During this past decade of teacher shortages, we have pulled together the common themes that continue to appear in the shortages.
In the 2024-2025 school year, schools are short 55,000 teachers and an additional 270,000 are not credentialed to work in K12 classrooms. The pressures that have caused such a teacher shortage are numerous. Experienced credentialed teachers have been leaving after just a few years or have decided to retire early.
The following are some of the leading causes that have now been well-documented:
- Pressure: Longer working hours, more responsibilities and short time to plan and spend with family
- Mentoring: Helping hone the skills of unqualified teachers has been added to many teachers
- Lack of administrative and parent support
- Low pay: This has appeared in almost every study on the pressures on teachers
- Teaching outside of one’s qualifications: Many teachers are assigned classes to teach that they have not been educated to teach
- Programs to prepare teachers have closed: Over 60 university and four-year teacher education programs have already closed in the U.S.
- Programs near closing: Nearly 100 more are seriously considering closing due to a lack of students and finances
Teacher ‘burnout’ as a result of these causes
Teacher burnout, marked by emotional, mental and physical fatigue from prolonged work-related stress, is a harsh reality for many. About 33% of teachers experience high levels of burnout, highlighting the severity of this issue.
Burnout significantly impacts teachers, leading to higher absenteeism and affecting their well-being and teaching effectiveness. Many sacrifice their mental, emotional and physical health, resulting in exhaustion and unhappiness. Too often, teachers feel a consistent dread about their careers, indicating it may be time to reconsider their profession.
Poor health can worsen burnout, creating a vicious cycle. Job-related stress affects teachers’ sleep, their ability to enjoy time with loved ones and their mental and physical health. This cycle explains why many teachers leave the profession. Addressing burnout is vital for educators’ well-being and the education system’s overall health.
The critical role of school boards
During this past decade of severe teacher shortages, it is apparent that many school boards do not fully understand their role in helping to overcome these shortages. Board leadership, working with their administrators, will have to address their teacher shortages by looking at new approaches. Addressing the above-listed reasons for teachers leaving can be solved.
Most of those causes must primarily be addressed by the local school board and administrators. It will, however, depend on finding a new pipeline for preparing new teachers.
With the previous pipeline of university and four-year college teachers now at a new low, it is crucial to consider the following:
- Working with local community and technical college trustees (boards) and administrators
- Becoming the joint force necessary to push for proper legislation to open these community and technical colleges as a new and needed pipeline in preparing baccalaureate degree teachers
- Working with education committee legislators and senators in each of the states to educate them on why this new pipeline is necessary
- Involving parents and parent-teacher groups to help present the problems when unqualified persons are filling classrooms
Statistics on teacher burnout
Teacher burnout has become a pervasive problem, and recent studies paint a grim picture. According to one study, a staggering 61% of teachers reported feeling burned out, with 21% experiencing poor mental health for more than 11 days each month.
This highlights the severe impact of burnout on teachers’ mental health:
- The problem is particularly acute among newer teachers.
- The same study found that 44% of teachers leave the profession within the first five years, with newer teachers being 2½ times more likely to quit than their tenured counterparts.
- A survey by the National Education Association revealed that 55% of teachers plan to leave the education field sooner than they had initially planned.
- This high turnover rate underscores the challenges faced by early-career educators.
What happens next?
For those school districts throughout the U.S. that continue to suffer from teacher shortages, much can be learned from what Florida has done. They have legislated allowing their state community colleges to offer baccalaureate degrees in teacher preparation; to date, 28 have been approved.
Every other state would do well to follow a similar legislative process to do the same.
Community and technical colleges number nearly 1,200 in the U.S. and can move quickly to help solve the teacher shortages if allowed.These colleges are close to all or most of the nation’s K12 school districts and within driving distance for students of all ages.
References
James, J. (2024, January 18). Top Reasons Why Teachers Are Quitting. Education Walkthrough. Retrieved March 8, 2025, at Understanding Why Teachers Are Quitting
Learning Policy Institute (2025, January 4). Research, Action, Impact. Palo Alto, CA. Retrieved January 7, 2025, www.linkedin.com/company/learning-policy-institute/posts/
