Teacher Workforce Research Portfolio
Maintaining a diverse, high-quality early childhood and K-12 workforce
Maintaining a diverse, high-quality early childhood and K-12 workforce
Approximately 130,000 full-time teachers and administrators are employed in Illinois public schools, comprising a workforce responsible for supporting the positive, holistic development of 1.9 million youth across the state. However, rates of educator turnover and adequate levels of staffing are not monolithic throughout the state, with variation occurring both within and across districts. For example, educator shortages are disproportionately concentrated in certain subject areas, such as special education and bilingual education/English as a Second Language; educator demographics, such as race; and geographic areas, including rural and urban districts. Such variability translates to inequitable student access to high-quality educators. By focusing our research on those areas where turnover and shortages are pronounced, IWERC aims to explore the factors that contribute to the development and retention of diverse, high-quality teachers.
Teacher Vacancy Grant Evaluation
Rural Science & Math Teacher Retention
2021 – 2022 Educator Shortages
IWERC is conducting an evaluation of the state’s Teacher Vacancy Grant Pilot Program (TVGPP). The TVGPP is a three-year initiative, which began in the 2023-24 school year, that provides state funding to school districts experiencing the highest shortages of teachers in Illinois, as indicated by unfilled teaching positions. The goal of this evaluation is to examine how successful the TVGPP is for solving Illinois teacher shortages, for whom, and through what mechanisms.
This report analyzes districts’ applications to receive TVGPP funding during the program’s first year of implementation, the 2023-24 school year. The research goals are to understand how districts are conceptualizing the causes of teacher shortages; what districts are proposing as solutions to mitigate shortages; and how districts are allocating grant funding to various solutions.
As a follow-up to our initial study of district applications to receive grant funding, we examine mid-year performance reports from TVGPP districts and annual data on unfilled teaching positions to assess the program’s initial—and early—impact on district staffing.
IWERC and its partner, NORC at the University of Chicago, received a National Science Foundation grant (Award #2344942) to investigate and identify effective retention strategies for science and math teachers (SMTs) in high-needs school districts in rural Illinois. Together, they will conduct a mixed-methods study that examines:
The quantitative components of our work will include a landscape analysis of high-needs rural districts using administrative data at the school and district levels and a web-based survey of all middle and high school SMTs in rural high-needs districts in Illinois.
The qualitative component will be a case study that includes five high-needs rural districts with positive trends in teacher retention to better understand variations in geographic and district, school, and community contexts.
Rural areas experience teacher shortages that exceed the national average. Nonetheless, research on the retention of high-quality teachers – who are essential to student learning – in rural settings remains scarce. This study will help address that gap by examining what factors impact teacher retention in rural Illinois while carefully considering the context of these communities, including school-community relationships, the lingering impacts of COVID-19 on rural districts, and other unique factors.
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In Illinois, two annual measures of educator shortages were administered in Fall 2023: the Unfilled Positions report from the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) and the Educator Shortage Survey from the Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools (IARSS). For the first time, ISBE and IARSS have collaborated, in partnership with the Illinois Workforce and Education Research Collaborative and Goshen Consulting, to present findings from both measures concurrently. Taken together, these data paint a comprehensive picture of the impact that staffing challenges have on districts across the state, providing insight into the magnitude and severity of educator shortages, the alternative measures districts adopt to remedy unfilled educator positions, the causes of such shortages, and potential mechanisms to support educator recruitment and retention.
The 2023-2024 school year marked the first time that ISBE and IARSS coordinated their unfilled positions and educator shortage survey data collections and reports. What new information did this unique data collection tell us about key shortages? This white paper explores five areas of potential shortages: special education, bilingual education, principals, school support staff, and paraprofessionals.
In light of recent expansion efforts in early childhood education, understanding the challenges districts face staffing these classrooms today is important given the increased need for teachers in coming years. We found that 80% of district superintendents reported difficulty finding pre-kindergarten teachers in school year 2023-24. Staffing issues appear to be less severe for kindergarten teachers by comparison, though half of district superintendents did report difficulty.
Abstract: Data from the annual Educator Shortage Survey conducted by the Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools indicate that the burden on public schools to find qualified teachers was significantly more challenging during Fall 2022 than in previous years. Data from the Illinois State Board of Education confirm that the proportion of posted teacher positions reported by districts as unfilled increased substantially from previous years. A major implication of teacher shortages is inequitable student access to high-quality teachers. Targeted strategies are greatly needed to bolster the supply of qualified teachers in areas with deep and persistent shortages.
March 2023
Illinois public school districts struggle to find qualified teachers, leading to high vacancy rates. To address this issue, policymakers, education leaders, and stakeholders are focusing on strategies to increase the supply of qualified teachers in areas with severe shortages. This report identifies key traits of districts facing chronic teacher shortages. These include urban and rural settings, lower teacher salaries, high proportions of novice teachers, and student populations with high percentages of low-income families, students of color, English language learners, and students with special needs. The findings span six years of investigation, highlighting recurring and severe teacher shortages in these districts.
