This is equivalent to one out of every 10 doctor positions going unfilled or going to someone who hasn’t yet completed medical school. We do not stand for that in healthcare, and it should be equally unacceptable for education. 

Every child deserves a qualified teacher, making teacher recruitment essential.

Despite this, the federal government is moving in the opposite direction. The pandemic-era funding to support school districts has expired, and the current administration has canceled $600 million in educator preparation grants and proposed eliminating $2.2 billion in grants that support educator recruitment, retention, and professional development.

This is troubling. Although numerous policies and reforms have been attempted to improve student outcomes, from increased spending per pupil to a longer school day, ample research confirms that to student learning outcomes than any other aspect of schooling.

Ample research has proven that boosting student learning depends on . That includes those who are not only trained and certified, but are innovative, enthusiastic and continually adhere to recommended best practices.

Furthermore, recruiting more teachers is one of the most cost-effective strategies, by far, for improving learning, according to a . For every tax dollar spent on school improvement, teacher recruitment has a higher return on investment in terms of student learning gains than almost anything else. 

Given this finding, anyone who cares about good government, efficient spending and smart policymaking should be advocating for and investing in teacher recruitment initiatives.

Effective teacher recruitment is also good for the economy. One well-trained teacher will influence thousands of students over the course of their career.  

Students who have more effective teachers are  to attend college, earn higher salaries, live in higher-income neighborhoods and save more for retirement. All of this results in GDP growth and more tax revenue. 

Additionally,  that the U.S. will be less economically competitive in the 21st century without a stronger teacher workforce, particularly in math and science.

Even as the federal government ignores the problem, state governments and education nonprofits are recognizing the educational and economic payoffs to teacher recruitment and are advocating for resources and legislation that recruit more teachers.

More than 30 states have invested in financial incentives to recruit teachers, with and leading the way with the most sizable investments. 

Nine state departments of education have partnered with  to launch a statewide teacher recruitment system. TEACH rebrands the teaching profession by dispelling myths and misperceptions and assists prospective teachers in overcoming barriers to entry, such as navigating the training and certification process, finding financial aid and passing certification exams. 

In 17 states,  attracts diverse talent into teaching by giving college students an opportunity to explore the profession through its Teaching Fellowship. Many college students are considering teaching but want more exposure before making a commitment. 

Through a paid, nine-week summer program, Breakthrough’s teaching fellows complete 100-plus hours of training, teaching and mentorship — building real classroom skills and leadership confidence. Breakthrough then partners with graduate schools, other certification programs and TEACH to ensure fellows have clear, supported routes into teaching careers.

These approaches recognize that there are tens of thousands of young people who consider teaching but are stopped by misperception barriers or practical hurdles. The only way we can address the teacher shortage is by proactively identifying these individuals and supporting their path into the field.

This is what the U.S. military does to recruit. This is what Fortune 500 companies do. This is what we need to do for the teaching profession.

Amid the federal rollbacks and growing demand for more teachers, philanthropy can play a significant role here in supporting efforts to recruit teachers. By investing in recruiting teachers — who will go on to inspire and engage their students — we are investing in the educational and economic future of our country in more ways than one.

The revealed that of the 16 states that require districts to offer paid parental leave, only two — Arkansas and Delaware — give teachers their full wages up to 12 weeks. Six other states offer partial pay for up to three months.

Access to paid leave decreases postpartum depression and boosts the likelihood that employees will return to their jobs after having a child, according to the study. Multiple national medical organizations a minimum of 12 weeks of paid time off for new parents.

The number of large school districts offering paid parental leave has in the last three years, from 27 to 64. About 40 are located in states that don’t require the benefit. While this shows district-level progress, the lack of state mandates allows schools to refuse to take action, said Heather Peske, NCTQ president.

“What we know is that leaving it up to districts leaves too much to chance, and it leaves too many teachers high and dry,” she said. 

A 2024 by RAND Corp. found that 32% of teachers have access to paid parental leave, compared with 46% of similar working adults. Of those who received the benefit, 46% of teachers thought it was an adequate amount, compared with 78% of other adults.

The new report highlighted Arkansas as a , saying it’s a prime example of why states need to enact paid leave requirements. An optional program created in 2023 allowed the state and districts to evenly split the cost of substitutes who covered for teachers who were absent for up to 12 weeks. But only 10% of districts participated. 

Last year, lawmakers changed it to a mandatory, state-funded benefit that covered the full cost of long-term substitutes. The study said results of the new program are still unknown because it only took effect in August.

Washington state offers teachers the most time off: 12 to 16 weeks that can be extended to 18 in cases where pregnancy or birth complications arise. But the state offers only partial pay.

Maryland has a cap of $1,000 per week during parental leave, while Minnesota’s program covers between 55% and 90% of teachers’ salaries, depending on income level. In 2019, New Jersey increased its for eligible workers — including teachers — from 66% to 85% of their average wage. That change resulted in a 70% hike in program participation.

Seven states and the District of Columbia provide educators with full pay, but for a shorter amount of time, like six or eight weeks.

In , lawmakers debated in 2018 whether paid parental leave was the best use of limited state dollars, according to the study. Following months of advocacy, Delaware eventually created the nation’s first paid parental leave program for teachers, which NCTQ considers to be a model policy. It offered 12 weeks off, funded by an employee payroll contribution of less than 1%, and the state reimbursed districts for the cost of long-term substitutes. About 3% of teachers used the paid leave benefit in 2024.

“If states reimburse districts the cost of long-term substitutes, districts need only maintain normal operating costs by paying teachers’ salaries as usual,” the study said. “This policy ensures that educators receive their full pay during leave, while having minimal impact on the state’s overall budget.”

NCTQ also recommends that states extend paid parental leave to all teachers who become parents, including fathers and educators who foster or adopt children. About one-third of states that provide paid leave offer reduced benefits for non-birthing parents or none at all. 

“Research shows that when both parents have access to paid leave, families grow stronger, children are healthier and women experience greater career outcomes,” Peske said. “Ensuring leave benefits for all parents helps attract and retain talented teachers in the classroom.”

The , published Thursday by the left-leaning , polled 309 K-12 teachers from 38 states and Washington, D.C., with fewer than five years of experience in February about educator retention. 

The issues that have been driving teachers away have worsened in recent years, said Weadé James, one of the survey report’s authors. 

“Teachers are expected to be all things to their students. Not just an instructor, but also a counselor … and then when you factor that into the changes we’ve seen in our economy — teachers cannot afford to live,” she said. “We’ve seen this issue become more prominent in the last 10 or 15 years.”

Nearly 70% of respondents said they have considered quitting or have already left their teaching job. When asked why, 77% said working conditions, including student behavior; 73% chose lack of support, such as professional development; and 69% said insufficient compensation. Other reasons included low student achievement and limited advancement opportunities.

While nearly two-thirds said they received resources or programming from their school during their initial year in the classroom, the majority still felt unprepared to properly teach English learners and students with disabilities.

“Many induction programs are one year,” James said. “You get that intensive support in your first year only, and [schools] neglect to recognize that new teachers are still developing and honing their skills through year five.”

About 80% of respondents said their induction programs included mentorship, and 78% said they received professional development. After their programs ended, teachers felt the most prepared to foster relationships with students, provide data-informed instruction and assess progress in learning.

When it came to compensation, about 64% of teachers surveyed said they disagree or strongly disagree that their pay reflects their area’s cost of living. Only 16% said they are adequately paid for the work they do, while 15% said their salary is high enough to support their family.

Respondents were asked to rank policy issues in order of importance for improving early-career teacher retention. Their top three were pay, benefits and mental health support. Teachers surveyed also want access to affordable housing, high-quality professional development and career advancement.

The most popular solution to low pay, chosen by nearly half of respondents, was to increase salary floors for all positions. With the national average starting teacher salary at $46,526, many educators are making less than what they need to live comfortably in any state, according to the survey. Salary floor increases were in New Mexico, where teachers now make between $55,000 to $75,000, depending on their license.

Other suggestions for improving compensation included eliminating student debt, giving additional pay for performing extra duties and providing raises for teachers in hard-to-staff schools and subject areas.

Teachers surveyed said an increase in sick time would be the best employee benefit a school could offer. Respondents also wanted more paid time off, lower health insurance costs, better insurance coverage, parental leave and a retirement account with employer contributions.

The survey found that teachers with access to paid maternity or parental leave were 11% less likely to consider quitting than those without either option. 

The most common suggestion about how to support teacher well-being was to include time off for mental health days in employee contracts. In 2022, Illinois that allowed teachers to use sick time for mental health days. 

Teachers surveyed said they also need mandated planning time during the day — a change that can improve working conditions, said report co-author Paige Shoemaker DeMio.

“When teachers don’t have enough time in their days to do other aspects of their job — planning for the instruction, grading, contacting parents, analyzing student data — that is really impactful on their working conditions,” she said. “It’s causing a lot of stress, and it’s also causing teachers to spend a lot of time outside of their day doing additional work.”

Our conclusion: Targeting bonuses to educators in high-needs areas — beyond the additional pay for seniority and advanced degrees that most teachers enjoy — would help equalize access to high-quality educators, rectify per-pupil spending inequities between schools with high proportions of low-income students and their more advantaged peers, alleviate shortages in specialty areas such as STEM and special education, and reduce teacher turnover at high-poverty schools.

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Yet despite the and , bonus pay for teachers in specializations like STEM, special education and bilingual education, and for those working in high-poverty schools, is still shockingly uncommon. on 148 collective bargaining agreements in large districts shows that fewer than 1 in 6 (15%) offered any differentiated pay for teachers working in schools with large proportions of low-income students. Even where extra pay for other shortage areas (e.g., special education) ostensibly exists, the financial incentives are usually nominal and often require activation by school boards or other entities through processes that lack transparency and accountability to parents and taxpayers, which, in turn, renders them ineffective.

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So why isn’t more being done to build a better system that provides equal access to high-quality teachers and fairer per-pupil spending?

Unions are the most formidable barrier to bonus pay in high-need schools and specializations. In a 2022 piece for The New York Times, Thomas Toch of Future Ed : “For their part, teachers unions, influential voices on state and local staffing policy, tend to back expensive strategies that benefit every teacher rather than concentrate resources where there’s clear need. An American Federation of Teachers shortage task force in July recommended higher across-the-board pay, smaller classes and a reduction in the use of student achievement to measure school and teacher performance.”

Similarly, researchers at the Brookings Institution in 2017: “Both state policies and teachers unions have blocked differentiating teacher compensation for things like teaching in high-demand subjects or in high-need school settings, but this type of price discrimination would be an expedient way to address many of the persistent teacher vacancies districts increasingly face.”

Union leaders often opine that any from standard salary schedules and that bonus pay could be divisive among the teachers who receive it and those who do not. 

We don’t see anything necessarily nefarious or malicious in this stance. It may have some grounding in practical realities and could be an easy way to please most members without ruffling too many feathers. However, the stance of union leaders seems at odds with that of their rank-and-file teachers, 92% of whom, in a 2023 survey by E4E, said they for working in hard-to-staff schools. The popularity of this idea was sustained in , when teachers selected “Opportunities for higher pay for working in a hard-to-staff school or subject area” as one of the strategies most likely to attract talented and diverse candidates to the teaching profession — and teachers of color chose it as the No. 1 strategy.

That opposition also reveals a fascinating contrast with standard practices in nursing — a profession for which, like education, the American Federation of Teachers provides widespread representation in collective bargaining.

Though nursing shares similar demographics and educational requirements with teaching, the union’s approach to compensation in these two professions is worlds apart. Our of six matched AFT teacher and nursing contracts in Manchester, Connecticut; Cincinnati Ohio, and New Brunswick, New Jersey, shows that while bonus pay is rare, restricted and meager in teaching, it is widespread, accessible and far more generous in nursing.

When it came to hard-to-fill roles in nursing — such as weekend and overnight shifts —  the we examined provided substantial supplemental pay to attract nurses to these less popular time slots. Nurses in Manchester, for example, receive a shift premium of $5.25 per hour (18% above base rate) for evening shifts and $7 per hour (24% above base rate) for working nights and weekends.

In contrast, the teacher agreements we studied had no incentives whatsoever for teaching in high-poverty schools. Some were there, in theory, but upon closer inspection, they were reduced to zero in practice by the failure to actually implement them.

For example, while the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers contract gives the superintendent authority to declare shortage-based needs, the funding is restricted behind multiple layers of bureaucratic processes. When contacted, Cincinnati Public Schools officials informed us that the superintendent hasn’t authorized this policy since at least 2022.

The situation was somewhat better for teachers in specializations in which there are shortages, such as special education, bilingual education and STEM. However, where teachers might, if they are lucky, get a maximum differential of 5% of their base salary for one of these positions, nurses’ contracts commonly include bonuses of 15% or more for hard-to-staff assignments. Research shows that bonuses 7.5% above base salary are the to influence choice of assignments, with increasing efficacy above that level.

We don’t consider our study to be the final word. We examined only six contracts in three geographic areas. And in both professions, there are ways to provide bonus pay outside collective bargaining agreements.

