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…

In recent discussions on teacher shortages in Flanders, the spotlight increasingly turns to teacher education as a crucial (f)actor in addressing the issue. This study uses positioning theory to examine the spaces and possibilities offered to teacher education in the Flemish policy debate on teacher shortages. Drawing on data from seven…

Educator labor markets vary considerably across the country and can change quickly during recessions. We use data from the Quality Workforce Indicators (QWI) on educators in Elementary and Secondary Schools from 2000-01 to 2022-23. We demonstrate how to transform the quarter-level data in the QWI to construct valid educator labor market measures.…

The aim of this paper is to analyse teacher shortage in Croatia and ways in which educational policy reacts to teacher shortage in early childhood education and primary education. This paper presents descriptive study of current national shortage situation and a content analysis of national education policy documents. The data analyses reveal a…

"Grow Your Own" (GYO) programs have recently emerged as a promising approach to expand teacher supply, address localized teacher shortages, and diversify the profession. However, little is known about the scale and design of GYO programs, which recruit and support individuals from the local community to become teachers. We conduct a…

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…

Despite enacting well-intentioned policies to improve teacher recruitment and retention, many states continue to face significant staffing challenges, particularly in high-need schools and hard-to-staff subjects such as math, science, and special education. Two years ago, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) set out to explore the…

Problematizing the notion of teacher shortage, the author asserts the complexity of intersecting systems that impact teacher pathways and school staffing. By assuming a collective responsibility for supporting teachers from pre-service into in-service roles, stakeholders can work across these systems to enact local solutions. Data from the City…

The Colorado Department of Higher Education (CDHE) and the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) determined that an effective strategy for addressing teacher shortages and filling hard-to-fill positions in remote geographic locations is to offer repayment of educational loans for those who fill these positions. The Loan Forgiveness Program…

This is the fourth in a series of annual reports about teacher shortages in Michigan that the state legislature requested in December 2020 (2020 PA 316). Informed by our previous reports and newly available data from the 2023-24 school year, this report provides an updated view of teacher shortages throughout Michigan. The report shows recent…

In the New England area, schools and districts face challenges in recruiting teachers for remote rural schools, offering competitive pay with other industries, particularly for CTE teachers, and declining enrollment in teacher preparation programs. Region 1 Comprehensive Center (R1CC) and Region 2 Comprehensive Center facilitated three virtual…

We develop a conceptual framework for understanding and predicting teacher shortages at the state, region, district, and school levels. We then empirically examine how teacher shortages vary geographically and by subject using data on unfilled teaching positions in Tennessee traditional public schools during Fall 2019. We find that teacher…

Teacher hiring is a critical lever for improving school outcomes. However, the availability of supply is a significant barrier that affects principals' processes for teacher staffing. Drawing on sensemaking theory and concepts of fit, this study investigates how principals make sense of recruitment and hiring in a local labor market with severe…

News headlines across the country continue to include policy updates, new strategies, and other information relating to the continuing teacher shortage in the United States. School-based agricultural education is not immune to the teacher shortage. Agriculture teacher shortages have been documented for more than a century. Extensive research has…

This qualitative descriptive study explored how special education teachers described their retention practices in a specialized school in the northeastern District of Columbia. The most significant issue districts face in staffing schools with qualified teachers is not the lack of certified teachers overall but a chronic and continuous…