2025 Update: Latest National Scan Shows Teacher Shortages Persist

This blog is part of the series, Solving Teacher Shortages, which highlights innovative and evidence-based initiatives and explores policy options and other approaches to building a strong and stable teacher workforce.

Despite having evidence-based solutions to increase teacher recruitment and retention, shortages remain a consistent challenge in K–12 education. To better understand how states are experiencing teacher shortages across the country, the Learning Policy Institute (LPI) has conducted annual reviews of state-level teacher workforce reports and state agency data since 2023. The latest scan of state data indicates that little has changed over the past year, with about 1 in 8 teaching positions either unfilled or filled by a teacher who is not fully certified for the role. Given the nation’s average student–teacher ratio, this figure suggests that more than 6 million students nationally are impacted by teacher shortages.

To manage staffing challenges, schools often resort to reducing class offerings and increasing class sizes, solutions that undermine students. Similarly, relying on teachers who are not fully certified can compromise student learning and stability in schools. These underqualified and underprepared teachers are less likely to remain in the profession, contributing to the ongoing disruptions in the teacher workforce.

Measuring Teacher Shortages Across the Country

At the federal level, states must identify teacher shortage areas (e.g., special education, science, mathematics), but there is no publicly available national data that captures the number of teachers who are not fully certified or unfilled teaching positions in each state. To address this gap and to provide a clearer picture of teacher shortages across the nation, LPI’s annual state teacher shortages scan examines state-reported data on these metrics. Each scan uses the most recent state-level data to estimate the number of teaching positions that are unfilled or filled by teachers who are not fully certified for their teaching assignments. For the 2025 scan, all data sources capture the 2022–23, 2023–24, or 2024–25 school year. States vary in their data reporting practices as well as in how they certify and classify teachers.

Not all states provide data on unfilled positions and teacher certification. As a result, our estimates undercount shortages nationally. Table 1 below provides a summary of the estimated number of unfilled positions and positions filled by teachers who are not fully certified from the most recent scan conducted by LPI.

Understanding National Patterns Across Time

The estimates shown in Table 1 indicate that, at a minimum, about 411,500 positions were either unfilled or filled by teachers not fully certified for their assignments, representing about 1 in 8 of all teaching positions nationally. These estimates of teacher shortages have ticked up every year that we have conducted the scan, with larger increases between the 2023 and 2024 scans. Compared to the 2024 scan, the numbers from the 2025 scan represent a small increase of approximately 4,600 teaching positions that were either unfilled or filled with teachers not fully certified for their assignments. National surveys capturing information on shortages have reported slight decreases in the share of schools or districts reporting certain staffing difficulties, suggesting that shortages may have slightly eased in the most recent year. However, teacher shortage trends are not uniform across the country.

For the 46 states plus the District of Columbia with reported certification data between the 2023 and 2025 scans, 35 states plus the District of Columbia saw increases in the number of teachers not fully certified, while 11 saw a decrease. During the same period, for the 18 states with reported data on unfilled positions, 12 states posted increases in the number of unfilled positions and 6 states saw a decrease.

Diverging Trends Across States

To better understand the varied landscape of teacher shortages, it can be helpful to explore specific patterns from state-level data alongside state policies addressing staffing challenges.

Mississippi’s Investments Begin to Take Shape

In recent years, Mississippi has invested in its teacher workforce by implementing the largest teacher pay raise in the state’s history, which was passed in 2022 along with other statewide initiatives, such as the National Board incentive program and teacher loan repayment program. The teacher shortage data signals uneven progress, as the number of not fully certified teachers has decreased, while unfilled positions have remained high. From 2021–22 to 2023–24, the number of teachers using emergency or provisional teaching licenses dropped from 2,234 to 1,023, a 54% decrease. During a similar time period, the number of unfilled teaching positions remained high but fairly stable, with just under 3,000 unfilled teaching positions reported in fall 2024. The consistently high number of unfilled positions in the state reflects unresolved challenges posed by a turnover rate that remained above 23% between 2021–22 and 2022–23. Taken as a whole, the data suggest that an increase in newly certified teachers has only extended far enough to cover positions previously filled by those with provisional or emergency credentials, but this increase has not been able to counterbalance the chronically high rates of attrition in the state.

Growing Shortages in Arizona

Meanwhile, Arizona’s shortage data warn of widespread and deepening challenges. The state’s report card indicates that the number of teachers not fully certified for their teaching assignments increased by more than 60% from 5,072 in 2020–21 to 8,229 in 2023–24, with teachers in Title I schools substantially more likely to be working on emergency or provisional credentials or working outside of their certified field. The Arizona School Personnel Administrators Association’s most recent shortage survey found that 2,261 teaching positions were unfilled as of September 2024, an increase of 30% compared to the number of unfilled positions reported in fall 2020. As reported in the survey, these unfilled positions have forced districts to take away existing teachers’ planning time, use paraprofessionals or long-term substitutes to staff classrooms, increase class sizes, and rely on contractors from private staffing agencies. Arizona’s State Superintendent of Public Instruction identified teacher recruitment and retention as the state’s most urgent problem, noting an example from one Arizona elementary school in which all first-grade classrooms were staffed with long-term substitutes without teacher training. Despite growing awareness of the state’s recruitment and retention challenges, Arizona’s data suggest that staffing shortages have become more challenging in recent years, especially in high-needs schools.

Shifts in Maryland's Workforce as Reforms Take Shape

Maryland’s Educator Workforce Update highlights how certain staffing challenges may have peaked in 2022–23, with the highest recorded numbers of unfilled teaching positions and teacher attrition. Between 2021–22 and 2022–23 the reported number of unfilled positions in Maryland jumped from 1,621 to 2,145 before dropping back down to 1,619 by 2024–25. Over the same period, from 2021–22 to 2024–25, the percentage of teachers working on emergency or provisional credentials increased from 5.7% to almost 10% of the total teacher workforce. As is the case in many other states, Maryland has increasingly relied on these credentials to fill positions that may otherwise be left unfilled. This ongoing reliance has underscored the need for more sustainable and lasting solutions in the state. Maryland is in the midst of implementing the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, a 10-year plan passed in 2021 that includes multiple initiatives meant to improve teacher recruitment and retention, including starting salary increases, incentives for National Board Certified teachers, and pipeline programs to bring more prospective candidates into the teaching profession. In Maryland, the decline in unfilled positions alongside a growing reliance on emergency or provisional credentials suggests that, while reform efforts are underway, long-term solutions are still needed to stabilize the workforce.

It has been more than 5 years since the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the existing teacher shortage crisis. LPI’s annual scans provide a window into the state-by-state landscape of these shortages. The most recent state-level data signal potential progress toward addressing these shortages in some states but confirm that teacher shortages remain a widespread challenge across the nation. The three state examples highlight that progress is uneven even when reforms are underway, and that there is a need for sustained, comprehensive policy solutions rather than temporary fixes.