Districts could offer differentiated pay as annual bonuses outside of contracts (though negotiation through a memorandum of understanding or the like might still be required) or by giving school leaders, such as principals, autonomy over hiring (instead of assignments based on bumping and seniority) and weighting funding based on student needs rather than teacher seniority in order for school administrators to set salaries and staffing assignments according to their school’s specific needs.

At the state level, funding could be offered to districts or schools through grants tailored to address shortages in high-poverty and rural schools and specializations, such as Illinois’ Teacher Vacancy Grant Pilot Program and Texas’ Teacher Incentive Allotment. 

More research is clearly needed.

Nonetheless, we think our findings weaken the argument that bonus pay is somehow inherently anti-union or unmanageably divisive. This is also a situation where we feel that the adults need to give a little to do what’s best for children, especially students in the highest-need classrooms that continue to suffer from shortages of experienced and qualified teachers that diminish young people’s opportunities. It is time to pay added bonuses to get the best teachers where children need them most.

A published Wednesday from the National Council on Teacher Quality found that teacher preparation programs have contributed to the stagnant growth in educator diversity, which is lagging behind the diversity of the nation’s adult population. While roughly of U.S. working-age adults identify with historically disadvantaged racial groups, such as Black, Native American or Hispanic, only 21% of teachers do.

The NCTQ analyzed 1,526 U.S. teacher colleges from the 2018-19 school year to 2022-23 in its report and found that 40% don’t produce graduating classes that are as diverse as their state’s educator workforce. 

About 21% of teachers in Alabama come from historically disadvantaged groups, versus 16% of candidates who graduate from preparation programs. In Washington, D.C., the educator workforce has a 69% diversity rate, but its teacher college graduates are at 32%. 

The most diverse programs are alternative certification pathways run by companies or nonprofits, but research shows that these options have lower standards than traditional colleges and lead to higher teacher turnover.

A diverse teacher workforce at schools improves academic performance, attendance, discipline and sense of belonging for students of color, according to the study. For example, who have one Black teacher are 13% more likely to graduate from high school and 19% more likely to go to college than their peers who didn’t have a teacher of color.

Too many teacher colleges are failing to produce diverse graduating classes and causing students to lose out, said Heather Peske, NCTQ president. 

“We know that a diverse teacher workforce benefits all students, and it especially benefits Black and brown students,” she said. “There’s a lot that we can do right now — on the part of teacher prep programs and states — to reduce the obstacles that particularly discourage Black and brown candidates from coming into the profession and becoming teachers.”

The NCTQ report has three recommendations for state policymakers, schools and teacher colleges to increase workforce diversity: bolstering program enrollment by increasing teacher salaries, providing college stipends and introducing younger students to the education field. 

The report said teacher candidates also need more support to earn their certification, such as flexible course schedules and pay for completing required hours in the classroom before graduation. Districts should also improve hiring practices by developing strategies to recruit more school leaders of color, providing mentors to new teachers and improving work culture so educators from historically disadvantaged groups feel welcome, according to the report. 

Teacher preparation programs that have been the target of the federal government this year. In February, the Trump administration canceled millions of dollars in teacher training funding, a decision that’s still wrapped up in .

Peske said many of the NCTQ recommendations are race-neutral and can help all teacher candidates while improving workforce diversity. 

“We really need to focus on the fact that having a diverse teacher workforce means having a high-quality teacher workforce and thinking of practices that can support those goals,” she said.

I grew up in Paterson, New Jersey, raised by a single Black teenage mother. She worked long hours and still found the energy to keep me focused. She signed me up for summer academic programs. She made sure homework came before anything else. We didn’t have much, but she never let me think education was optional. For her, education was the one way forward.

Today, when I walk into a classroom at College Achieve Public Schools, where I work, I see faces that remind me of my own, both in the students and the educators teaching them. This was intentional. We realized our scholars would learn best from teachers who know their neighborhoods, understand their challenges and see their potential. So we built a system to achieve that goal. 

Our educators reflect the community we serve. More than half are people of color, with significant representation from Black, Latino, Bengali, Arabic and Asian educators. Black male teachers, a group often underrepresented nationally in education, make up roughly 20% of the faculty, an exceptionally high percentage when compared with the national average of 1%. The team is stable and growing, with a cohort of educators recently hitting the five-year mark and earning tenure. We are proud of these figures, and we know why it’s working.

Our approach is straightforward and replicable. We recruit from the community, pay people as they train, coach them well and show a clear path forward so they stay. 

We partnered with nearby St. Elizabeth and Montclair State universities to hire qualified college students as substitute teachers, pairing each with a veteran mentor. They work as subs while completing their degrees, gaining classroom experience. Once they graduate, they can earn a full teaching certificate through and return as certified teachers. 

Through grants from the New Jersey Department of Education in partnership with Rutgers University, we have helped college students earn their teacher certifications while building direct recruitment pipelines. Paraprofessionals taking part in the program can typically earn their state teaching certification in two to four years, depending on their level of experience and education when they enroll. The program targets fields that have been disproportionately impacted by staff shortages, such as special education, science, math, English as a second language and bilingual education.

Our school also works with Gateway U, a workforce development initiative offering online college degrees, and has partnered with Teach for America to recruit educators. 

We also created a summer co-teacher program in hard-to-staff subjects so aspiring educators can teach in their subject with the help of seasoned educators before working full time the following school year. This past summer, 15 college students participated, and while some have gone to complete their degrees, some have stayed on as substitute teachers at CAPS or volunteered to lead clubs or special programs like robotics. I feel confident that at least half of these students will eventually join full time.

For late-career aspiring educators already in the workforce, we built routes to finish credentials while earning credit, including online degree options and targeted certification support.

In total, our partnerships with teacher-pipeline programs helped the certification cohort grow from 18 in 2018 to 35 in 2025, a 94% increase.

Retention is built into the design. New teachers get scheduled coaching time focused on practice. We reimburse tuition in exchange for a commitment of two full school years after they complete their degree or certificate, and provide leadership development so strong teachers can grow without leaving their classrooms. Many of our school leaders began here as teachers. People stay when they feel seen, improve their craft and can picture the next step. 

Since opening in 2017, College Achieve Public Schools has grown to nearly 200 staff across its five campuses in Paterson. Retention has improved each year, culminating in 86.6% teacher retention and 92.8% overall staff retention and 88% of teachers reporting satisfaction with leadership and school environment for the 2024-25 school year.

This model of development, supported certification and long-term career support can be replicated in any school or district willing to invest in its own community as the future of its teaching force. 

Seeing take similar steps by raising salaries, removing licensing hurdles and encouraging paraprofessionals and aides to pursue teaching credentials is refreshing. These changes open the door for more people from different backgrounds to become teachers and stay in the profession.

Education is about more than academics; it can redirect the course of a child’s life, like mine. Representation matters not just for diversity’s sake, but because it is proven to make . 

A school full of teachers who reflect its community doesn’t happen by accident. It happened because we chose to invest in people. We make it easier for future teachers to see themselves in the classroom and achieve success for our students. As my mother understood, education has the power to open doors I didn’t even know existed. Now, I am proud to do the same for other teachers.

These are among key findings of a new into ways to address the continuing turnover and shortage of special education and ESL teachers that has existed for more than three decades. 

The analysis showed that mentorship, teacher and principal preparation standards, tests of reading instruction knowledge, pay and professional development are key to retaining and recruiting these educators.

Students with disabilities and English learners face some of the most persistent academic challenges, partly because of a lack of access to high-quality teachers, said NCTQ President Heather Peske.

“Despite their potential, many of these students are not meeting even really basic thresholds in reading and math, and this is not for any fault of the students themselves,” she said. “It’s really because they don’t have access to the kinds of qualified and effective teachers that they need.”

The report recommends improved state policies to address attrition in these areas:

Teacher mentorship

The analysis found that half of states don’t require prospective educators to complete their student teaching under the supervision of an educator who is certified in the same subject area they are training to work in. Most are in the western United States, including states like Wyoming, Utah, Montana, Idaho and Nevada. 

Having a mentor certified in the same field allows the college students to see what teaching special ed will actually be like and increases their chances of staying in the subject area once they finish their degree, according to the report. The analysis highlighted a study of more than 250 people who completed special education teacher preparation in Massachusetts, which found that those with a supervisor licensed in special education were 12% less likely to leave the workforce.

Teacher preparation standards

Clear state standards for teacher preparation programs ensure that aspiring educators get the skills needed to serve students with disabilities, the report said. Ten states don’t have explicit special education standards for teacher colleges, while 16 lack defined English learner standards.

The analysis highlights Texas, which created for ESL and bilingual education in 2019. These include understanding the foundations of language acquisition and adapting instruction to meet student needs.

Principal preparation standards

Less than half of states require principal preparation programs to address special education in coursework, while only 13 do the same for English learners. Without an understanding of effective ways to serve students with disabilities or English learners, principals are less prepared to improve outcomes for them and retain the teachers who serve them, the report said. 

Research has that principals are a key factor in creating an inclusive environment for special education students. One said that many new school administrators “find themselves suddenly thrust into situations in which they must be the final arbiter on matters related to strange-sounding issues such as IEPs [individual education programs], 504 [disability discrimination] decisions, due-process hearings and IDEA [Individuals with Disabilities Education Act] compliance.”

In Iowa, teacher colleges are to provide evidence that candidates are equipped to address the needs of English learners or students with disabilities, the report said. 

Reading instruction

The analysis found that 17 states require special education teacher candidates to demonstrate their knowledge of literacy instruction using a test the NCTQ deems effective. In 2023, the nonprofit reported that 29 states and the District of Columbia use weak reading instruction tests that aspiring elementary educators must pass to obtain a license. NCTQ studied 25 tests that states use and identified 15 as weak — with only four considered acceptable and six considered strong.

Just five states — California, Idaho, New Mexico, Louisiana and Maryland — require English learner teacher candidates to pass acceptable tests, the report said.

“Wisconsin, for example, uses a strong or acceptable reading licensure test, but they don’t presently require special education teachers to take that test and pass it,” Peske said. “We would say that this is an example of low-hanging fruit when it comes to policymaking.”

The NCTQ reported that 70% of fourth graders with disabilities and 67% who are English learners scored below the basic level in reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

English learners are also at an increased risk of being identified for special education because of literacy-related struggles, the report said.

“With so many states right now focused on reading and implementing relatively new reading laws, it was surprising to us to find that states are also not requiring their teachers, especially of students with disabilities, and their English learner teachers to take and pass an acceptable reading licensure test,” Peske said.

Teacher pay

The report said that paying teachers in critical shortage areas more than those in general education can improve retention and recruitment in hard-to-staff areas. But has found that the additional compensation must be at least 7.5% of a teacher’s base salary — about $5,000 — to make a difference.

Only 18 states offer higher salaries or bonuses for special education educators, while eight states do so for English learner teachers.

An annual state-funded $10,000 incentive in Hawaii improved special education teacher shortages. The bonuses, which , reduced by 35% the number of teaching positions that were vacant or filled by an unlicensed teacher.

“Interestingly, it did little to improve retention among current special educators,” the report said. “Instead, the reduction in vacancies was driven almost entirely by general-education teachers — who were presumably dual-certified — transitioning into special education roles.”

The nonprofit said the policy was also successful because of its simplicity. All Hawaii special education teachers were automatically eligible, and there was no application process. 

Professional development

High-quality professional learning can improve retention for special education and English learner teachers, the report said. Currently, 40 states provide professional development for both fields. Oregon, Hawaii, Iowa, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia are the only states that don’t offer professional learning for either position.

The report highlights Rhode Island, which recently adopted guidelines that require professional learning specifically for teachers of multilingual learners.

Peske said each of the above policy areas is equally important for lawmakers to consider. “If a state really wants to build a strong teacher workforce for students with disabilities and English learners, we would advise them to use these fixed [policy] levers together,” she said.

Teachers are most likely to report a shortage of “people resources,” with two-thirds saying they don’t have enough teaching assistants, aides or paraprofessionals. 

This “has a huge impact in the classroom in what teachers are able to do,” said Andrea Malek Ash, a senior research consultant at Gallup who led the survey.

Ash stressed that even as teachers struggle to access fundamental resources, they still expressed a desire to improve their practices through professional growth opportunities.

“So it’s like this hierarchy of needs,” she said. “Teachers really have to come at it right now from both ways: They’re trying to improve themselves, and they’re still dealing with not having enough furniture. That’s something that really stood out to me.”

A dearth in resources has long plagued educators, with as many as having to reach into their own pockets to buy materials for their students and many relying on to solicit help from private donors. According to the amount teachers spent climbed during the pandemic, according to , though schools were also able to spend emergency COVID funding on supplies and furniture. And this year, a typical assortment of back-to-school supplies will cost an average of , at least partially due to the Trump administration’s tariff policies.

School staffing, too, has remained a persistent challenge for public schools: as of June 2025, an estimated positions were either unfilled or filled by teachers not fully certified for their assignments. Yet, the number of educators nationally saw a steady increase between potentially due to the emergency relief funding. With that money sunsetting just over a year ago, it’s not yet clear what impact that might have on combatting ongoing shortages.

Teachers reported that professional growth opportunities and materials are two of the most important factors when it comes to job satisfaction: 77% of teachers who have adequate resources report being satisfied at work, versus 44% of those who do not.

