Dive Brief:
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Nearly three-quarters of public schools said they had a difficult time filling one or more vacant teaching positions before kicking off the 2024-25 school year, according to the results of a nationally representative survey of 1,392 schools released by the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics on Thursday.
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The percentage of schools saying they didn't experience any challenges in filling vacancies this year increased for both teaching and non-teaching staff, from 9% to 14% and 10% to 17% respectively, according to the School Pulse Panel survey results. The monthly data collection has tracked school resources and experiences since the COVID-19 pandemic.
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A “lack of qualified candidates” and “too few candidates” applying for open positions remained the most common challenges public schools said they faced in filling vacant positions. The percentage of schools saying candidates felt like salary and benefits were not enough dropped for both teaching and non teaching staff.
Dive Insight:
The percentage of public schools that faced difficulty hiring teachers before this school year was lower than the percentage that had challenges in the prior two school years.
While 74% of schools said they had difficulty filling one or more vacant teaching positions prior to the start of the 2024-25 school year, that percentage was 79% in 2023-24 and 80% in 2022-23.
General elementary teaching positions, special education and English language arts positions remained among the most commonly cited by public schools as having at least one teaching position to fill prior to the start of this school year. Special education remained the most difficult teaching position to hire for this year.
Last year's data showed improving sentiment among public schools about their staffing levels. Less than half, or 45%, said they felt their school was understaffed — down from 53% feeling understaffed entering the 2022-23 academic year. NCES expects to release data on school sentiment toward staffing this school year in December, following its October survey.
Public education experts sounded alarms over a national teacher shortage following COVID-19 closures — which prompted early retirements, teachers quitting due to difficult working conditions, and other retainment challenges.
Prior to the 2023-24 school year, teacher shortage data suggested educator vacancies nationwide jumped 51% since the year prior, according to an August 2023 report Kansas State University, University of Pittsburgh and other institutions.
In 2022, the Government Accountability Office, an independent and nonpartisan government agency that audits and investigates agency activity, criticized the Education Department for not developing a "more comprehensive strategy" to support teacher recruitment and retention.
"The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare teachers’ discontent with aspects of their jobs, including a lack of support for their safety and value as professionals and an increasingly disrespectful and demanding workplace culture — and exacerbated teacher shortages nationwide," GAO said.
While the department had laid out a vision in summer 2022 that included investing in a strong teacher pipeline and supporting professional development, GAO said the department failed to clearly communicate time frames and performance measures to gauge results of its plan.
