Tackling Tennessee's ongoing teacher shortage is the focus of a newly released policy memo by the State Collaborative for Education Reform, also known as SCORE.
The Collaborative was founded in 2009 by former U.S. Sen. Bill Frist as an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan institution focused on educational research and advocacy. The analysis, released Monday, includes diverse data from 15 Tennessee school districts and provides insight into the causes of the teacher shortage and what state and local leaders can do to address it. is also included.
“With growing concerns about the educator pipeline and its impact on student learning, Tennessee is looking at how the state attracts, develops, retains and maximizes its educator talent pool. There is an urgent need for a deeper understanding of the
This analysis looks at the state's education labor market, the impact of teacher pay and other factors, what causes teachers to leave the field, the diversity gap between teachers and students, and what can be done to address it all. insights shared.
Here are four key takeaways from our analysis.
Compare Tennessee's teacher shortage to other regions across the country
The analysis estimates that there are approximately 60,000 teachers employed across the state and more than 1,000 vacancies. This number is based on his 2022 data from the Tennessee Department of Education and reflects unfilled teacher positions that led to a lack of course availability.
“Surprisingly, one-third of these vacancies were in the kindergarten through fifth grade range,” the analysis states.
However, not all school districts were struggling with vacancies. Nearly one-third of school districts reported no vacancies for the 2022-23 school year. The analysis shows that Tennessee's number of job openings is not an outlier in the United States, and that the number of job openings in Tennessee is on par with the national average.
Insights into teacher turnover and pay
The analysis shows that teacher turnover is most persistent among new hires, especially those who lack resources such as coaching, mentoring, and peer support. A growing number of teachers are undecided about their plans to remain in the profession.
State leaders recently set a goal of increasing teacher starting salaries to $50,000 a year by 2026 and investing an additional $1 billion in public education. Still, in nine of the 15 districts analyzed, the average salary for employees was less than the median household income in their respective counties. Considering all school districts, the average employee salary is $2,068 above the median.
Teacher pay is at the center of efforts to address shortages in Tennessee and nationally. In fact, the analysis shows that salaries grew much faster from 2021 to 2023 than in the previous three years.
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But when it comes to why teachers leave the profession, salary actually ranks fifth on the list. Here are the top five reasons why teachers decide not to teach next year.
- 40% said they would quit their job for other reasons
- 37% said they would leave for leadership
- 27% said they would quit their job due to workload
- 26% said they would quit their job because of the culture and climate among teachers and staff.
- 23% said they would quit their job for pay
Obvious racial and ethnic disparities between teachers and students
The majority of educators in Tennessee are white, according to the analysis. This is consistent with the state of Tennessee as a whole, but when compared to student demographics, clear disparities become apparent. Some of the demographics and numbers compared in the analysis include:
- 73% of educators are white compared to 37% of students.
- 23% of educators are black, compared to 41% of students.
- 18% of students are Hispanic compared to 2% of educators.
- 1% of educators are Asian compared to 3% of students.
National outreach and local action
Special authorization to issue emergency teacher certifications, increased salaries and efforts to strengthen training programs for new and existing educators are helping to close the gap, the analysis said. But there is still work to be done.
“Tennessee has been a pioneer in labor market innovation for educators for decades,” the analysis reads. “Given longstanding and ongoing staffing challenges, Tennessee leaders are boldly designing and implementing a comprehensive staffing solution that will best serve students for years to come. The time has come.”
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State and local leaders can take steps to attract new talent, empower and retain current educators, and better understand the forces operating in the education industry at the national, state, and local levels. Planned important actions. They include:
- Collect better data that is highly localized to each district
- Focus on supporting new teachers
- Review of compensation and staffing policies, including differentiated compensation
- Considering staffing structures in Tennessee and across the country to inform strategies on how to develop a reliable, effective, and diverse educational workforce
Read the full report for yourself
This analysis, along with SCORE's other reports, can be found at tnscore.org/resources/strengthening-tennessees-educator-labor-market.