Gallup surveyed thousands of teachers from the RAND American Teacher Panel over the course of one school year: 1,989 teachers were surveyed between October and November 2024; 2,046 in January 2025; and 2,167 between April and May 2025. 

The report is part of a led by Gallup and the to study Gen Z and youth perspectives, especially as they relate to education. Since teachers play such a large role in a student’s engagement and success in the classroom, researchers said it was important to learn about their needs as well and will gather their views over the next few years.

Across the country, teachers overwhelmingly reported a shortage of school-based staff: almost two-thirds said their school didn’t have enough teaching assistants, aides, paraprofessionals or behavior intervention specialists and 62% said they didn’t have enough mental health resources or special educators.

Jessica Saum is a special education coordinator, former special education teacher and the In her current role, she works to ensure students’ receive the special education services they need and supports educators in various K-12 settings. Saum said she sees these shortages reflected in classrooms across her district — especially among paraprofessionals.

“The paras are typically doing some of the hardest parts of those jobs with the least amount of education and training,” she said, leading some to decide not to go into teaching or leave their jobs altogether. 

A shortage of paraprofessionals makes the general education teacher’s job “much harder,” Saum said. “As a special educator, I depended on my para educators to complete that classroom support. I needed them to be able to help me meet the needs of all the students.”

While 72% of teachers either agreed or strongly agreed that they had the equipment needed to teach effectively, 24% said they didn’t have enough classroom furniture, 25% didn’t have enough laptops or classroom computers and 35% didn’t have adequate printing supplies. Funding is likely one barrier to access, said Ash, but bureaucracy appears to be another: 1 in 3 teachers said the process they need to go through to order materials is “very” or “somewhat difficult.”

Even if school leaders don’t immediately have the budget to buy requested materials, Ash said, just being aware of teachers’ needs and making the acquisition process easier creates a better experience for educators.

Some of these trends held true across schools, regardless of family income. For example, teachers who work in wealthier schools — where less than a quarter of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch — were just about as likely (23%) to report not having enough classroom furniture as those who work in a school where up to 100% of students qualify (25%).

And teachers in these wealthier schools were actually more likely (68% vs. 64%) to report a shortage of teaching assistants or paraprofessionals, according to additional data from the study provided to ����Ӱ�� by Gallup.

Yet, when it came to technology, that flipped. Teachers in low-income schools were significantly more likely to report not having enough laptops (34% vs. 18%) or printing resources (43% vs. 28%).

The survey also found that about half of teachers say their professional development is not grounded in students’ needs or learning. They cite collaborative planning as the most valuable kind of development and 43% report observing other teachers as the most worthwhile activity — though just 1 in 3 teachers say they get that opportunity.

“So the most beneficial ones were the ones that we’re also missing,” said Ash.

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As students returned to class earlier this month, Hawaiʻi schools reported the lowest number of teacher vacancies the state has seen in more than five years. As of last week, only 73 teacher positions were unfilled, compared to more than 1,000 in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.

But schools are employing a growing number of unlicensed teachers, also known as emergency hires, to fill those vacancies. Last August, Hawaiʻi schools started the year with 670 emergency hires, an 80% increase from four years ago. 

Emergency hires can work in schools for up to three years but must make progress toward earning their licenses. 

The recent increase in emergency hires partly stems from state efforts to put more teachers in classrooms, including increasing pay for unlicensed educators in 2023. But while  that emergency hires tend to have higher retention rates, they may also be less effective than licensed teachers, who typically have more training and classroom experience.

While the Hawaiʻi teacher licensing board  in schools, it doesn’t publish regular data on how many of these teachers go on to earn their teacher licenses and continue working in public schools here.    

Even so, principals and researchers say hiring unlicensed teachers is better than leaving positions vacant, which can leave schools scrambling for substitutes. The state has also explored other options to , like raising teacher pay and bringing in workers from the Philippines, but some solutions may only be temporary. 

“There’s a united front to attract qualified educators that are already certified,” said Chris Sanita, principal at Hāna High and Elementary. “I think it’s a larger state issue on housing and affordability.” 

A Growing Population

In 2018, Brandon Galarita began teaching at Ke’elikōlani Middle School as an emergency hire, hoping to build on his experience as a substitute teacher and use his college degree in English. While the pay was low, Galarita said, working full-time as an emergency hire allowed him to earn a living while also completing the requirements for a teacher license. 

“At least it starts building a teacher if they want to go into education,” said Galarita, who earned his license from the University of Hawaiʻi Mānoa in 2020. “I would hope that the influx of emergency hires will result in more teachers that are staying in the profession.” 

Osa Tui Jr., president of the state teachers’ union, said he attributes the big jump in emergency hires to the pay raise they received two years ago. Currently, emergency hires earn about $50,300 a year, compared to $38,500 previously. 

“These numbers reflect exactly what we were hoping to accomplish,” Tui said. 

The state has encouraged prospective educators, including emergency hires, to earn their licenses through the Grow Our Own initiative at UH Mānoa, which helps cover the costs of tuition for teacher preparation programs. Teachers who complete the program and earn their licenses must work in public schools for at least three years. 

Emergency hire numbers don’t always reflect teachers’ progress toward earning their licenses, said Waiʻanae Intermediate School Principal John Wataoka. While he has around 11 emergency hires on staff this year, only one of the teachers has yet to complete a teacher preparation program.

The rest have finished their training but are waiting to take a licensing exam or haven’t received the results of their final tests yet, Wataoka said. 

“Right now, it’s just a waiting game,” he said. 

But a recent study of emergency hires entering Massachusetts schools during the pandemic suggests that unlicensed teachers may be less effective than other educators. Students taught by emergency hires tended to have lower math and science test scores compared to their peers,  from the National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research. 

Jonathon Medeiros, a teacher at Kauaʻi High School and vice president of the Hawaiʻi Education Association, said he understands parents’ possible concerns about emergency hires and the quality of education students are receiving. But it’s still preferable to have an emergency hire in a classroom than a substitute — or nobody at all.

In the past, Medeiros said, students were occasionally sent to the library or cafeteria for study hall when there weren’t enough educators to teach every class and the state faced a shortage of substitute teachers. 

Unlike emergency hires, DOE doesn’t require  to have a college degree.   

“We all want skilled, caring, talented teachers who are from the community and committed to their schools,” Medeiros said. “How do we make sure we get those people in every single classroom is the key question.”

Expanding The Pool

While the boost in emergency hire pay has attracted more teachers to public schools, the state is still searching for other solutions to increase the hiring pool. 

At Waiʻanae Intermediate, Wataoka said he’s hired seven international teachers to fill staff positions over the past two years. The J-1 visa program, which DOE has participated in since 2019, allows teachers from other countries, primarily the Philippines, to teach in the state for up to five years. 

This year, the department hired around 100 new teachers through the visa program, Superintendent Keith Hayashi said in a Board of Education meeting earlier this month. International teachers’ interest in working in Hawaiʻi is comparable to past years, he said, despite concerns that participation could drop after Immigration Customs and Enforcement agents  of teachers from the Philippines last spring. 

On Maui, Sanita said he’s also seeing the impact of the bonuses introduced for teachers in hard-to-fill positions five years ago. While it’s difficult to attract people to Hāna — a town with limited housing and no stop signs – the $8,000 bonus for remote schools helps retain teachers who would otherwise struggle with the high cost of living, Sanita said.   

“The differentials have really helped people, our teachers in Hana, not to have five different side hustles,” Sanita said. “They can actually teach and make ends meet.” 

The bonuses have also incentivized teachers to remain at Waiʻanae Intermediate even when they face long commutes from other parts of the island, Wataoka said. While the Leeward Coast has the greatest concentration of new teachers in the state, the $8,000 bonus has helped experienced teachers cover the cost of gas to West Oʻahu and remain at Waiʻanae Intermediate.

But despite more retention measures in place, the department saw a jump in the number of teachers leaving schools last year. Over 1,200 teachers voluntarily resigned or retired from DOE in the 2023-24 school year, compared to roughly 1,000 the year before.

Tui said there’s no single answer as to why the number of teachers leaving schools jumped. In some cases, teachers may have felt more comfortable changing jobs after the pandemic as they faced less uncertainty in the job market, he said. 

This year, educators continuing to work in public schools will receive a 3% pay raise, with some veteran teachers receiving a larger raise of around 7%. While the pay increase will encourage teachers to stay in schools longer, Tui said, it’s possible the state will see a wave of educators retiring after three years as they qualify for higher state pensions. 

For teachers hired before 2012, the state uses their three highest years of pay to determine their pensions. 

“We have to make sure that we can get people into the profession that we can recruit to handle a drop off like that,” Tui said. 

Civil Beat’s education reporting is supported by a grant from Chamberlin Family Philanthropy.

The RAND study found a 22-point difference in stress levels and a 6-point difference in the degree of burnout — gender disparities that have held constant since at least 2021. Female teachers are also almost twice as likely as similarly educated women in other professions to report frequent stress.

These trends are worrying not just for teachers, but also for students, said Elizabeth Steiner, senior policy researcher at and the lead author of the report.

“Teacher well-being is … really important because it is related to how well teachers are able to do their jobs, which is related to how well students learn,” she said.

“Having a teacher who is present and engaged and putting forth their full effort to help the students they teach could make a real difference,” Steiner added, “as opposed to a teacher who is less engaged or struggling with mental health, or poor well-being, or poor work-life balance.”

Steiner said she is particularly concerned about female teachers, especially because they make up about of the workforce. A RAND report this fall will explore which factors may be driving the disproportionate levels of stress.

Overall, 62% of teachers surveyed reported frequent job-related stress this year, up 3 percentage points from last year but down from the record high of 78% in 2021. Still, they were almost twice as likely as similar working adults to report persistent stress. Teacher burnout levels dropped over the past year, from 60% to 53%, yet remain 14 points higher than levels reported by their non-educator peers. 

Black teachers were more likely than their white peers to report burnout (59% versus 53%), symptoms of depression (25% versus 18%) and an intention to quit (28% versus 14%). Notably, they were less likely to report frequent job-related stress, a discrepancy that Steiner called “a puzzle.”

The findings, published June 24, come from the fifth annual State of the American Teacher Survey, which looks at well-being and retention for K-12 public school teachers. Researchers focused on sources of job-related stress, pay, hours worked and intention to leave. This year’s sample consisted of 1,419 teachers.

Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, the country’s largest teachers union, said she is “not surprised at all by these findings.” The “chaos and confusion” of the current political moment, she said, has made being a teacher an even more stressful job.

“Meeting the needs of whole students,” she added, “has gotten increasingly more difficult.”

Despite reporting persistently high levels of stress, the share of teachers overall who said they intend to leave their jobs by the end of the school year fell 6 percentage points, from 22% in 2024 to 15% this year. Fewer teachers also reported feeling burnout this year (53% versus 60%). The relative consistency of responses since 2023 suggests teacher well-being may have stabilized since the pandemic, according to the report.

The most common source of job-related stress for teachers across the board was student behavior (52%), followed by salary (39%). Black teachers were less likely to attribute their stress to student behaviors but more likely to point to salary as a key factor.

This could be tied to their pay: Black teachers, on average, reported earning 6% less than white teachers. Researchers think this could be, at least in part, driven by where teachers live and whether their states have collective bargaining units.

Teachers overall reported an average base salary of approximately $73,000 in 2025, a roughly 4% increase from 2024 but still significantly lower than the $103,000 average salary reported by similar working adults. 

Just under half of teachers (46%) said they were better off financially than their parents, compared with 61% of similarly working adults. 

has shown that while pay is a major contributing factor to teacher satisfaction, it is not the only one.

“If there are ways to look at the constellation of factors that include pay, administrator support, hours worked and a cornucopia of other working conditions that could help improve those things, that — based on what we found — seems like a solid recipe for improving retention and improving teacher engagement in their jobs,” Steiner said.

Hours and benefits also may play a role in overall stress and burnout levels: On average, teachers this year reported working 49 hours a week — four hours less than last year, but still 10 hours more than they’re paid to work, on average. 

And while more teachers had paid sick leave and employer-funded health insurance than similar working adults, fewer reported receiving paid parental leave. Just over a quarter of teachers said they receive this benefit, versus about half of similarly working adults. 

Heather Peske, president of the National Council on Teacher Quality, which the lack of paid parental leave, stressed its importance.

“����’s both a smart policy to recruit and keep good teachers, and it’s the right thing to do,” she said in an email.

Overall, Peske added, “Districts that offer teachers competitive benefits are better positioned to attract great teachers, reduce turnover and maintain the stable workforce that is essential for students to succeed.”

By this measure, America is struggling. 

The latest results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress are a stark reminder that the U.S. is still . Reading scores continue to decline, math scores remain stagnant and the pandemic’s impact on learning has yet to be reversed. But here’s what educators and pundits alike must remember: . COVID-19 didn’t create this crisis; it simply exposed and accelerated it. 

Still, the country’s current trajectory does not have to define the future. The solutions are known. Strong improvements in reading have been seen over the last decade in states like , where investments in comprehensive evidence-based literacy policies and instruction have driven success. In the latest NAEP scores, Louisiana bucked national trends, coming close to . In Washington, D.C., where some of the was evident, the school district invested post-pandemic to on the 2024 test — 10 points in fourth-grade math — and outpacing other big cities and the national average in reading. 

