The Top 5 Reasons for the Teacher Shortage

 
America is approaching a crisis point regarding the number of available teachers. Low-income schools are seeing increasingly high turnover rates for their educators, and fewer young graduates are entering the teaching force in the first place.

Many districts are already making significant changes to the way they approach both teacher recruiting and teacher retention in an effort to stem the tide, especially for disadvantaged schools.

Recently, the Learning Policy Institute conducted a report to identify why present and would-be educators are abandoning the trade. The report yielded five major factors districts can focus on to weather the shortage and reverse the trend of declining teaching candidates.

5 Major Factors Influencing the Teacher Shortage

1. Salaries and other compensation
2. Preparation and costs to entry
3. Hiring and personnel management
4. Induction and support for new teachers
5. Working conditions

 
The report provides further detail about the challenges districts may encounter in each of these areas, as well as 15 policy recommendations to help school districts address the teacher shortage.

All these factors point to one important lesson: it takes a holistic approach to overcome the teacher shortage.

The schools that give attention to all aspects of a teacher’s career—from recruitment, to training, to ongoing growth and compensation—will be the schools retaining their best teachers, attracting new talent and providing the best education for their students.