Patrick J. Murphy and Michael M. DeArmond, Center on Reinventing Public Education, University of Washington
August 2003
This short report takes a fresh look at teacher shortages, offering some insights into how schools react and how policies may alleviate the problem. The report uses surveys, interviews, and data from 1999-2000 and, not surprisingly, finds that shortages are most common in urban areas, low income and minority schools, and among special ed, math, and science positions. (Social studies, elementary, and English positions are easiest to fill.) But it focuses on the reactions of schools and districts to their hiring needs. Unfortunately, the culture in many human resource departments appears to be part of the problem. Staffers fail to plan ahead for upcoming shortages without specific positions in mind and are unable to break away from standard operating procedures in order to solve problems. The report notes some interesting exceptions, however, such as San Jose, which built affordable housing for new teachers, and the many districts that have expanded their recruiting efforts across the country and beyond. Two recurrent problems are union demands and certification barriers, although administrators express much greater concern for the former than the latter. The report recounts a sad example of one district's effort to decentralize teacher placement, which the union nominally supported but then undercut. We know that teacher shortages have many causes, but our first priorities must be to change the status quo by lowering entrance barriers to entry and reforming archaic salary structures. Then, perhaps, we can focus more of our energy on teacher quality and less on quantity. This report offers numerous policy tips that would move us in the right direction. It's available at http://www.crpe.org/pubs.shtml#teachers.