Academic gains like this do not come easy. The next decade in education will require bold leadership, real urgency and a national commitment to doing better by America’s kids.

That’s why I am excited to take the baton as the next CEO of Teach For America. TFA is an organization dedicated to recruiting, training and equipping leaders to drive change in education and to advocate for evidence-based solutions that impact kids’ well-being. Our network of more than 70,000 teachers, tutors and alumni has made — and continues to make — a profound impact on rural and urban schools, advocacy organizations, ed tech startups, law, medicine, journalism and elected offices, from city halls to Congress. Every day, they work to improve literacy, math achievement and college and career readiness, while driving change in the conditions that shape educational access and opportunity.

In places like Louisiana and D.C., tangible progress is evident. To extend that progress throughout the country, here’s what this moment demands:

First, that rallies educators, policymakers and communities around student success. initiative has helped drive meaningful gains in postsecondary attainment. A similar commitment to early literacy and foundational math could help rebuild momentum for K-12 achievement. After all, a child’s ability to read by the end of third grade is , as is math achievement in eighth grade.

Second, investments in proven solutions. works. lead to better outcomes. — offering college courses to high schoolers — helps students stay on track for college. can further enhance instruction. A developed by the that TFA is implementing across corps members’ classrooms has helped teachers tailor their approaches to student needs, making instruction more engaging and responsive. Yet access to these interventions and opportunities remains deeply unequal. Expanding these efforts should be a national priority.

Third, teachers and education leaders who make progress possible must be supported. and many schools remain stuck in outdated models that don’t meet the needs of either students or teachers. That’s why Teach For America has joined organizations like and in the — to help create the conditions for educators to thrive. These include , , and opportunities for career advancement within the classroom. With , educators can remain engaged and empowered to help students reach their brightest futures.

This work is essential. But it extends beyond any single organization. There must be a collective effort to create lasting change that ensures all children get the education they deserve. 

Addressing this education crisis demands collective action in every community — students, families, educators and local leaders work together in pursuit of a shared vision. There must be the courage to acknowledge the depth of the nation’s education crisis, the vision to set ambitious goals, the will to implement evidence-based interventions and solutions, and the drive to reimagine what’s possible.

If action is taken with urgency and purpose, the trajectory of education in America can improve. And one day, we will all be able to answer proudly and confidently, as the Maasai do: “The children are well.”

The discovered ongoing issues including increased classroom disruptions and declining trust between teachers and parents, principal and colleagues. The researchers analyzed data from the which collected responses about school wellness from roughly 123,000 to 130,000 teachers in more than 3,300 Illinois schools annually from 2019 to 2023.  

“I would have thought the 2020-21 school year was the big disrupted year,” said Cory Koedel, a University of Missouri professor who worked on the study. “It’s quite reasonable to think that was the worst. But this data is telling us that’s clearly not true. And our findings give no indication that working conditions will rebound naturally now that the pandemic is behind us.”

The 5Essentials survey identifies five main indicators of school success: effective leaders, collaborative teachers, involved families, supportive environments and ambitious instruction. Each year, teachers and students are asked to rate their experiences.

The most dramatic change after the pandemic began was in classroom disruptions. A found that 70% of educators said students in their schools misbehaved more than before the pandemic. In , the percentage increased to 72%.

Koedel’s research found the quality of student discussions and professional development also declined from 2019 to 2023. The trust teachers felt toward parents, principals and other educators didn’t worsen from 2019 to 2021 but deteriorated from 2021 to 2023. Teacher safety significantly improved in 2021, when most schools shifted to online learning, only to drop again in 2022 and 2023, once students returned to classrooms. 

A few working conditions initially declined but improved from 2021 to 2023, including collaborative practices and student engagement in learning

The study also analyzed Illinois survey data by school demographics. Teachers from schools in wealthier communities had better working conditions, but experienced the same decline as educators in lower-income schools.

Schools where instruction was delivered online during the 2020-21 school year also had larger declines in working conditions compared with schools where learning was in-person.

Koedel said that while the study focuses on Illinois, educators nationwide have experienced similar working conditions.

“There’s really no reason to think Illinois is some weird place that’s so different from every other [state]” Koedel said. “In my opinion, we should expect Illinois to be like other places, because a lot of what’s happening in schools there is happening everywhere.”

For example, other national studies have highlighted the link between teacher job satisfaction and educators’ well-being and retention. 

A from the RAND Corp. found that teachers who had administrator support and felt they belonged in their schools were less likely to report burnout and job-related stress. Those who had strong positive relationships with their colleagues and felt their students were engaged in learning were also much less likely to report poor well-being.

“There’s a deeper question of, like, ‘What exactly is it that’s driving this?’ ” Koedel said of the University of Missouri results. “I believe this is telling us we have made some sort of bad decisions about how we’re running schools, but this doesn’t tell us what decisions we made that were bad, right? So I’m trying to understand that better.”

While the nation’s college-educated workforce overall is diversifying more quickly than the teaching pool, the NCTQ found that California, Texas, and Washington, D.C., are following the opposite trajectory. But the nonprofit questions some of the methods used to increase diversity, such as alternative pathways or lower standards for teacher certification, said Ron Noble, the council’s chief of teacher preparation. 

“We found that places like Texas are achieving [more teacher diversity], but with policies that have us concerned about the long-term health of the teacher pipeline,” Noble said. “California and Washington, D.C., offer potential bright spots that might not have that same pitfall.”

NCTQ’s report follows its December launch of a that tracks the racial makeup of U.S. educator corps from 2014 to 2022. Noble said the organization is focusing on educator workforce diversity because employing teachers of color academic, social, emotional and behavior outcomes for students.

“We really want states to be deliberate and intentional in — and careful how they go about — achieving the goal of a diverse workforce,” Noble said.

Teachers from historically disadvantaged groups in the U.S. make up nearly 23% of working-age adults with degrees but 21% of the teacher workforce, according to the dashboard.

In Texas, 35% of college-educated adults are from historically disadvantaged groups, compared with 43% of teachers. But researchers found that behind the high diversity number were flawed alternative certification programs and uncertified teachers — both of which became more common with educator shortages during the pandemic.

In the 2021-22 school year, 51% of Texas teachers completed alternative certification programs, compared with an average of 19% in other states, according to NCTQ. Alternative pathways are than traditional programs: found that Black Texas teachers were more than three times as likely to pursue alternative certification than a more common route like a bachelor’s degree.

Noble said researchers found that the majority of alternative programs in Texas are fully online and that graduates can become teachers with little to no classroom experience. A found that online alternative pathways have a higher turnover rate than other teacher preparation programs.

“They are thrown right into a high-stakes environment,” he said. “����’s not surprising that there are people leaving the profession.”

The number of uncertified teachers is also growing in Texas classrooms. Last year, that 34% of newly hired teachers in Texas were uncertified. The NCTQ report says racial demographics of uncertified teachers aren’t tracked, making it hard for policymakers to understand the impact on the future diversity of the educator workforce.

In California, nearly 33% of the teachers come from historically disadvantaged groups, compared with 27% of college-educated adults.

The NCTQ report says California’s effort to prioritize teacher diversity, invest in educator training and track industry data are reasons why diversity rates are higher than the norm. The state has in recent years to strengthen the teacher workforce. Advocates have built a and plan to launch a later this year to track demographic and employment data.

NCTQ said in its report that California has lowered standards for teacher candidates to enter the profession. A allows for a bachelor’s degree in any subject to be the sole qualifier for admission into most teacher preparation programs. 

NCTQ also cited Washington, D.C., for its high diversity rates, though its trendlines are not on the same trajectory as California’s and Texas’s. In 2022, 69% of educators came from historically disadvantaged groups, a drop from 77% in 2020. Adults with college degrees from these groups were reported at 35% in 2022.

“It would be easy to explain away D.C.’s teacher diversity by pointing out that it is a city, not a state, and cities are typically more diverse than states,” the report says. “However, comparing D.C.’s teacher and student demographics to those in other large cities in the United States suggests D.C.’s approach to diversifying the teacher workforce is yielding results.”

The NCTQ report shows that the teacher workforce in Washington, D.C., more closely mirrored its student population than those of other districts of similar size and student demographics. 

About 87% of the district’s student population are people of color, as is 74% of the teacher workforce. Researchers found that Atlanta Public Schools was the only demographically similar district that had a smaller student-to-teacher diversity gap.

The report credits consistent prioritization of educator diversity and innovative teacher preparation pathways for the high percentages in Washington, D.C. The region established with university partners and has implemented a centralized hiring process that yields more diverse candidates.

Downstairs, six children are snacking on pretzels and apple slices. Chase explains that they spend a lot of time outside, adding that her curriculum is nature-based and the woods and backyard pond make it ideal for the kids to explore. 

For Chase, working in early childhood education is her “life’s passion for sure.” She worked as an early childhood educator for 10 years before deciding to open her own program in 2015. Chase recalls that she was working 50 to 60 hours a week when she first started, which drained her, so in 2016 she hired a staff member to help. 

Her program, which serves six children ages 3 to 5 has been successful over the years. Because the , she always has a waiting list, rarely has vacancies and doesn’t have to advertise. That’s why in 2024, she decided to expand her business from a registered family child care program with one classroom to a licensed facility with two. This shift would allow her to serve 12 children full time — double the number she can serve as a registered family child care provider. The process, which she kicked off this January, will take well over a year.

Chase explains her plans for the expansion. She’ll add a new room on the first floor, which will serve as a second classroom for infants and toddlers and the cubbies will move indoors. And to transition from a “registered” child care provider to a “licensed” one, she’s required to meet a number of complicated compliance regulations. She has to upgrade her septic wastewater system which will cost $55,000; deepen her well for more water storage capacity, which will cost $14,000; spend another $112,000 to expand the space; and pay an additional $6,500 to fence in the playground. 

Chase is adamant that this investment only makes financial sense because of , Vermont’s landmark bill to bring near-universal child care to the state. The bill, which passed in 2023, aimed to increase access to high-quality child care and stabilize the early care and education workforce, including supporting family child care programs. Act 76 brought changes to various areas of child care and early childhood education, including significant updates to the , which provides subsidy payments to providers for children from eligible families. Under CCFAP, subsidy payments vary by income and the number of children that families have in child care, but providers now get a higher rate per child than what they typically charge. Since most of the families Chase serves qualify for CCFAP, this change nearly doubles the amount of money she brings in each week for each child.

There are more than  in Vermont — including family child care and center-based care providers — who could be impacted by the changes to CCFAP. One of them, Sherry Boudro, has been caring for children in the basement of her home in Windsor, Vermont for more than 30 years. Her house lends itself well to running a family child care program. It has a separate entrance to the children’s space, though it’s still connected to her main house by an internal staircase. Two fluorescent sensory swings hang from the ceiling, and the room is brightly painted and lined with bookshelves. 

“Before Act 76 I was living paycheck to paycheck,” explains Boudro. Now, she has more than doubled her income. Boudro was charging families $150 per child per week; now she receives $364 per child per week — a portion of which is paid for by the state depending on each family’s financial assistance agreement. Windsor “doesn’t have a lot of high-paying jobs,” she explains, so she couldn’t charge families more money, even though she was working all the time and barely breaking even. The extra income she receives now is going toward her retirement. “I’m 60 years old and I have no retirement savings,” she says. She’s also planning to make some long-awaited repairs to the space, replacing carpets and fixing the ceiling tiles, which droop down.

Act 76 Benefits Most — But Not All — Providers

Act 76 is the “opportunity and social change of our lifetime,” says Aly Richards, CEO of Let’s Grow Kids — the advocacy organization which spearheaded the bill’s passage. Richards, who has become the state’s chief champion of the bill and de-facto expert on how to bring a near-universal child care program to a state, outlines the success of Act 76 thus far. In its first year, the legislation created 1,000 new child care slots, nearly 50 new family child care programs, over 40 child care centers and 220 new early educator jobs. And in 2024, for the first time since 2018, more child care programs opened in the state than closed.

While ACT 76 has been a game changer for many child care providers in the state, not all have received the benefits. Tammie Hazlett, for example, runs a family child care in Vermont near the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. Most of the families she serves work have well-paying jobs at the medical center and do not qualify for subsidies, so she isn’t able to collect the higher true-cost-of-care rates. Another provider, Apryl Blake, serves two children who come from a neighboring town in New Hampshire, so they aren’t eligible, and she hasn’t asked the rest of her families to apply. “I have a problem asking them for their financial information. Not my business,” she explains.

Chase says all but one of the families she serves receives a subsidy, and the one family that doesn’t feels excluded and resentful of the process. The mother is a teacher and the father works in the tech industry. They don’t consider themselves to be well-off and they say the cost of child care is still a major expense. 

For some longtime providers like Merry Ann Gilbert and Laura Butler, these changes may be coming too late. Gilbert is 59, and though her practice is winding down, she still takes care of five kids a week at her home in Milton, Vermont. She is looking to retire and spend more time with her four grandchildren but Act 76 is motivating her to stay another year or two to make additional money. 

