Most U.S. Public Elementary and Secondary Schools Faced Hiring Challenges for the Start of the 2024–25 Academic Year

By Institute of Education Sciences

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) released the latest round of findings from the School Pulse Panel (SPP). These SPP data examine the hiring cycle of summer 2024 and community collaborations during the 2024-25 school year, as reported by school leaders in U.S. public schools. All data can be found on the SPP interactive dashboard. Below is a summary of some key findings from this release.

Key Findings

Staffing for the 2024-25 School Year

• On average, public schools reported having six teaching vacancies and filling 79% of those vacancies with fully certified teachers before the start of the 2024-25 school year.
  
  
  • Compared to the national estimate (filling 79% of vacancies with fully certified teachers), public schools with the following characteristics reported filling a higher percentage of vacancies with fully certified teachers:
    
    • with a student body made up of less than 25% students of color (83%)
      
      
  • Compared to the national estimate (filling 79% of vacancies with fully certified teachers), public schools with the following characteristics reported filling a lower percentage of vacancies with fully certified teachers:
    • with a student body made up of more than 75% students of color (75%)
    • in high-poverty neighborhoods (72%)
      
      
• The list below shows the percentages of public school teaching vacancies filled with fully certified teachers before the start of the 2024-25 school year, by position:
  
  • Social studies, 89% filled
  • General elementary, 88% filled
  • English or language arts, 85% filled
  • Physical education or health, 84% filled
  • Mathematics, 83% filled
  • Biology or life sciences, 81% filled
  • Music or arts, 81% filled
  • Computer science, 78% filled
  • Career or technical education, 77% filled
  • Physical sciences, 77% filled
  • Special education, 77% filled
  • ESL or bilingual education, 75% filled
  • Foreign languages, 71% filled
  • Other teaching positions not listed, 66% filled
    
    
• Seventy-four percent of public schools reported that they had difficulty filling one or more vacant positions with a fully certified teacher before the start of the school year, a decrease from 79% that reported having difficulty at the beginning of the 2023-24 school year.
  
  
• The top two challenges public schools reported experiencing in trying to fill vacancies with a fully certified teacher entering the 2024-25 school year were the following:
  
  • An overall lack of qualified candidates (64%)
  • Too few candidates applying (62%), a decrease from 70% in 2023-24.
    
    
• Among public schools having one or more teaching vacancies to fill in specific subject areas, some commonly reported subject areas with teaching positions reported as difficult to fill for the 2024-25 academic year, by school level, were the following:
  • Elementary: special education (74% of public schools), ESL or bilingual education (59%), and foreign languages (59%);
  • Middle/combined: special education (74% of public schools), physical sciences (71%), and foreign languages (69%); and
  • High/secondary: ESL or bilingual education (69% of public schools), physical sciences (66%), and special education (66%).
    
    
• On average, public schools reported having five non-teaching vacancies and filling 73% of such positions before the start of the 2024–25 school year.
  
  
• The list below shows the percentages of public school non-teaching vacancies filled before the start of the 2024–25 school year, by position:
  • Administrative staff, 92% filled
  • Instructional coach, 88% filled
  • Academic counselor, 84% filled
  • Academic interventionist, 83% filled
  • Technology specialist, 83% filled
  • Medical professional, 82% filled
  • Nutrition staff, 78% filled
  • Mental health professional, 77% filled
  • Classroom aide, 74% filled
  • Custodial staff, 74% filled
  • Tutor, 65% filled
  • Other non-teaching staff, 64% filled
  • Transportation staff, 60% filled
    
    
• Sixty-nine percent of public schools reported they had difficulty filling one or more vacant non-teaching positions before the start of the school year, a decrease from the 80% that reported having difficulty at the beginning of the 2023-24 school year.
  
  
• Among public schools, the top non-teaching position reported as very difficult to fill before the start of the 2024-25 academic year was transportation staff (90% of public schools).

Community Collaboration

• Forty-eight percent of public schools reported using a community school or wraparound services model in which a school partners with other government agencies and/or local nonprofits to support and engage with the local community (e.g., providing mental and physical health care, nutrition, housing assistance), a decrease from the 60% that used one of these models during the 2023–24 school year.
  
  
• Eighty-nine percent of public schools reported that services are available to their community through an existing partnership to provide community services, a decrease from the 94% that reported services were available during the 2023–24 school year.
  
  
• Sixty-one percent of public schools reported that mental health care services are available to the community through their school’s existing partnerships, a decrease from the 2023–24 school year (66%).
  
  
• Forty-six percent of public schools reported that nutrition/food assistance services are available to the community through their school’s existing partnerships, a decrease from the 2023–24 school year (55%).

The Institute of Education Sciences, a part of the U.S. Department of Education, is the nation’s leading source for rigorous, independent education research, evaluation, statistics, and assessment.

Tags: data, shortage

Institute of Education Sciences