In the 2022-2023 Illinois Educator Shortage Survey, we compared responses from superintendents in districts with and without chronic shortages, revealing key variations in causes and policy impacts. Findings inform recruitment and retention strategies.
Abstract: Data from the annual Educator Shortage Survey conducted by the Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools indicate that the burden on public schools to find qualified educators has not improved over recent years. Data from the Illinois State Board of Education further show that the pool of qualified teachers and administrators does not meet the demand of districts and schools. It is imperative that policymakers invest in all parts of the educator pipeline from recruitment and preparation to induction and retention to support the development and maintenance of a highly qualified and diverse educator workforce statewide.
February 2022
Abstract: Teacher shortages are broadly distributed across Illinois for all content areas and grade bands—from elementary to high school. Yet specific content areas and geographic regions differ in severity of shortages. This white paper, the first of a two-part series, investigates (1) which content areas are in the highest need of qualified teachers; (2) which populations are most impacted by staffing difficulties; and (3) the long-term magnitude of the problem.
March 2022
Abstract: Teacher shortages are broadly distributed across Illinois for all content areas and grade bands. Yet specific content areas and geographic regions differ in severity of shortages. This white paper, the second of a two-part series, delves into the specific shortages of content area and geographic region by grade band. For each grade band, we examine (1) where the reported unfilled (i.e., job openings that remain vacant) and underfilled (i.e., job openings occupied by under-qualified, substitute, or outsourced hires) teacher positions are geographically located for all content areas; (2) the content areas that comprise the top quintile of un- and underfilled teacher positions; and (3) the breakdown of un- and underfilled teacher positions by hiring method for the most impacted content areas. The findings continue to show that strategic efforts to address teacher shortages should target specific content areas and geographic regions as opposed to blanket policies that impact the whole profession.
May 2022
Abstract: The annual Educator Shortage Survey, conducted by the Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools, indicates that shortages of support personnel (e.g., school counselors, nurses, psychologists, social workers, and speech-language pathologists) were severe for the 2021-22 academic year. Districts are struggling to fill open positions in these areas throughout the state and at all grade levels. These positions provide much-needed support for students as schools respond to the impacts of COVID-19. Findings highlight the importance of strategic efforts that develop and retain a highly qualified and diverse educator workforce statewide.
June 2022
Abstract: The Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools (IARSS) has conducted an annual survey of superintendents for the past five years.3 Combining results on teacher shortages from the IARSS survey and the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) Unfilled Positions report indicate concentrated and persistent hiring challenges in specific content areas (e.g., special education and English as a second language/bilingual education) and geographic areas.4 To further understand root causes of staffing issues related to teacher recruitment, we compared teachers’ starting salary across all districts in Illinois against multiple measures of teacher shortage. Broadly, there was some evidence supporting a relationship between starting salary and measures of teacher shortage. First, a weak positive association was found between starting salary and teacher retention. Second, a weak negative association was found between starting salary and superintendents’ perceptions of shortage severity.
In Spring 2022, we surveyed 3,478 current and former Illinois public school educators from nearly 60% of districts statewide to examine the individual-, school-, and community-level factors that contribute to educator retention, mobility, and attrition. In this report, we analyze the qualitative comments from a subset of 1,898 current and former educators who responded to the survey’s open-ended prompts. These comments revealed important differences—and similarities—between current and former educators’ employment decisions and job satisfaction. A majority of comments detailed educators’ views on and experiences with the working conditions and school climates cultivated by administration. We highlight the personal stories—both positive and negative—behind educators’ decisions to stay in or leave their positions with the goal of informing the development and implementation of targeted strategies and policies that aim to improve educator recruitment and retention.
The Illinois Workforce and Education Research Collaborative (IWERC), in partnership with IARSS, the LEAD Hubs, and Goshen Education Consulting, surveyed over 3,000 current and former educators across Illinois about their working conditions. Less than half (40%) of all educators—both current and former—reported satisfaction with their compensation. Despite this general finding, relationships with school leadership emerged as a critical factor for educator retention. Results also indicated that under half (47%) of former educators had positive relationships with leadership, compared to three-fourths (77%) of current educators.
This report examines the first release of data from the IEPP (Illinois Educator Preparation Profiles), the system the state of Illinois uses to provide public information about and accountability for teacher preparation programs. This study explores how programs are performing overall, factors that relate to performance, and the technical quality of the IEPP indicators. This study contributes to improving the IEPP, to supporting Illinois teacher preparation programs, and to a broader conversation about how to consider and measure the role of teacher preparation in teacher and student success.