Butler, 66, who has been a family child care provider for 33 years, is also missing out — the families she serves don’t qualify for subsidies because their incomes are too high. Vermont’s support for child care has assisted Butler in other ways though, including  she took on when she got a master’s degree. 

With a 6-month-old baby sleeping in her arms, a toddler resting on a nearby couch and another toddler playing in her living room, Butler shares that she is retiring in June and moving to South Carolina with her husband so they can be closer to her family. She says she has given the families in her program notice, encouraging them to seek out other child care options.

For years, Butler worked as an advocate in the effort to professionalize the work of child care providers — something that Vermont may be the first state to do. “When I would tell people I watched children, they’d say ‘oh you’re a babysitter,’” she says; her work wasn’t recognized as a profession, but that may soon change. In late 2023 the Vermont Association for the Education of Young Children submitted an application to the state’s Office of Professional Regulation to make “early childhood education” a recognized profession; a  has been sent to the state Legislature for review in anticipation of introducing legislation, but Butler won’t be working in the field when it comes to fruition.

Butler has no resentment though.  She says she is ready for her next chapter and the warmer weather. “The next generation of providers will get the benefit,” she says. “I am satisfied that I worked hard for them.”

Her daughter, Ivonne Valadez Solano, was close to tears. With her newborn in one hand and her phone in the other, she frantically explained her problem. She had to leave for work but she couldn’t reach her mother-in-law, who had agreed to provide child care for her — and she had no other options because of the early hour.

Solano did not think twice. “Bring the baby to me. I’ll take care of her.”

Ivonne gave birth to her firstborn daughter in 2015. After her maternity leave ended, she searched desperately for child care. Center-based care was not an option because of her ; at the time, she was a supervisor at a major cafe chain and was expected to prepare the store for its 5 a.m. opening. 

With an almost hour-long commute in sprawling Los Angeles, she initially asked her mother-in-law to provide child care starting at 3 a.m. on the days she worked, but Ivonne had taken unpaid maternity leave, and with a lack of savings, she could not afford to compensate her. Her mother-in-law agreed to help for a few weeks, but was unable to take on an almost full-time child care job without pay for longer than that.

Fearful of jeopardizing her job, Ivonne turned to the person she could always count on: her mother.

The emergency 3 a.m. phone call between Solano and her daughter has led to nearly 10 years of consistent child care. Child care arrangements like that of the Solano family are considered “Family, Friend and Neighbor” (FFN) care. It is the most type of non-parental child care in the United States. It is by families of all races, ethnicities and income levels, and is particularly among immigrant and multilingual families. 

In California, FFN care is , so families who choose this type of care must know and trust the caregiver. Families who work nontraditional hours are to rely on an FFN caregiver — often a — to fill the gaps left by institutional child care, such as center-based and school settings. 

“Families across demographics are using FFN care,” says ​​Natalie Renew, executive director of Home Grown, a collaborative of funders focused on home-based care. “It is particularly important to communities of color because workers of color are disproportionately [working] in jobs that have unpredictable or nontraditional schedules. 

“We need to tell the stories of families who choose and rely on FFN caregivers, and acknowledge how children thrive and benefit from that loving and culturally appropriate care. We have to confront and dispel assumptions around who’s part of the child care system.”

The Case of the Solano Family

In 2005, Reina Solano immigrated to Los Angeles from Mexico. Her goal was to make money to send back to her four children, including Ivonne, who remained in Mexico with her extended family. She ended up planting roots in the city, and in time, got married and had two more children.

Ivonne immigrated to LA a few years later when she was twenty years old. She hoped to study English and further her studies in computer science and engineering, but soon found it was not that simple. Navigating the limited free adult education centers was difficult. She eventually found a program that fit her learning style, but it was almost a two-hour round-trip commute from her home via public transportation. She found a job at a fast food restaurant to pay for her transportation, but the restaurant was an hour and a half from her school by bus. 

It was all too much. Between the fixed schedule of her courses, the graveyard shift at her new job, and navigating the bus routes, Ivonne only studied a few months before deciding to drop the courses. 

“It wasn’t what I wanted,” she says. “But I needed to move forward.”

Ivonne has since worked in customer service roles. She and her partner, who she met during her first stint in fast food, moved in together before she became pregnant in 2014. 

Now, they juggle overlapping schedules that make institutional child care arrangements difficult. Ivonne works long day shifts in operations support at Los Angeles International Airport Thursday through Monday. Her partner has fluctuating hours with a pastry service Tuesday through Saturday. This leaves a significant gap in before- and after-school care for their children, which is exacerbated during the summer months. 

The couple continues to lean on Ivonne’s mother for their child care needs. Solano cares for her two grandchildren, Delilah and Mark, ages 9 and 5, in addition to her own two children, ages 7 and 13. In 2021, when the children returned to in-person schooling after COVID-19 restrictions eased, Solano began picking up short shifts at a local laundromat to supplement her income. On days her shifts cannot fit around the children’s school hours, she supervises them at the laundromat while she works. 

To this day, Solano refuses to ask for compensation from her daughter for the child care she provides, and she wouldn’t accept it if it was offered.

“She’s my daughter, and they are my grandchildren. How can I charge her?” Solano said.

This past school year, Solano cared for her two grandchildren overnight from Thursdays to Saturdays. Her mornings were busy. She dropped Delilah off at the local elementary school and then walked her children to the local middle and high schools. Mark remained home with her until February, when he began , part of California’s move towards universal preschool. 

Throughout the summer months, Solano took care of her grandchildren almost every day while her daughter was at work.

“In my culture, there is a tradition for families to support each other. ����’s an asset to children for their grandparents to be in their lives,” Solano explained. “I am proud to help raise my grandchildren. I am teaching them our culture, our language. I take care to build their confidence [and] their self-esteem. If their parents cannot make it to a school event, I go. When Delilah asks me about my childhood in Mexico and follows up every question with another, I have the patience to answer.”

FFN caregivers often the cultural backgrounds of the families they serve, whether they are related to the children or not. As with the Solano family, this brings a of care that is preferred by families. 

“An FFN caregiver can provide flexibility… They can bring cultural assets and trusting relationships,” said Anna Powell, Senior Research and Policy Associate with the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment. “In this case, grandma can provide a hot meal in her home that reflects the family’s cultural traditions. Grandma can provide bath time and bedtime, which other types of child care settings often cannot. This is in contrast to how policy and research often view FFN care, which is the worst option available or a family’s last resort. This is out of step with what families believe and value,” Powell adds.

When stakeholders discuss the child care system, they often refer to institutional forms of care. FFN care is an essential part of this system, too. It should not be forgotten or excluded from conversations about the child care system and how to support families and caregivers.

“If you have a child, or you have a child in your life, you probably know what FFN care is,” Renew said. “When we start talking about FFNs, we ask people: Who cared for you as a young child? Who cared for your children?”

Pseudonyms were used above to protect the identities of children; writing for this article was supported by the Better Life Lab at New America.

“The home is a warmer atmosphere for babies, infants and young toddlers,” Reaves says. “I’ve had a commercial space in the past, and this is more comfortable for babies.” The families she serves feel it too. Many of them stay in touch with Reaves long after their children have aged out of her program. Over the years, as the babies she cared for have grown into young adults, she’s been invited to high school and college graduations and even to baby showers.

Home-based child care is the , but these programs are increasingly difficult to operate. , Reaves has a side hustle to stay afloat: She’s a licensed insurance agent.

A pilot program funded by philanthropic dollars insulates early educators like Reaves from the income volatility that stems from challenges accessing public child care funding, such as subsidies and grants. Thanks to a guiding states to improve payment practices for child care providers, the approach could one day be scaled nationally.

Designed in 2021 and launched in 2022 by , a national funder collaborative centered on home-based care, the deposits $500 per month in the bank accounts of 45 providers in Philadelphia, in cooperation with the . Pilots are also running in and New York City, with plans for southwest Pennsylvania and Los Angeles in the works.

“����’s a guarantee,” explains Natalie Renew, Home Grown’s executive director. “Folks can expect that they’re going to be paid consistently throughout the project period.” 

Guaranteed income efforts such as the Thriving Providers Project only work if transferring dollars from the funders to providers is predictable and reliable. If the system malfunctions and payments don’t make it where they’re supposed to, then trust declines in public subsidies and in government as a solution. Renew recounts how the state of Pennsylvania transferred its subsidy management contract to a new vendor earlier this year, . (Missouri recently encountered a similar hiccup.) Because of these delays, she adds, many providers in Philadelphia couldn’t have paid rent without the Thriving Provider Project deposits.

Understanding the importance of selecting a reliable payment system, Renew facilitated a solicitation process for the project that included community interviews. (a civic tech organization) became the payment partner, transferring the cash that allows a solo provider to address unforeseen events that can derail operations. According to Beam CEO David Helene, the company is more than a technology platform. “Technology is part of it,” he says, “but program design, community empathy, showing up — these are also critical components to make these programs a success.”

Nobody thinking about opening a child care business in their home should do it for the money, Reaves cautions. Indeed, profit margins are increasingly thin. , a North Carolina provider who receives funding through the Thriving Providers Project, “At the end of the day, I am both the CEO and the janitor for my business. I’m also the cook, the curriculum specialist and the tax preparer. I have a master’s degree and run a five-star program, but after all the expenses I average about $14 an hour.”

According to the , authored by the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at the University of California, Berkeley, 43% of families of early educators rely on public assistance programs like food stamps and Medicaid. So what happens to those benefits when $500 lands in a bank account? When they enroll in the pilot, participants receive benefits counseling to help them learn about strategies that can help prevent benefits they may have, like housing vouchers or food stamps, from being interrupted. 

There are also local efforts to mitigate interruption. In Reaves’ state, for example, the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services collaborates with local guaranteed income projects to communicate any potential impact on public assistance benefits and eligibility to participants and County Assistance Offices. Some states have also instituted waivers to exempt participants in guaranteed income pilots, shielding them from loss of benefits while receiving the additional cash. 

Renew adds that tools like Beam were at the forefront of moving pandemic funding quickly to affected groups. “We’ve seen it work,” she asserts, noting the potential for scalability across systems. “Child care providers who operate on negligible margins often go hungry, face housing instability, are overloaded with debt and are fighting to stay afloat. If we want to maintain supply and meet families’ needs, then timely payments need to be a part of a toolkit of supports to the field.” 

In March 2024, Home Grown published a with lessons learned from the first year of the project in Colorado. One participant of the project shared, “I am the only one working [in my household], and I do find myself in a tight spot financially. … It has helped me a lot with bills, buying food and certainly sometimes even food for the children I care for.” 

For Reaves, the money makes it possible for her to pay a neighbor to cover for her when she has a personal appointment or needs time for self-care. That could be an exercise class or a manicure. “If you don’t take care of yourself,” she states, “there’s no taking care of anyone else.” 

She also notes that the extra $500 a month constitutes a meaningful acknowledgment of the importance of her profession: “They’re recognizing that, wow, these people are working hard.”

California is a notable, laudable exception to this trend. , under the leadership of Gov. Gavin Newsom, the state embarked on an ambitious effort to more than double its number of public pre-K and transitional kindergarten (or “TK”) seats for 4-year-old Californians from just over 147,000 to roughly 400,000. (TK began in 2008 for children who just missed the state’s cutoff for kindergarten enrollment, but has significantly expanded to serve more 4-year-olds since 2021). 

This would be a major accomplishment for the state and for early education advocates. The key, of course, is to show how policymakers can dramatically grow pre-K and TK access while maintaining crucial quality elements that support children’s development. The best way to do that is to ensure that the state’s new early education classrooms have great teachers prepared to meet their students’ needs. 

According to the Migration Policy Institute, in 2022, of California children under 5 years old have at least one parent who speaks a non-English language at home. As such, it’s particularly that the state fill its new pre-K and TK classrooms with bilingual early educators. 

How’s the state doing at building bilingualism into its new public early education system? Let’s start with the good news. California had a wealth of bilingual early educators before it launched its early education expansion. In 2020, according to data from the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at UC-Berkeley, nearly half of staff members working in early childhood education centers , and around 40% identified as Latina. Furthermore, as of that year, the state’s early educators were overwhelmingly (98%) women, and had, on average, working in early childhood education settings. As California expands its early education system to fund — and operate — the bulk of classrooms for its 4-year-olds, this diverse workforce provides a strong foundation of experience. 

In a , which I co-authored with my colleague Jonathan Zabala in my role as a senior fellow at the Century Foundation, we uncovered something troubling. The requirements to become an early educator in the state’s growing public early education system are likely to exclude many of these women — and their valuable linguistic and cultural assets — from careers in the state’s growing public early education system. As we note in the report, California is rolling out a new kind of credential, which, over time, will become the standard for TK teachers. That credential “requires candidates to have a bachelor’s degree, complete specific coursework and assessments demonstrating competence, pass the CalTPA, and perform 600 hours of student teaching.”

These credential requirements reflect a choice by state policymakers to align TK teaching credentials with K–12 requirements, which are generally more stringent than early education requirements. This makes California’s public TK classrooms more accessible to K–12 public school teachers whose credentialing largely aligns, but it places these jobs out of reach for many early educators with decades of experience working in private pre-K classrooms.

