Teacher Shortages: Trends, Projections, and What Experts Say
Teacher shortages are widely reported in California and across the United States. But is there more to the story? In a recent AIR event, expert panelists discussed shortages, teacher recruitment, and preparation. Research sheds light on the widely-debated questions of shortages, their causes, severity, and ways to respond.
Event/Highlights
California's Emerging Teacher Shortage: New Evidence and Policy Responses
This recent event featuring California State Senator Carol Liu and Linda Darling Hammond focused on teacher shortages in California in specific fields and regions. Speakers shared new approaches to teacher recruitment, preparation, and retention to help ameliorate the worst impacts of the shortage. See Storify highlights and watch video of the speakers and panels.
Briefs and Reports
Massachusetts Study of Teacher Supply and Demand: Trends and Projections
Massachusetts has often encountered teacher shortages with regard to mathematics, science, English language learners, and special education teachers. AIR developed a comprehensive set of projections of teacher supply and demand in order to inform planning for future workforce needs.
Oklahoma Study of Educator Supply and Demand: Trends and Projections
In Oklahoma, the teacher shortage has reached a breaking point. This report details the results of a study aimed at understanding the extent to which educator supply and demand are in equilibrium for particular subjects and geographic regions, including an analysis of historical trends and future predictions.
A Million New Teachers Are Coming: Will They Be Ready to Teach?
With schools in many areas dealing with shortages, it is especially important that the incoming teachers they do have are well-prepared. This brief describes elements of an effective start-to-finish look at teacher preparation.
Video
Long Story Short: How Can We Alleviate the Shortage of Special Education Teachers?
Blog Posts
Critical Shortages in Special Education Teachers. Sound Familiar?
Teacher shortages may be the most acute problem in special education. In this blog post, Lynn Holdheide and Jenny DeMonte explore the issue and ask, "What drives special education teachers out of that role? And how can we keep them?"
It’s 2016: Do You Know Where the Teachers Are?
Enrollment in teacher preparation programs has been declining since 2010 and the teacher workforce is aging; meanwhile, K-12 enrollment is growing. But AIR's Alex Berg-Jacobson, Jesse Levin, and Jim Lindsay argue in this blog post that those commonly quoted statistics about teacher supply and demand don't tell the whole story.
The Leaky Pipeline: Why Don't New Teachers Teach?
Between a quarter and a half of those who complete a teacher preparation program don’t end up teaching after graduation. In our latest blog post, AIR’s Jenny DeMonte encourages policymakers to start tracking this data to help address teacher shortages and improve the teacher pipeline.
We Need More Testing...Of Our Assumptions
Teacher shortages are making headlines. In this blog post, AIR senior researcher Ellen Sherratt asks, Do we really know why fewer college students are interested in becoming educators?
Teacher Workforce Snapshot in Infographics
How much experience do U.S. teachers have? And how often do they move between schools or leave the profession?
