The US Teacher Shortage: A Recruiter’s Survival Guide

Just a few years after the recession caused a widespread number of layoffs of teachers nationwide, US school districts are kicking their teacher-hiring campaigns into overdrive again.

However, as a recent study by the Learning Policy Institute has confirmed, America is currently facing a troubling teacher shortage, which is only set to get worse as the school-going population is projected to increase — by a whopping three million students — over the next ten years.

A hot-button topic in US education over the past while, the widening problem of a teacher shortage has been compounded by the huge decline in the supply of new teachers. Enrollment in US teacher-prep programs dropped 35% in 2014, and the number of educators in training in some states has been cut in half. In a 2016 national survey of college freshmen, the number of students who plan to major in education has reached its lowest point in 45 years.

Baby boomers are retiring — so where are the candidates who can fill their jobs?

Last year alone, US classrooms had a deficit of around 60,000 teachers. And, alarmingly, that number is set to rise further by 2018, with the LPI report projecting that yearly teacher shortages could increase to over 100,000 teachers. While this pinch can be felt across almost every US state, it’s clear that certain states are being hit harder than others. Schools in Kentucky, Oklahoma and especially California, as well as more rural school districts in general, have been significantly impacted by the low numbers of new teachers graduating from post-secondary programs.

Certain subject areas are being particularly hit. Nationally, severe shortages are being disproportionately felt in math and science as well as special education and bilingual education, with schools scrambling to fill these positions. As the number of English language learners in the United States has grown, the supply of teachers for these positions has decreased. Bilingual teachers are fast becoming a rarity throughout the US.

So far, the outlook sounds pretty grim. How can schools reshape their recruitment strategy to avert a teacher shortage crisis?

If retention is key, what helps teachers stick around?

One solution lies in keeping the teachers that we do have in the profession. Right now, high teacher turnover is the most significant contributor to the shortage, according to the LPI report. Attrition is highest in the early years of teaching, with approximately one-third of new teachers quitting in the first five years. Nearly two-thirds of the teachers who leave do so before retirement age. This turnover is costly for the US education system, resulting in billions of dollars lost each year.

Of course, while the reasons why teachers choose to leave the profession are complex, poor school conditions are a huge factor in teacher turnover. New teacher hires can often feel unprepared, frustrated and experience burnout early on in their careers. Many of the states that slashed their education budgets during the recession have yet to return to a pre-recession spending level, which means essential resources like books, supplies and and computers are, more often than not, in short supply.

This puts an additional strain on teachers — and one that’s most acutely felt by fresh-faced, idealistic teachers. New teachers often express feeling demotivated when they lack a say in their school’s decision-making process. Other common reasons cited for leaving teaching range from inadequate administrative support and student misbehavior, to low salaries.

Addressing the issues that negatively impact teacher retention levels is a significant way to reduce the teacher shortage. In order to make headway on the issue of recruiting and retaining teachers in the schools and districts where they are needed most, it’s clear that a systemic approach is needed.

To curb the high turnover of new teacher hires, state education boards are looking to adopt measures including salary increases, improving professional development programs and teacher access to resources, as well as implementing mentorship programs so teachers feel supported early on in their career. While these improvement measures are vitally important, something needs to change now with regards to teacher recruitment strategies — and quickly.

What tactics have schools been resorting to in order to fill teaching vacancies more easily?

An increasingly common — and problematic — solution to the teacher shortage has resulted in schools filling vacancies with under-qualified teachers. Many of these teachers haven’t yet graduated and lack any previous classroom experience. Low-income and high-minority schools have been hit particularly hard by this flawed recruitment strategy. In 2014, four times as many teachers were uncertified in high-minority schools, in comparison to low-minority schools.

This stop-gap measure — hiring inexperienced teachers — isn’t just filling a temporary void. It’s perpetuating a long-term problem that could have wide-ranging ramifications for the quality of US education in the future, particularly for students in some of the most disadvantaged schools and districts. The transformative power of an great teacher is something we have all encountered on a personal level. Truly effective, well-prepared teachers can make school an exciting and interesting place for students.