In the American early care and education system, credentialing and licensure is complicated. Regulations vary by state and there’s no single model that’s been written in the stars as the one true and best policy. Rather, the rules policymakers set reflect a host of tradeoffs that influence the demographics of the teachers children get. And because of an array of factors both substantively wide and historically deep — , racial and ethnic wealth gaps, cost increases in higher education, and more — even seemingly neutral training requirements can produce a surprisingly homogeneous teaching workforce ill-suited to supporting a diverse population of students. 

For instance, there’s nothing inherently racist or monolingually-biased about requiring teacher candidates to practice their future profession as student teachers before getting their license to be a lead teacher. But if the clinical hours spent as a student teacher aren’t paid, even though student teachers are still required to pay tuition to their training programs during that time, then candidates without significant financial resources may be less likely to make it over this hurdle. And that’s part of why, in a country where and are disproportionately likely to be growing up below — or near — the poverty line, we have such persistent shortages of bilingual teachers and teachers of color. 

Nearly every teacher credential requirement involves this sort of tradeoff — for early educators or for K–12 teachers. The more standardized and less flexible a state’s licensure system is, the more difficult it can be for diverse candidates to reach the classroom. What’s more, as we note in our report, “frustratingly, research indicates that many licensure requirements don’t generally produce higher-quality instruction or better outcomes for students.” 

What can California policymakers do to ensure that more of their current, experienced, linguistically diverse early educators reach the state’s new pre-K and TK classrooms? Well, when it comes to policy reforms for diversifying the teacher workforce, there really are only two main options. Policymakers can either: 

1) Pursue investments that can provide financial support for non-traditional teacher candidates going through traditional training and licensure systems, including scholarships, large stipends for student-teaching and additional pay to help people miss work to go to classes. 

2) Introduce more flexibility into their credential requirements, such as alternative training pathways, credential waivers and equivalency provisions, which would make it possible for candidates with years of early childhood experience to be counted toward clinical hours.

That’s it. There really isn’t some other clever mechanism. Either California needs to invest significantly more so that more bilingual early educator candidates get the (mostly monolingual) credentials the state requires or it needs to change the credentials it requires. 

So, as we note in the report, California policymakers urgently need reforms that help early childhood educators have their “language skills and instructional expertise as partially or fully equivalent to the credentials required for becoming a TK teacher.” This could involve creating new provisional credentials that allow long-time early educators to become lead TK teachers in the new public system for five to seven years while they complete further training. It could involve major state investments in waiving tuition or providing student teaching stipends for bilingual TK teacher candidates. 

The story of the last big cycle of early education investments makes it clear that effective implementation matters at least as much as political momentum. And when it comes to supporting young, linguistically diverse kids, that means building systems that support the training and hiring of bilingual early educators. California is an emerging national leader in early education, so it’s critical that it gets this early education expansion right. The state already has the bilingual teacher candidates it needs. The next big step is making sure it keeps them in its new public early education system. 

Some panelists argued the move — long a goal of conservatives —  would be disastrous while others testified it would be largely symbolic. 

“The elimination of the Department Of Education would do significant harm to the teacher shortage and particularly for our students with disabilities,” testified Tuan Nguyen, an associate professor at the University of Missouri whose team runs one of the only on teacher shortages. 

“The Department Of Education is largely responsible for making sure we follow the laws and to divest funds, and if we don’t have a Department of Education to oversee what we’re doing … we’re going to have a free-for-all in terms of who we’re going to put in the classroom,” Nguyen added.

Fellow panelist Eric Hanushek, a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution had another take: “I don’t think that eliminating the Department of Education would do much.”

While he’s concerned it might jeopardize the collection of data and funding of research, ultimately Hanushek said the department is largely responsible for dispersing funds, a role another department could take on. 

“I think it’s largely a political statement,” he added.

Jessica Levin, litigation director at the disagreed. “The DOE is not just a pass-through [of funds],” she said. “The DOE has expertise in the complicated distribution of those funds and the enforcement of the civil rights guarantees that go along with them.”

She added that “eliminating it would be not just on a practical level extremely harmful but part of an attack on institutions that protect civil rights in this country,” making it a “dangerous proposal both on a practical and symbolic level.”

Both state and federal governments are responsible for ensuring that the rights of students with disabilities are met through the The law, initially passed in 1974 but amended and renamed in 1990, proposed that federal funding would cover 40% of the average costs of special education, a directive that has yet to be met in the 50 years since. Experts noted that when special education isn’t fully funded, district leaders are forced to reallocate money from elsewhere, ultimately harming all students.

The federal held Friday’s briefing to better understand the impact of teacher shortages on students with disabilities nationwide. A final report on their findings is anticipated in fall 2025, Stephen Gilchrist, the lead commissioner on the report, told ����Ӱ�� before the briefing.

“Having been involved with some of this in my own home state of South Carolina, we’ve seen many issues where students who were entitled to these federal accommodations were not receiving them at all in school districts,” Gilchrist said, a dilemma he noted is only worsened by teacher shortages.

An appointee from Trump’s first presidency, Gilchrist expressed optimism that the incoming administration will help lawmakers “think differently about how … we deliver education to students in America … without there being such a bureaucratic process.”

His observations and the debate at the briefing over the education department’s fate comes amid a firestorm over a series of controversial Trump appointees this week. Trump has yet to name his education secretary and it’s unclear whether what critics see makes the department’s possible demise more likely.

Friday’s briefing focused on a persistent problem in K-12 education — the shortage of special education teachers — that was exacerbated by COVID. As of October 2023, of public schools said they were not fully staffed in special education, and 51% reported having to move teachers around to fill a variety of vacancies. 

In 2024, 72% of public schools with special education vacancies struggled to fill the position with a fully certified teacher, according to Brittany Patrick, senior policy analyst on education at the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers union.

That being said, there is a lack of specific and reliable data, according to Nguyen, who noted that while almost every state has indicated shortages, there’s no information on the magnitude. “Knowing there’s a shortage is not particularly helpful if we don’t know the extent of the problem,” he said.

In the face of these vacancies, some states have issued thousands of provisional and emergency licenses, filled positions with substitute teachers, lowered teaching requirements, or sent the National Guard into classrooms, all of which means students are being instructed by under-qualified teachers, Nguyen argued.

Panelists across the spectrum noted the particularly challenging circumstances in which special education teachers currently work, marked by low pay, large caseloads and class sizes, inadequate support and political divisiveness — all of which appear to be driving them out of the classroom. At the same time, there is a dearth of new educators in the pipelines. 

Together this means that special education students don’t receive the services they’re entitled to, “a pervasive issue, exacerbated by decreased professionalization and the mental health effects of COVID,” said Amanda Levin Mazin, senior lecturer at Columbia University’s Teachers College. Even pre-pandemic, a number of these students were falling

And the pay? It  doesn’t compare, she said.

“We’re underpaid, overworked and we’re not appreciated. We’re seen as, ‘Oh you’re just a day care. No, I’m not a day-care person. I’m a teacher.’ ” 

Muñeton started off as an aide and worked her way up to full-time teacher and president of the , an American Federation of Teachers local union in California.

Muñeton said when she was an assistant teacher, more than half of her paycheck went to health insurance, and her husband was forced to work a second job to help support their two kids, who are both Head Start students. This year, Muñeton said she reached a breaking point and considered leaving her decade-and-a-half -long career in early childhood education to apply for a job at Target.

Muñeton is far from alone: child care workers nationally have one of the lowest-paid occupations, with 11% to 34% living in While the average salary of a public preschool teacher and a kindergarten teacher is about $49,000 and $60,000, respectively, the average annual salary for Head Start and other preschool teachers is about

But this could all change over the next several years according to a recently released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees Head Start and aims to raise annual wages for teachers in the program by about $10,000 and increase access to benefits such as high-quality, affordable health care coverage and paid leave. The rule is largely in response to the struggle to hire and retain qualified staff, which has ultimately led to classrooms closing.

Head Start organizations must comply with some elements of the ruling by October but have until August 2031 to begin providing increased pay. There is an emergency exemption for the 35% of agencies with fewer than 200 funded slots, but they must still make “measurable improvements in wages for staff over time.”

Some agencies may also be eligible for waivers for wage requirements in 2028, if the funding does not increase at a sufficient pace, which could be the rule’s greatest challenge. In order to qualify, they would need to demonstrate that implementing the pay raises would force them to cut occupied seats and show that they’re meeting certain quality requirements.

a nonprofit organization that represents Head Start families, providers and educators, welcomed the federal announcement in an Aug. 16 press release, but expressed disappointment that the edict does not address the need for significant additional funding to fully achieve its goals and could end up forcing operators to slash staff to meet the salary mandates.

“The organization remains concerned that, if Congress and future administrations do not agree to such increases, the impact of the final rule could prove devastating, by significantly reducing the number of children and families served by Head Start programs,” the organization wrote.

While the rule is an important step forward from a policy perspective, it is a “double-edged sword” in terms of funding, according to Dan Wuori, the founder and president of and a former kindergarten teacher and South Carolina school district administrator. 

“They’re sort of stuck either way,” he said. “If they can’t attract teachers then they can’t serve kids. But if they have to compensate at a higher level to draw qualified staff then that — in the absence of new funding — could mean serving a much smaller number of children.”

Katie Hamm, deputy assistant secretary for Early Childhood Development at the which is overseen by the Department of Health and Human Services, said in an Aug. 30 interview that she believes the administration can partner with Congress to increase Head Start appropriations over time while simultaneously restructuring the current budget to put more money toward wages.

Khari Garvin, the director of the office of Head Start, told ����Ӱ�� the hope is that the changes will position the program to recruit, attract and retain the “best and brightest talent in this field,” which “translates into better developmental outcomes for children and families.” 

“The great irony … is that for too long we’ve had individuals — committed staff — working in what is an anti-poverty program, many of whom have made either poverty-level wages, or close to poverty-level wages,” he said. “And so now we’re correcting that.”

Muñeton doesn’t think Head Start teachers should have to wait so many years for this potential shift in pay, benefits and working conditions. But when — and if — it does happen, it’ll be life changing, she said. 

“I’ll be able to afford maybe purchasing a house rather than renting out of my parents’. I’ll be able to tell my husband, ‘Hey, quit the other job so we can see you more often.’ I’ll be able to pay off the debt that I’m still trying to pay off monthly,” she said.

‘A really important stake in the ground’

Head Start began as an eight-week demonstration project in the 1960s, as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s . Since then, the programs have reached more than 38 million children and their families, the majority of whom meet federal low-income guidelines. Currently, it serves about 650,000 children from birth to age 5 and their families, in urban, suburban and rural areas in all 50 states.

They also connect families to community and federal assistance and can help provide a career pathway for parents into early care and education: As of almost a quarter of Head Start’s 260,000 staff were parents of current or former Head Start children. The vast majority of Head Start center-based preschool teachers nationally had a bachelor’s degree or higher in early childhood education or a related field with experience. About of education staff members are Black, 30% are Latino and the vast majority are women. 

The 1,600 local agencies are funded by the federal government, though many also tap into state and local revenue sources. For years, these agencies have struggled to hire and retain highly qualified educators, with turnover hitting 17% in

“We really have a crisis on our hands,” Hamm said.

For a single adult with one child, median child care worker pay does not meet a living wage . Salary and benefits were cited as the top reason why almost 1 in 5 staff positions were vacant nationwide in a 2023 National Head Start Association . Of the 20% of Head Start and Early Head Start classrooms that were reported closed in the survey, 81% attributed the shutdowns to staffing vacancies. 

These persistently low wages come from a century-long history of falsely dichotomizing care and education, according to Wuori, the policy expert and former kindergarten teacher.

“We think of early care as being almost an industrialized form of babysitting,” he said, “whereas education kicks in — from a policy level — maybe a few years later. And one of the side effects of that then is that the people who work with the youngest children are not respected as the professionals that they are. And a primary way that that is the case is through their compensation, which … lags well behind that of fast food workers and employees at big box stores.”

This new federal rule, he said, serves as a “really important stake in the ground” to rectify that mindset.

When TyKesha and Dedrick Cross met in fifth grade, neither of them could have known that decades later they’d be married and working as dedicated educators serving kids that look like them in .

In Pine Bluff, Arkansas, people see education as a way out. Many of the Cross’s classmates moved on to nearby Little Rock, to Texas.

Their city has changed drastically over the last decade, its population dwindling from 49,000 to between 2010 and 2020. Businesses left alongside residents, leaving rusting signs and boarded windows in what once was a thriving . Two main school districts consolidated; school buildings remain vacant.

But for educators who’ve stayed to hold down the fort like the Crosses, there’s no question why Pine Bluff is still, as TyKesha calls it, a “diamond in the rough,” where they’ve raised their own and their neighbors’ children. 

“The community and the kids we serve is why we stick around. This is home,” said Dedrick, now an assistant principal at James Matthew Elementary. “Rearing these students and trying to have them beat the odds is what keeps us in this area.” 

The Cross’s spirit is not unique. Countless local educators and leaders, retired and early career, reared in Pine Bluff or not, share it and are beginning to see signs that stronger schools are not wishful thinking.

