MO teacher workforce report shows 'positive growth' to address shortages

Missouri colleges and universities still do not produce enough teachers to fill all of the classroom vacancies across the state each year but they're reporting an uptick in enrollment.

Paul Katnik, assistant commissioner in the Office of Educator Quality, highlighted that increase during a report on the teacher workforce Tuesday in front of the state Board of Education.

The 11,183 students enrolled this year in teacher preparation programs is lower than the 12,568 students enrolled a decade ago, but reflects a nearly 25% increase compared to five years ago.

Unfortunately, the number of students graduating from those programs has continued to hover just above 3,600 in recent years, a stark drop from 5,334 a decade ago.

"The increase in enrollment over the past couple years has not yet shown up in our completer (numbers) but there is optimism," Katnik told the state board. "Afterall, our education preparation programs can't graduate what they don't have so increasing enrollment on our campuses is a necessary first step."

Katnik urged the state to continue to emphasize and fund recruitment and Grow Your Own programs, noting they likely fueled the enrollment rebound.

"Data suggests some positive growth in the enrollment of education preparation programs but a number of data points still suggest that our current supply of new teachers, as we see in the number of program completers and the new certificates issued, is not adequate yet to meet current demand," Katnik said.

Katnik said there are "unprecedented efforts" underway to address the chronic workforce issues. The state has set aside funds to improve recruitment, retention and teacher pay.

The state board's Teacher Recruitment and Retention Blue Ribbon Commission met for months to study the issue and issued its first report in late 2022 with a series of short-term and long-term strategies. They include efforts to increase the minimum teacher salary to at least $38,000.

More:MO commission unveils plan to address urgent teacher shortage, says pay must increase

Turnover remains high, especially among young teachers

The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education reported 71,713 teachers during the 2021-22 year with an overall retention rate of 88.1%.

Last year, districts hired 8,547 teachers, the highest number in at least five years.

The annual teacher hiring rate in Missouri was 11.9% last year compared to a national average of 8%. Katnik said the average rate in "high performing" countries is 4%.

Of the 8,547 hires made last year, nearly 55% were new teachers and nearly 40% were teachers hired from another district in Missouri, creating significant in-state churn. The rest, a small percentage, were hires from out-of-state.

Katnik said the number of first-year teachers hired annually has steadily climbed.

He said 47.3% of teachers in the state have 10 years of experience or less. "Research is pretty consistent on this that, on average, students get better outcomes from more experienced teachers."

The state tracks how many new hires are still working after three and five years. To increase retention, the state set aside funds to improve mentoring, training and workplace conditions.

"In six years of data, somewhere around 50% will finish year three and go to year four. Somewhere around 40% will finish year five and go to year six," he said.

More:Now what? MO education leaders work to raise teacher pay after commission report

Pay is one reason teachers leave, but not the only one

Peter Herschend, a state board member from Branson, asked Katnik to outline the primary reasons why the state has experienced such teacher turnover.

Katnik pointed to data recently collected by the Blue Ribbon commission. It showed pay, working conditions and respect were the primary reasons.

Michael Harris, chief of governmental relations, noted in his legislative update that lawmakers had filed bills to raise the minimum teacher pay.

"There are bills filed in both chambers that are supportive of the Blue Ribbon commission's recommendation that we raise the minimum to $38,000 and then in our (DESE's) budget request, and we are hopeful the governor ... will continue the baseline salary grant for the short-term to support that $38,000 in statute," Harris said.

Missouri teacher demographic data has remained the same for six years: 93% white and 78% female.

"In addition to increasing supply to meet demand, increasing diversity and male representation in our workforce continues to be one of our goals," Katnik said.

Katnik said there has been a 13% increase in the number of provisional teaching certificates, which are issued to the individuals who do not yet have all the education or training necessary to be fully certified. There were 1,605 issued last year.

"This could perhaps be due to some of the creative strategies our school districts and universities are dealing with right now to try and handle staffing challenges," he said.

More:Has Missouri State unlocked a secret to fixing special education teacher shortage?

Katnik said districts are hiring more paraprofessionals, long-term substitutes and college students who are working toward full certification.

He said DESE has identified more than 260 student teachers who have already been hired by districts "as the teacher of record, even though they're not fully prepared yet."

Carol Hallquist, vice president of the state board, said the report Tuesday showed "promising" data for the teacher workforce. She praised the "creative approaches" taken by the state.

"We can't count on victory yet," she said.

Teacher shortages

Subject areas with the highest percentage of teachers who are not fully certified to teach the content, starting with the highest, include:

• Elementary education, grades 1-6

• Mild/moderate cross-categorical special education, K-12

• Early childhood special education

• Early childhood education

• Social sciences, grades 5-9

• Physics, grades 9-12

• Mathematics, grades 5-9

• Severely developmentally disabled, K-12

• Biology, grades 9-12

• General science, grades 5-9

Claudette Riley covers education for the News-Leader. Email tips and story ideas to criley@news-leader.com.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: MO teacher staffing report shows 'positive growth' to address shortage