Too few states are using data to determine if their supply of teachers is meeting the demand of school districts, concludes a report from the National Council on Teacher Quality, a Washington-based research and advocacy group that tracks teacher policies.
Currently, 29 states track the number of teacher-preparation graduates and their certification fields, the report says. Only eight states compare those numbers against local districts’ hiring statistics to make sure teacher-prep programs are producing the candidates districts need.
To expand the pool of teachers in hard-to-staff areas like math and science, the report says states should be willing to pay more for relevant experience in those areas. Schools could also consider hiring part-time teachers with expertise for those hard-to-staff subjects, according to the report.