In a sprint to make schools families can trust, Pine Bluff is learning what it takes to build up their core: a strong educator workforce.  

Educators are quick to point to the : Quality teachers are the most important factor for student success. Local alternative and traditional university preparation programs are making teaching more financially and emotionally sustainable — expanding class offerings, child care or mental health grants. Programs are leaning into grow-your-own models, too, recruiting locals who understand students’ lived experiences to teach and lead schools. 

The momentum to revitalize has never been stronger. The district has regained control after a state takeover. The district’s new superintendent is committed to making the community a part of changes. A pandemic, local gun violence and new statewide investments have lit a fire for better quality education. 

While many rural schools nationwide face persistent challenges in staffing schools, Pine Bluff offers a different story, starting the 2023-24 school year 99% staffed. 

Pine Bluff’s educators admit there’s much more to be done, like ensuring training matches what teachers are struggling with, most recently student behavior and discipline. 

And superintendent Jennifer Barbaree is not one to sugar coat. 

“Systematically, our academic achievement is very poor. Classroom instruction is not where it needs to be. We have parents telling us that, we have community members telling us that,” Barbaree said. “����’s a process … We’re not going to go from an F school from the last 10 years to suddenly an A school.” 

Though many were skeptical at first, when a white woman from out of town took the reins, Dedrick thinks it is fading. “We needed somebody with some vision and some transparency.”  

The Crosses remember their first meeting with Barbaree fondly. Her frankness was the “breath of fresh air” Dedrick had been yearning for, especially from administrators. 

“She said, I’m gonna tell you, we ain’t got no money,” Dedrick recalled.

“That’s exactly how she said it, ebonics and all,” TyKesha added, smiling. 

TyKesha is hopeful for the future — in their small but mighty district of about 3,300, “love and untapped potential,” are abundant. 

She and Dedrick know intimately why investing in educators, particularly Black educators and those who reflect the student body’s demographic, is critical for student success. 

“����’s a process … We’re not going to go from an F school from the last 10 years to suddenly an A school.” 

Jennifer Barbaree, Pine Bluff Superintendent

After surviving a gunshot wound to the head and becoming pregnant by her senior year, it was an educator who knocked on her grandparent’s door and urged TyKesha to come back and finish high school. The same person recruited her to become an educator two decades later. 

Now a 9th grade business teacher, TyKesha introduces the next generation of homeowners and entrepreneurs to the pillars of marketing and finance. Her family members were some of the first free Black farmers in Arkansas, to this day running one of Pine Bluff’s oldest businesses and local favorite for fried catfish: . 

Before teaching, she and Dedrick had careers in banking, real estate and counseling, and job offers out of state. But instead of joining the thousands who have left their hometown, they forged new careers in education. 

Having worked for a decade as a parole and substance abuse counselor, Dedrick knows the range of experiences children have in Pine Bluff, too. Some, he said, have been in survival mode since they were ten. Passing through the front door of one student’s home, he stepped on a dirt floor. 

Knowing what students go home to has reinforced their decision to stay and make their schools a safe haven for the next generations. Dedrick, now in his first year as an administrator after eight years teaching, has one rule for James

Madison Elementary’s teachers: that they get to know their students and not holler at them. They get enough of that, he said. 

The couple still wrestle with big questions, like how to curb the gun violence that claimed the lives of one of their students and nearly a child a month last school year. But, Dedrick said, “it keeps tugging on us to make that impact here.”

He’s not alone in his dedication and optimism. More and more, signs show Pine Bluff is rising to strengthen schools’ core.

Pathways to bring in more local talent are growing. This fall, more candidates than ever applied to the same 3-year preparation program the Crosses completed: Arkansas Teacher Corps. The partnership with the University of Arkansas provides community members, many already working in schools as paraprofessionals or substitutes, a path to being licensed. 

The district re-assessed all uncertified or emergency certified teachers to ensure they were completing preparation programs or exams. Those without adequate progress by the end of last school year were let go.

And Barbaree’s candor has shifted how the district has built partnerships with traditional university preparation programs. With a doctorate in the science of reading, she’s started asking: what textbooks are you using in your reading foundations courses?

“We need to do a better job partnering with universities and saying,” she said, “what do your teacher prep courses look like? How does that meet the needs of what we need in our districts?”

Kimberley Davis feels the Pine Bluff difference. Dean of the education college at University of Arkansas Pine Bluff, the local HBCU, Davis is no stranger to teacher preparation, having worked at four other universities.

She and Barbaree are on a texting basis. This is what she calls her first “true partnership” with a K-12 district. 

“We need them, and they need us,” Davis said.

Recruitment for rural realities 

Eyes are on Arkansas’s teacher workforce in part because of the state’s 2023 LEARNS Act, which boosted the salary floor from $36,000 to $50,000, requiring all teachers complete a yearlong residency guided by a mentor. 

“[LEARNS] was a huge wake up call … It disrupted the status quo enough that now people are trying something different,” said Brandon Lucius, Arkansas Teacher Corps’s executive director.  

Instead of recruiting far and wide, local preparation programs are now leaning into a grow-your-own approach to help capture community members working in and around schools, local leaders like the Crosses. 

Offering social-emotional support from the start of teacher preparation has made the difference for educators like TyKesha. Between her network of Arkansas Teacher Corps alumni, local mentors, and tools learned through ATC including yoga certification, she’s feeling a “five year fire,” not an itch to leave as many do by this milestone. 

More day classes, hybrid offerings and a free multi-day bootcamp for required licensure exams has become the norm at the local HBCU to ensure candidates graduate classroom ready. 

The district is switching things up, too, recruiting at the state’s flagship public university in Fayetteville and keeping a close feedback loop with local ones. Job posts in key subject areas stay open all year, in anticipation of vacancies. A teacher cadet program helps interested high schoolers matriculate into education classes at local colleges. 

Before its historic population decline, Pine Bluff’s teacher pool were mostly white graduates from traditional 4-year programs. Now, they usually come out of programs bringing career changers, parents and community members to the classroom through shorter, and more affordable teaching residencies like Arkansas Teacher Corps.

After embracing the grow-your-own model, the district’s pool flipped to nearly 75% parents of color, 97% first generation college graduates and older career shifters. The program now offers a $2,500 stipend; candidates can apply for grants for mental health services, child care, or personal computers. 

A similar transformation is happening in the administrator pipeline. 

“We’re saying we don’t want to drop someone in and hope that they stick,” said IMPACT Arkansas director John Bacon. The 18-month fellowship prepares teachers to become administrators in low-income districts, heavily subsidizing a masters in educational leadership.

‘The time has always been now’ 

To ensure Pine Bluff’s educators can stay in the field for the long haul, rising and longstanding teacher leaders name two needs: mentorship and social-emotional support. 

Burnout is the common culprit for departures or a dip in teaching quality — combinations of financial strain, frustration with student behavior that grew more concerning during COVID, and grief from trauma in the community. 

Local teachers in training have heard tales of Mattie Collins, one of Pine Bluff High School’s revered history teachers known for her firm but fair approach.  

She, like many informal mentors reared in Pine Bluff before and after her, was never interested in waiting for local or state leadership to catch up to the investment she saw as critical — teachers.

“Well, the time has always been now to Ms. Collins,” said Collins, who retired after 35 years and now leads a nonprofit for youth to explore STEM careers and prepare for the ACT. 

Her solution to some of the burnout and behavior concerns is relatively simple: have good lesson plans that keep everyone engaged, and make sure that young people know their teacher respects them. 

“It’s a two way street. It’s not just, respect Ms. Collins cause she’s the older person in the room. ����’s that Ms. Collins respects you and thinks you’re great and wants you to do your best. They’ll do anything for you if they know that you really care.”

That pedagogy lives on in the classroom through her former students turned teachers like Kendra Jones. The type to “snatch you up,” in a caring way. 

Alongside classics, she uses literature she knows will keep attention and speak to what students care about. Dear Martin and Dear Justyce, two books focused on the experiences of young Black teens experiencing police brutality and navigating the justice system, are on the syllabus this semester. 

But even the beloved Jones has had thoughts about leaving, perhaps to be an administrator and make bigger waves or earn more. To sustain her family, she’s done hair and meal prepping on the side. 

Many Pine Bluff teachers work multiple jobs. Though LEARNS boosted the floor for teachers, it didn’t bake in funding or planning to level set pay for more experienced educators. With a master’s, Jones now makes the same as a first year teacher. Once she finishes her doctorate, she’d only see about a $3,000 increase annually.

On top of it all, Pine Bluff is a community in grieving. 

Jones went to five student funerals last year alone. In the back of her classroom shines a framed photo of one student, murdered six days after his birthday, a gift from his mother. 

“I look at the crime rate. I look at how our babies are being taken from us,” she said. “����’s things like that that make you say I can’t do this.” 

In those moments, she calls on her mentors. “But then you have people that have been here who also had those opportunities to leave like Ms. Collins and Mattie Glover and Virginia Hines. They’re retired and could be at home on the beach, but they’re still advocating.”

So is Jones, who has a reputation as the “trouble teacher” for making noise on behalf of students. When people speak ill of Pine Bluff, she’s quick to remind them where their roots are. 

“Somebody’s got to say something because right now what we need for our kids is not what it should be,” said Jones. “… I know what it could be and I have positive aspirations that greater is coming.”

To TyKesha, who teaches down the hall, the common denominator that anchors her, Jones and Pine Bluff’s “community of fighters” is love. 

Many of her students grew up in the same projects she did. Her classes start in the dark — a few minutes of free time with overhead lights off: listen to a song, watch a game, just pause for a moment. The only sound is the slow drip of water from a decorative fountain on her desk. 

As students settled in one morning, Cross asked for a weather report — a social-emotional check-in learned from the Arkansas Teacher Corps. She’ll never forget one response: “acid rain,” with things falling from the sky. The phrase raised red flags for Cross, her innate sense of familiarity with her community’s challenges kicking in. 

She quickly emailed the student’s counselor, then the principal: their class was headed outside. 

Chalk in hand, students took turns writing on the sidewalk: “you’re not alone,” and “yesterday is not ours to recover but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.” 

It wasn’t until later the student whose response sparked the activity shared what was on his mind that day—  he had thoughts of taking his own life. The activity gave him encouragement, he said, and opened the door to talking more about his life with Cross and his counselor. 

For Cross, the incident confirmed why she became a teacher  in the first place — to  make schools the safe haven they were for her growing up. ����’s a stark reminder, too, of the impact of investing in teacher development, to develop talent whose radar would go off like hers did that day. 

“Why do people stay here? That’s why,” Cross said tearfully. “To know that something I did, passed on to me from a program … I could have left and went to another big town or city and found another bank to work for, probably made $200,000. But I wouldn’t have been here for that day.”

]]> /article/teacher-prep-programs-see-encouraging-growth-new-federal-data-reveal/ Sun, 28 Apr 2024 12:01:00 +0000 /?post_type=article&p=726078 ����’s that America’s teaching pool is a fraction of the size it once was 15 years ago, hard hit by the Great Recession and mostly shrinking since. 

But new federal data has given researchers some cause for optimism, suggesting efforts to make teaching more financially viable with strategies such as paying student teachers have helped to move the needle. 

From 2018 through 2022, enrollment in teacher preparation programs grew 12% nationally, or by about 46,231 more candidates, according to a from Pennsylvania State’s Center for Evaluation and Education Policy Analysis.

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Nine states lead the pack with notably higher bumps in teacher prep programs in recent years: Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Ohio, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina and, with the highest average growth, Maryland. 

The modest upswing, seen both in enrollment and completion rates, during some of the most strained years in American education, has surprised experts.

“It was encouraging to see … at the height of the pandemic, it certainly was not what we were expecting,” said Jacqueline King, research and policy consultant with the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. 

Only 11 states saw continued enrollment declines in the prep programs during the last three years, among them Montana and Minnesota. 

“I think that all the work that we’ve been doing around grow your own, apprenticeships and residencies… to open up more affordable pathways into teaching are starting to bear some fruit, which is amazing and fantastic,” King added.

Contributing factors also include federal pandemic relief funds and new laws in states such as and that pay student teachers. In Maryland, for instance, some during their year long teaching residency. 

“It’s real,” said King. “It’s enough money that you’re not thinking, how am I gonna do student teaching and have a part time job?” 

Still, researchers caution, the growth is not nearly at the pace required to match hiring demand. Teacher shortages are , and in key areas like special education and math. 

Enrollment in teacher preparation programs in just one decade — about fewer teachers are prepared annually. Compounding social, political and economic strains fueled the decline, including a major recession and education reform efforts that negatively impacted public perception of teaching and America’s schools. 

By 2021, only five areas had bucked the overall trend, with more enrollees than a decade prior: Arizona, Mississippi, Texas, Washington and Washington, D.C. Texas’s growth can be attributed to rapid expansion of a particular alternative program, Teachers of Tomorrow, . 

“Over the last seven years, we’re kind of treading water in terms of the number of teachers,” said Ed Fuller, education professor at Pennsylvania State University and author of the most recent analysis. “We don’t need to be where we were in 2010 because we don’t have as many students, but we need to be a lot closer to that than we are now.”

