Is there a shortage of special education teachers in America's public schools? If so, why? And how can policymakers fix it? The first question sounds like an easy one. Yes, there is a shortage of special education teachers. In 2023-24, more than half of districts and 80 percent of states reported such a shortage. If you doubt the self-reported…

The current substitute teacher shortage was exacerbated by COVID-19 and is not expected to improve any time soon. A solution that may benefit both P-12 schools and higher education involves the occasional utilization of university faculty as substitute teachers. This alleviates some of the pressure on school districts in finding substitute…

As the research base in support of dual language instruction become stronger and more widely recognized, dual language instruction program popularity has risen and the number of programs implemented across the United States has grown (Christian, 2018). Demand for qualified teachers and school administrators is high, but teacher supply has not…

Although post-secondary school agricultural education degree programs strive to meet the need of supplying agriculture teachers, the gap between teacher demand and supply continues to exist. The Teach Ag Campaign is a joint effort of the agricultural education profession to recruit and retain agricultural educators and encourage students to pursue…

The teacher workforce in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) has been a perpetual weak spot in public schools' teaching rosters. Prior reports show the pipeline of new STEM teachers into the profession is weak while demand for instruction in STEM fields continues to grow. This paper seeks to document whether and how the STEM teacher…

Historically, teacher evaluation systems have identified few teachers as low-performing and needing improvement. In 2012, at the beginning of a national reform movement, Chicago Public Schools implemented its overhauled evaluation system, which incorporated multiple measures of teaching practice and dismissal plans for low-rated teachers. We find…

Kindergarten through Grade 12 (K-12) teachers with less than 10 years of experience are leaving the education profession at an alarming rate nationwide and have created fiscal and educational hardships in the profession. The early departures of new teachers have vast implications on U.S. education systems at national and state levels.…

Purpose: Research shows that school leadership and working conditions strongly predict teacher turnover, but less empirical work has explored how school leaders grapple with this aspect of their work. This paper investigates how school leaders across diverse geographic and institutional contexts understand human capital challenges and construct…

Purpose: Research shows that school leadership and working conditions strongly predict teacher turnover, but less empirical work has explored how school leaders grapple with this aspect of their work. This article investigates how school leaders across diverse geographic and institutional contexts understand human capital challenges and construct…

Providing Missouri students a highly qualified, appropriately credentialed workforce has grown steadily more challenging over the past decade. Unsurprisingly, the pandemic made it even harder. Multiple surveys indicate Missouri educators' growing dissatisfaction over the last two years. These data, coupled with figures on declining enrollment in…

The past decade has seen declining numbers of 0-4 year-olds while the number of 5-14 year-olds has continued to rise. During this period, most countries increased their financial investment in primary and lower secondary education, improving student-teacher ratios. However, the distribution of teachers remains uneven, with urban areas often facing…

As well as high levels of teacher attrition, most countries around the world report some form of teacher recruitment crisis, exemplified by failed recruitment targets and high levels of demand for new teachers. These issues have reached crisis point in England. The impact of the controversial ITT Market Review, and subsequent accreditation process…

In 2021, California committed to making transitional kindergarten (TK)--a school-based preschool program initially designed for older 4-year-olds--available for all 4-year-olds by 2025-26. As TK becomes universal, California will need to greatly expand the early learning workforce. This brief provides estimates of how many TK teachers California…

Situated against teacher demand problems worldwide, rising teacher turnover and declining teacher education enrollment have rendered the state of South Carolina a region commonly described as facing a "teacher shortage crisis." This paper reports results from an evaluation of the Rural Recruitment Initiative (RRI), a state-level teacher…

Measuring the appropriate level of teacher compensation for different working conditions requires overcoming a number of empirical challenges, including defining and measuring differences in qualifications, effects of non-wage compensation, financial constraints, and lack of market clearing. We address those challenges in a study of teacher…