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Solving Teacher Shortages

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

Solving Teacher Shortages blog series

Showing 10 of 14 results
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White text over a darkened photo of a teacher working with students on a science project: Solving Teacher Shortages: The Future of the Teacher Workforce
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| It’s estimated that more than 300,000 teaching positions in the United States were either unfilled or held by people who were not fully qualified but, as pressing as it is to get qualified teachers in classrooms immediately to address shortages, effective policy must also focus on recruiting a well-prepared and diverse pool of candidates, along with retaining effective educators.
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White text over a darkened photo of a teacher wearing a mask helping a student: "Solving Teacher Shortages: New Year Policy Actions"
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| As we ring in 2023, educators are leaving the teaching profession in record numbers. Federal policymakers should take action with a focused and purposeful set of policies to strengthen the educator workforce.
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Solving Teacher Shortages: Understanding Teacher Salaries
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| Research illustrates the importance of teacher salaries in recruiting and retaining an effective and diverse teaching workforce. As teacher shortages continue to be a challenge for districts around the country, a state-by-state analysis provides policymakers and others with a valuable tool for understanding teacher salaries, including how their state’s compensation metrics compare to those of other states.
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Solving Teacher Shortages: The Federal Role
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| One significant contributor to longstanding teacher shortages, made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic, has been an underinvestment in the teacher pipeline. Fortunately, federal spending packages currently under consideration contain funding that has the potential to help effectively address the school staffing crisis. Proposed funding would support high-quality and affordable educator preparation, an important tool for improving retention.
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Solving Teacher Shortages: Causes and Solutions
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| The pandemic has exacerbated teacher workforce issues that have persisted for at least a decade. Because of these long-standing conditions, even small changes in teacher supply and demand during the pandemic have resulted in serious disruption for schools already struggling to fill teacher vacancies. Research points to ways districts and states can address the immediate crisis and build for the future.
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Solving Teacher Shortages: COVID-19 Intensifies Crisis
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| The current staffing crisis in public schools is taking center stage in communities throughout the country. Long-standing teacher shortages, combined with COVID-19-related absences, are stretching schools to the breaking point. Policymakers need to act quickly and strategically to address the mounting crisis and build for the long-term. Research provides a clear roadmap to guide their efforts.
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Trump’s “Skinny Budget” Would Put Educators’ Learning on a Starvation Diet
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| Like the movie “Groundhog Day,” the President’s 2018 education budget proposal feels like déjà vu all over again. Last year, we published a blog post that addressed the President’s proposed cuts to the Every Student Succeeds Act. Fortunately, the Congress that developed the Act and passed it in a strongly bipartisan vote in 2015 protected its key features. This year, in the President’s new budget proposal, however, those cuts are back.
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| The National Writing Project’s College, Career, and Community Writers Program demonstrates the power of effective professional development. Through this program, experienced teachers share their knowledge, and the collective program knowledge and resources with new program participants, providing the type of leadership opportunity that research shows can be critical to the growth and satisfaction of veteran educators.
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Service Scholarships and Forgivable Loans: Investing in Excellent Teachers for America’s Students
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| Around the country, school districts are struggling to attract and retain high-quality teachers. This blog, the latest in our series on Solving Teacher Shortages, discusses the effectiveness of service scholarships and forgivable loans at recruiting excellent educators. These programs can attract more diverse teacher candidates and—because they tend to recruit a more stable workforce—can reduce recruitment and training costs associated with turnover.
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| CTE helps prepare young people for success in both postsecondary education and a range of high-wage, high-skill careers and is a critical engine for our economy. Right now, however, our nation is facing a serious shortage of CTE teachers that undermines quality and limits course access. This blog details how reauthorization of the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act creates a vehicle to address shortages and strengthen CTE offerings.