Why are grants being offered?
Missouri is offering teacher recruitment and retention grants to school districts as a state-level strategy to combat the current teacher shortage crisis (Carver-Thomas & Darling-Hammond, 2017; Garcia & Weiss, 2019; Ingersoll, 2001; Ingersoll & Smith, 2003; Podolsky, et al., 2016; Reeves, 2018; Sutcher, 2016). Teacher shortages have been approaching crisis levels in the United States for decades. However, the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020 has increased systemic shortages and impacted Missouri's teacher workforce. Long-term outcomes of the grants include increasing educator preparation enrollment, increasing the quality and quantity of teacher candidate applicants, expanding professional learning opportunities for teachers, and elevating teaching as a profession.
Teacher Shortage Crisis Factors
Increased Demand for Teachers
One of the reasons we have a teacher shortage crisis is that we simply need more teachers than before. Some factors contributing to a greater need for teachers include:
- Increasing student enrollments
- Trends toward offering smaller class sizes
- Increased need for special education teachers
- Increases to graduation requirements and program expansion
Hard-to-Fill Vacancies
Teacher shortages are widespread and are currently impacting the entire teacher workforce, however, some teaching vacancies are harder to fill due to the specialty nature of the position as well as geographical conditions.
Content Area Challenges
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Geographical ChallengesThe teacher shortages are currently impacting both rural and urban areas. Both geographical areas are struggling to attract and keep enough teachers to provide all students access to a high quality teacher. |
Declining Educator Preparation Enrollment
Over the last decade there has been an approximately 30% decline in teacher candidate enrollments. While the gap between entering and completing an educator preparation program has improved with a higher percentage of those who begin a program completing the program, fewer people even enter the program in the first place. The data displayed below reveals the seriousness of the situation that has been continuing over the last decade, however, data revealing impacts of the Covid crisis are not yet available, but it is likely the situation was further worsened due to widespread disruptions in education from the pandemic.
Increasing Non-Retirement Teacher Attrition
It is important to note that “high poverty, high minority, urban, and rural
public schools have among the highest rates of turnover” (Ingersoll et al., 2014, p. 18) and feel the effects of teacher turnover the most, leading to educational inequities due to uneven distributions of qualified teachers (Garcia & Weiss, 2019b). Teacher turnover results in decreases in teacher effectiveness (Carroll, 2007; Garcia & Weiss, 2019a; Sorensen & Ladd, 2018) with teachers teaching outside of their certification area and increases in hiring of teachers who score lower on certification tests, both of which “signal lower quality of education for students” (Sorensen & Ladd, 2018, p. 26 ).
public schools have among the highest rates of turnover” (Ingersoll et al., 2014, p. 18) and feel the effects of teacher turnover the most, leading to educational inequities due to uneven distributions of qualified teachers (Garcia & Weiss, 2019b). Teacher turnover results in decreases in teacher effectiveness (Carroll, 2007; Garcia & Weiss, 2019a; Sorensen & Ladd, 2018) with teachers teaching outside of their certification area and increases in hiring of teachers who score lower on certification tests, both of which “signal lower quality of education for students” (Sorensen & Ladd, 2018, p. 26 ).