Dive Brief:

• A survey of 211 California districts by the Learning Policy Institute and the California School Boards Association found 87% of the state's urban districts have a teacher shortage this school year, compared to 75% of districts overall.
• EdSource reports 80% of responding districts with shortages said the problem is worse now than three years ago, and shortages are particularly severe in districts with high concentrations of English learners, students from low-income families and minorities.
• Nearly 90% of districts facing teacher shortages said they do not have enough special education teachers — and math and science teachers were also scarce, with shortages affecting high schools more than elementary schools and cities, towns and rural areas more than suburbs.

Dive Insight:

State education officials have had to make tough decisions about teacher certification in order to address some of the most severe teacher shortages. Utah now allows schools to hire teachers with no prior training or experience. Also new this school year, Nevada districts can issue provisional teachers licenses to candidates who otherwise wouldn’t qualify. In that case, The Hechinger Report writes that one of the requirements for the provisional license is being a licensed teacher in another state.

Beyond teacher shortages, some districts are seeing a shortage of qualified candidates for administrative positions. The Syracuse City School District in New York launched an aspiring leaders academy four years ago to build leadership capacity from within its own ranks. Creating new pipelines is an important strategy for recruitment at any level.