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By Shereen Oca Beilstein and Meg Bates
Shereen Oca Beilstein, PhD, is a research specialist at the Illinois Workforce and Education Research Collaborative (IWERC). Meg Bates, PhD, is the director of IWERC.
Headlines about teacher shortages abound as schools recover from the pandemic. The challenges teachers faced during the pandemic significantly increased, and many experienced burnouts so intense they considered resigning.
However, conversations about teacher shortages are nothing new —they predate the pandemic by decades. Although there is debate over the magnitude and severity of the issue, stakeholders generally agree on the importance of recruiting and retaining highly qualified teachers.
Addressing these shortages begs the question: Are the forces behind today’s teacher shortages the same as always? Or is something new happening in the wake of the pandemic?
To understand this issue, we recently surveyed 3,478 current and former educators in Illinois. Findings reveal a complex picture.
Less than half of current and former educators agreed that their salary was appropriate, suggesting the importance of increasing educators’ salaries in general. But given that both current and former educators found their compensation to be lacking, the pay might not be the main factor driving teacher shortages.
Only one-third of former educators felt supported by school leadership, compared to two-thirds of current educators. School leadership clearly plays a critical role in promoting working conditions that retain educators, which ultimately supports student development.
More current educators reported feeling safe from COVID-19 in their schools than former educators, the majority of whom left during or after the pandemic. Given that safety was a concern of educators who left, checking in on the sense of safety for remaining educators might be a valuable practice for leadership going forward.
For educators of color, only one-fifth of those who were considering leaving their positions agreed that school policies aligned with their personal beliefs, compared to more than half of those who were considering staying. Supporting educators of color is important for many reasons, given the benefits for all students, especially students of color. But, as other scholars have asserted, this goal can be realized only if accompanied by structural changes to working conditions that have historically excluded these educators.
For early–career educators, less than half of those who were considering leaving felt accepted in their workplaces, compared to 85% of those who were considering staying. With nearly half of teachers leaving the profession within 5 years, creating supportive environments — through programs such as mentoring— could be one mechanism to decrease attrition.
So, are teacher shortages in the wake of the pandemic driven by new or old causes? It’s complicated.
Issues like low salaries and fraught relationships with leadership are tales as old as time. But improving teachers’ sense of safety and working to align school policies with the values of educators of color are issues that deserve a spotlight in the post-pandemic period.
As states invest in policies to address teacher shortages, it’s important not to forget about the importance of school leadership. Schools must cultivate leaders who forge positive relationships with – and promote feelings of safety among –staff, align policies to the values of educators of color, and enhance novice educators’ support systems.
