Is there a national teacher shortage? A systematic examination of reports of teacher shortages in the United States

Tuan Nguyen, Chanh Lam, Paul Bruno

Research output: Working paper

Abstract

Teachers are critical to student learning, but adequately staffing classrooms has been challenging in many parts of the country. Even though teacher shortages are being reported across the U.S., teacher shortages are poorly understood. Determining and addressing teacher shortages is difficult due to the lack of data. Neither the federal government nor the majority of states have provided sufficient information on teacher shortages. To address this gap, we systematically examine news reports, department of education data, and publicly-available information on teacher shortages for every state in the U.S. We find there are at least 36,000 vacant positions along with at least 163,000 positions being held by underqualified teachers, both of which are conservative estimates of the extent of teacher shortages nationally. We discuss the implications of our findings for a robust data system, including more specific and consistent reporting of shortage, as well as implications for teacher preparation and education in the United States.
Original languageEnglish (US)
PublisherAnnenberg Institute at Brown University
DOIs
StateIn preparation - Aug 2022

Publication series

NameEdWorkingPaper
No.22-631

Keywords

  • teacher shortage
  • teacher qualification
  • teacher vacancy

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