About in K-12 public schools nationwide in 2022 than before the pandemic. The steepest drops are in the younger grades, partially a result of declining birth rates.

On the whole, districts did not pump the brakes on hiring teachers because of the alarming 2% drop in student enrollment. Flush with expiring pandemic relief funds, schools added 15,000 teaching positions last school year. 

Even as full-time school staffing reached an all time high, a quarter of districts had fewer teachers per student than they did in 2016. 

The demand for teachers is far from met, with about 55,000 teaching jobs open nationwide. Since 2008, the decline of teachers in training has impacted schools in every corner of the country. 

Even places like Pennsylvania, whose supply of teachers historically was so abundant that many newly-credentialed teachers were sent out of state, are of a shrinking teacher workforce. Its surplus has gradually disappeared over six years. 

“People weren’t paying attention,” said Fuller, who recommended that public figures talk up the professions’ value and that the legislature take on teacher scholarships to tailor recruitment for local needs. Scholarships could be earmarked for teachers of color, math educators, or those serving high-poverty schools, for example. 

But if districts and states, tasked with building diverse, robust teaching pools, are focused solely on producing new candidates, King cautioned efforts would be in vain, akin to using a hose to fill a leaky bucket with water. 

By the end of the 2021-22 school year, 10% of teachers left the profession nationally, 4% more than before the pandemic, according to . Experts point to job dissatisfaction, political polarization and exhaustion. 

In Florida, one of the nine states that saw a higher enrollment bump than most, more than 5,000 teaching positions are vacant, the . The job has gotten harder, too — remaining educators teach more students per classroom than they did before the pandemic. While the enrollment data suggest a move in the right direction, it will take years for today’s teachers in training to enter its workforce.

“We’ve really got to think more about the job of a teacher and how we make it more sustainable — financially, from the perspective of work-life balance, and giving people opportunities for growth,” King said. “We need to look at teaching and why it’s such a difficult job to sell.”

]]> /article/189-innovative-school-leaders-teacher-staffing-ai-mental-health-top-ed-issues/ Tue, 09 Apr 2024 11:15:00 +0000 /?post_type=article&p=725031 A common set of problems are keeping education leaders up at night: Will there be enough teachers to staff America’s schools? Can artificial intelligence enhance learning without deepening inequality? How can educators address the mental health crisis among young people? None of these have easy answers.

New data confirm that these issues are top of mind for school leaders, and that education innovators are working to find solutions. The , an ongoing national study of schools that focus on designing student-centered and equitable learning environments — and challenge assumptions about what school must be — just updated its with survey results from 189 innovative schools. 

In the survey, most participants agreed that teacher workforce issues, AI and the mental health crisis will shape the future of education. They are also working on solutions — but are concerned about having adequate resources to sustain those efforts.

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School leaders selected teacher workforce issues as the top factor that they think will transform the education sector. While some respondents said they have struggled to recruit teachers in general, they particularly have trouble finding those with skills geared to working with non-traditional instructional models. A leader from Bostonia Global, a charter school that’s part of Cajon Valley Unified School District in California, wrote that credentialing programs need to “shift to meet the needs of our current and future workforce.” The school’s competency-based instructional model requires teachers to implement an individualized approach, not just teach the same content at the same pace to a classroom of 30 kids.

Canopy’s survey data show that many schools are innovating to solve these workforce-related issues: 65% reported they implement some form of flexible or alternative staffing model. For example, the Center for Advanced Research and Technology, a high school that enrolls students from two partner districts in California, brings in industry professionals to work alongside teachers. Several Canopy schools foster collaboration, using staffing models such as , which provides mentorship, opportunities for small-group teaching and professional development. 

Artificial intelligence was the second most-selected driver of change. School leaders’ responses showed they want to harness its potential while staying attentive to issues of access, privacy and equity. Only 7% of Canopy school leaders said they have a policy in place governing students’ use of generative AI, but 38% said they’re developing one. Despite the shortage of formal policy, experimentation appeared abundant.

Howard Middle School for Math and Science, based at Howard University, said the school’s policy is to use AI “to enhance educational outcomes, personalize learning experiences and streamline administrative tasks, while ensuring the safety, privacy and well-being of all students and staff. Anastasis Academy, an independent microschool in Colorado, wrote, “We have trained a GPT on our model, our writings and our curriculum to help personalize learning.” 

The claimed the third spot on the list of factors that school leaders believe will transform K-12 education. Four in five leaders reported that their schools are already integrating social and emotional learning into all subject areas and student activities, making it one of the practices most commonly implemented across Canopy schools this year. Additionally, two-thirds of schools surveyed provide mental health services to students, either directly or through a partner like a community-based health organization, and just under half said they support adult wellness, too.

Some responses pointed to an even bigger problem beyond students’ acute mental health needs: about what the future may hold. One leader wrote, “Students are developing an increasing sense of hopelessness about the world beyond school.” Many lower- and middle-income young people, he said, feel that social mobility is “not possible for them.”

Many schools are working toward solutions that combat that sense of hopelessness. As in previous years of Canopy surveys, most schools reported designing solutions to meet marginalized students’ needs. At BuildUp Community School in Alabama, the school’s mostly Black and economically disadvantaged students split their time between classrooms and work-based learning in construction and real estate, revitalizing their communities and paving a path to homeownership. And 5280 High School, in Colorado, helps students recovering from addiction to reengage in their education and explore their passions in a setting that prioritizes mental health.

A majority of leaders worried about their ability to sustain resources in the coming years. Of those, the top concerns were the availability of local public, private and philanthropic funding. Over a third of those with concerns also said they worried about staffing shortages, inflation and the expiration of federal stimulus funding.

A few leaders pointed out that inadequate funding will not just make it harder to keep the lights on — it will stunt the development of innovative ideas to solve the enormous challenges ahead. Indeed, shows reduced philanthropic investment in broader systemic change in the sector.Funding shortfalls in many districts and states will also mean even basic education services may lack adequate resources, making it harder for leaders to defend funding for higher-risk innovation efforts.

Too often, the scale of K-12 sector problems lead education leaders, policymakers and funders to bemoan a lack of bold solutions or flock to attractive but still-theoretical ideas that fail in the implementation stage. School-level innovation efforts are worth watching because they show unconventional ideas in the process of becoming reality — and some may hint at what success can look like. Canopy schools are prime examples of this, whether it’s a New York City charter school student learning and well-being through summer programming or a North Carolina district school high growth rates with an innovative staffing approach. 

The Canopy project will release a full research report later this year. For now, the headlines from this year’s survey should prompt education leaders, policymakers and funders to take note of schools, like those in Canopy’s , that are working toward bold and unconventional solutions. 

Indeed, one answer to what will drive K-12 transformation in the coming years is that it will arise from innovation not just in ed tech companies and think tanks, but in the nation’s schools.

]]> /article/principals-view-to-fix-learning-losses-expand-loan-forgiveness-for-educators/ Tue, 13 Dec 2022 16:56:49 +0000 /?post_type=article&p=701234 The results of the most recent Nation’s Report Card found students across almost all states and demographic groups showing steep declines in academic achievement. Talented teachers and principals will be crucial to reversing this trend. But my middle school, and schools like it throughout the country, are struggling to hire and keep staff. Expanded loan forgiveness for educators is one of the most cost-effective measures for retaining the personnel needed to increase student achievement.

I’ve been an educator for over 22 years and a principal for 10 years. Normally — even during the worst of the pandemic — I would start the summer with one or two positions to fill. But this year I had vacancies in areas including math, science and special education and in roles supporting students with special needs. In some cases, qualified applicants turned me down because of the stress of the job and, in some instances, salary issues. 

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����’s hardly just classroom positions that are tough to fill. In the National Association of Secondary School Principals’s , half of principals said their stress was so high they were considering a career change or retirement and nearly three-quarters agreed that staffing shortages are a problem at their school.

Districts have had to get creative to ensure high-quality instruction despite staffing gaps. One solution has been to pay educators extra for taking on an additional subject, dividing the workload of a missing teacher among those who remain. That approach, however, is far from sustainable; having teachers and administrators cover classes during their prep periods or take on extra duties is fueling burnout among faculty members. 

A more sustainable way to reverse this trend and make it enticing to become and remain an educator comes down to loan forgiveness. 

Loan forgiveness mitigates the teacher pay penalty — the . As the price of higher education continues to climb, erasing thousands of dollars of debt is a valuable financial incentive, especially in hard-to-staff subjects like math, science and special education. Fewer prospective teachers would have to choose between pursuing their calling and starting a family or buying a home.

Loan forgiveness can also inspire people to enter the profession instead of other vocations. At my previous school, teachers told me they took the job because they would qualify for federal and similar programs — and planned to leave as soon as their loans were paid. My beginning teachers were making about $50,000. But with an average debt of $58,700, the prospect of $17,500 in loan forgiveness was attractive enough to make the job worthwhile. And when they finally qualified to receive the money, almost all had discovered such love for teaching and for their students that they remained in education.

Expanding eligibility beyond K-12 teachers in low-income schools and raising the $17,500 limit on loan forgiveness would make teaching and school administration a more attractive career path for young people, and help retain those who have already become educators.

Although loan forgiveness options for classroom teachers are woefully inadequate, school leaders have almost none, and teachers often become ineligible once they move into the principalship. This can disincentivize excellent educators from using their talents to support an entire school community. Given that among school-based factors in raising academic achievement, loan forgiveness for principals could go a long way to returning student learning to pre-pandemic levels.

At the , we’ve been working with Congress on a solution to fill gaps in loan forgiveness. The recently introduced offers one of the most comprehensive improvements. Endorsed by 50 education organizations, this bill would: 

• Provide full student loan forgiveness to educators who teach for five years in high-needs schools;
  
• Expand loan forgiveness to school leaders and early childhood educators;
  
• Ensure teachers keep forgiveness benefits if their school no longer high-needs or if they take on additional responsibilities.

Such changes can jumpstart a virtuous cycle, in which new educators lighten the load of those already in the profession. As Congress responds to plummeting national test data in the coming months, expanding loan forgiveness is a cost-effective strategy that will attract talented teachers to the education field and give them the means to stay.

]]> /article/missing-an-opportunity-ed-dept-criticized-by-gao-for-teacher-shortage-strategy/ Tue, 29 Nov 2022 19:00:00 +0000 /?post_type=article&p=700308 With the nation’s schools facing acute teacher shortages, the GAO criticized the U.S. Department of Education’s for not adequately addressing the crisis and guiding states’ in how to attract and retain more educators. 

As teachers nationwide face “an increasingly disrespectful and demanding school workplace culture,” and compensation concerns, the GAO charged in a report released last month failed to establish a timeline and measures to gauge progress in resolving regional teacher shortages. 

The challenge of cost of entry into the profession and concerns of return on investment, the GAO report found, is also significantly straining the country’s supply of teachers. Compounding the financial reality, many candidates fear being overworked and mistreated. 

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“The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare teachers’ discontent with aspects of their jobs, including a lack of support for their safety and value as professionals and an increasingly disrespectful and demanding workplace culture—and exacerbated teacher shortages nationwide,” the GAO stated, pulling data from focus groups held throughout the pandemic. 

Shortages, the agency confirmed, are most concentrated in urban and rural areas, schools predominantly serving non-white students, and key subjects like science and foreign languages.

Without clearer policy and benchmarks to address the crisis, “the effect of its efforts will be unknown and [the department] will miss an important opportunity… to help ensure that all children have access to high-quality teachers…” The GAO’s recommendations include raising public awareness about the value of teachers to combat negative perceptions of the profession; and providing information to states on how to address recruitment and retention challenges, via competitive grants and research-backed guidance on residencies, for example.

Researchers and federal policy analysts who study teacher workforces said the report confirms their understanding of vacancies and puts more pressure on the Department of Education to inform state policy.

But it will take more than just a public awareness campaign to combat negative perceptions of teaching: Addressing the systemic challenges that contribute is key, the experts said.

“School culture and support I think can tie into perceptions of teaching,” said Michael DiNapoli, deputy director of federal policy with the Learning Policy Institute, adding that “smaller class sizes, facilities that are up to date (and) supportive school leadership” will all make a difference in the lives of teachers.

Key Department programs that elevate pipelines and cut down cost barriers for those looking to lead classrooms have gone without updates for years, DiNapoli said. The , for example, which provides scholarships to teacher candidates, was last updated 15 years ago. 

“We’ve seen a whole generation of students go through K-12 with no updates,” DiNapoli said, adding, for instance, that the teacher loan forgiveness program also hasn’t been updated since 2004 amid climbing college tuition. 

The department may have limited power to change trends “overnight” given that states control their own policy, said Chad Aldeman, policy director of the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University. But what they can do, he said, is utilize their position to guide strategy that can make the difference in addressing acute shortages. 

“They have a bully pulpit they can use and they can collect better data,” Alderman said. “If they pushed harder on the other things around licensure, compensation, things that policy actually can change, I think that is where the bully pulpit can matter from the federal lens.”

The Department will “continue to give this area priority attention,” but did not confirm it will act on the GAO’s recommendations, Deputy Assistant Secretary Mark Washington said in response included in the report. A Department commission to examine how to elevate the profession is pending, proposed in their current budget now under Senate appropriations review.

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