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…

The Maine Department of Education (MDOE) wanted to better understand if their current educator workforce data collection could help them quantify supply and demand for educators in the state. They also wanted to understand if local school administrative units collected data that could inform future efforts to understand educator vacancies to…

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 last several years have seen an escalation in calls for an adequate response at governmental level to the reality of a teacher supply crisis in Ireland. This article traces the evolution of the crisis, providing important socio-historical context and analysis. It argues that while the issue of a steady supply of teachers has been a feature of…

The Three-child Policy, implemented by the Chinese government in 2021 to boost fertility and address negative population growth, entails considerable long-term unpredictability and affects the allocation of preschool teacher resources. This study uses the cohort-component method to project the population growth of young children (ages 3-6) from…

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…

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…

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…