even though that’s a significant shortage of teachers, I wasn’t exactly surprised. What did surprise me is that only 22% of all districts have data on which recruiting methods work and which don’t.

Across the country, districts nationwide have noticed an issue this school year: a substitute teacher shortage. In fact, in a recent survey by STEDI.org, nearly 50% of respondents said they are facing a somewhat or very severe shortage of substitutes.