So, we know that hiring educators without the proper qualifications is not a sustainable recruitment solution for schools, teachers or — most importantly of all — students. Well-prepared teachers are also more likely to remain in the profession. Attrition rates are found to be two to three times higher for teachers who are unqualified, which further fuels the teacher shortage crisis.

More strategic teacher-recruitment practices are needed

Simply put, one of the main causes of the ongoing teacher shortage lies in the maldistribution of teaching talent across the nation. The best educators often do not serve the children who need them most. To combat this, hiring non-local (whether out-of-district or out-of-state) teachers is a tactic more and more schools are using in order to address the teacher shortage. For schools in an area lacking in certified teachers, or who have trouble finding teachers specializing in specific subjects, expanding their teacher search to other districts or states can help them find the higher-quality candidates they so critically need.

The good news is that, in today’s highly mobile society, many teachers will either move or plan to move from one US state to another at some point in their teaching career. State certifying boards are aware of the substantial amount of teachers moving between states, so the process of transferring teaching certifications from one state to another (also called certification reciprocity) has been streamlined by the National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification (NASDTEC) Interstate Agreement for Educator Licensure. 44 states are currently participating in NASDTEC (the six states not currently taking part are Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, South Dakota and Wisconsin).

To gain an advantage in this challenging job market, schools — now more than ever — need to adopt a more modern approach to recruitment. Timing is also crucial: late or last-minute hiring of teachers negatively affects teacher recruitment, retention and student achievement. School heads have a perfect opportunity to leverage online recruitment strategies to reach the qualified teachers they so desperately need.

Effective teacher recruitment should include the following strategies:

Posting job vacancies online on education-specific job boards. Education-specific job boards specially catering to educational professionals, including teachers, principals and curriculum specialists, are where job vacancies need exposure most. These online employment platforms have an extensive online community of active, job-seeking educators, and can be an invaluable resource when it comes to finding teachers of niche subjects. By posting their jobs to online education job boards, schools can potentially reach a high number of job seekers looking for teaching jobs, including non-local candidates.

Posting job vacancies online also have the added benefit of being more cost effective than traditional methods like newspapers, which typically start at $500 USD for a 30-day posting (while Teach Away USA’s online job postings, as an example, start at $350 USD).

Marketing districts is key. As competition for teachers continues to rise, districts need to market themselves and their job openings far more effectively than they have previously. Vacancies posted to existing district websites receive little traction when compared to education-specific job boards.

A branded school district web page hosted on a high-traffic job board, on the other hand, is highly effective in driving teachers to vacancies. Districts need to ensure that their job postings are truly resonating with potential candidates. Including information on the school district’s mission and values, as well as valuable content such as teacher testimonials and video tours, all help to drive engaged candidates.

Promoting job vacancies on social networks. As a recruitment tool, social media platforms can be highly successful in driving qualified job seekers to job postings. While many schools have traditionally been slower to adopt social recruitment strategies, teachers are already using social media to discover potential jobs. Many employment platforms have an inbuilt, engaged community of active job seekers via their social media channels, so these are great options to get job postings seen by those qualified out-of-state teachers.

Using targeted email marketing. Niche teacher job boards have a ready-built community of active job seekers who have actively subscribed to receive relevant job alerts. Schools can purchase direct email campaign packages to target their vacancies to active candidates that closely match their hiring criteria — all while cutting out the noise of unqualified resumes.

School districts will continue to struggle to find and keep good teachers unless they make dramatic changes in the ways they recruit. Generally, districts should try to cast as wide a net as possible when fishing for new talent. Posting on online job boards and social media allows districts to broadcast their job openings to a much broader audience and get jobs seen by out-of-state teachers. This way, school have the potential to grab the attention of thousands of interested educators from across the country — not just the ones who are attending a local career fair or reading the local newspaper.