Report suggests educator shortage slowly improving in Del.

 

The nationwide educator shortage has been a thorn in the side of schools, but the burden is easing in the First State. 

Delaware’s public schools have 259 vacant staff positions (2.5% of the total educator workforce), a 52% decrease compared to the previous hiring season. 

Delaware has more than 10,000 instructional and non-instructional workers.

However, not all openings are created equally, as most pertain to high school math, special education, and science professionals.

Even with the challenges of filling these positions, there is a 47% decrease in instructional job vacancies from last year, with 189 job openings.

The state’s education department’s Join Delaware Schools recruitment initiative will host a virtual recruitment fair Wednesday night from 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. 

RELATED: Join Delaware Schools kicks off teacher, staff recruitment efforts earlier than usual

Representatives from several school districts, institutions of higher education, and charter schools will be in attendance. 

There will be a second virtual fair Wednesday, March 12 at the same times.

Register for the virtual fairs here.

“Making sure we have talented and experienced educators in our schools is critical for student learning,” said Mark Holodick, Delaware’s secretary of education, in a news release.

While educator shortages were a concern before the pandemic, COVID-19 exacerbated the challenge, he stated. 

“I am proud of how my team has supported this work and how district leaders have embraced new practices and strategies to fill these critical positions,” Holodick said. “While our work is not complete, Delaware is leading the nation in these efforts.”

These numbers come from this year’s Delaware Excellent Educator Hiring Practices Survey, also known as the Talent Practices Survey, which the state uses to gather insights into the recruitment, selection, and retention practices employed across First State public schools. 

The data is from the most recent hiring season – February 2024 to October 2024.

Seventy non-instructional positions remain open, a 61% decrease from the previous hiring season.

The most challenging positions to fill have been psychologists, occupational therapists, and speech therapists.

How the shortage numbers improved

The Delaware Department of Education credits five policy implementations for helping tackle the educator shortage:

• Expand proven investments such as grow-your-own, tuition reimbursement, and teacher residency programs.

• Enhance entry pathways like high school to college educator pipelines and apprenticeship opportunities.

• Strength partnerships to diversify and deepen the educator pipeline through outreach programs geared toward underrepresented communities, and connecting high schools, colleges, and community organizations.

• Focus on retention through professional development, incentives, and mentoring programs.

• Strengthen data-informed decisions with a longitudinal system to track educator candidates from high school through preparation programs and into their teaching careers. This helps provide critical insights into recruitment strategies, preparation programs, and workforce retention efforts.

What schools are saying

“The Indian River School District has placed a strong emphasis on teacher recruitment and retention in recent years,” said District Superintendent Jay Owens. “We have found the yearlong teacher residency program to be an especially valuable asset, and we are employing 14 year-long residents during the current school year.

Most importantly, he said, numerous yearlong residents from previous years have since been hired to full-time positions in our schools. 

Kelley Kirkland, assistant superintendent for the Woodbridge School District, said almost all of the district’s new hires this past year have been connected to a current staff member in some way. 

“We know that being fully staffed isn’t just about having positions filled but also ensuring that the right people are in the right positions to ensure a healthy, efficient work environment which increases productivity,” she said. “We believe that when staff enjoy their jobs and feel supported with manageable workloads, they are more likely to thrive and contribute positively to our school district in many ways including recruiting other educators.”

Owens said Indian River is fully committed to the ARTC (Alternative Routes to Certification) program and assists candidates in obtaining the licensing and certification necessary to become teachers.

Indian River also offers a new teacher mentoring program and a ‘para-to-teacher’ program that provides guidance and support to paraeducators who are working to obtain their bachelor’s degree in education.

“We have found our talent acquisition and certification specialist to be a valuable resource during a time when the talent pool in education is dwindling,” Owens said. “Not only does the specialist attend teacher recruitment fairs, but she has also put numerous supports in place to assist new teachers during their first few years on the job. These efforts have proved invaluable in retaining teachers and making sure their experience in the classroom is a positive one.” 

The state legislature has passed several laws in the past few years that address teacher recruitment and retention.

These include expanding ARTC and residency programs, as well as grow-your-own, which partners with community organizations, school districts, and educator preparation programs to train and recruit local community members to become teachers, often resulting in a high school graduate later returning to the district they’re from to teach. 

Other efforts from the legislature include expanding the number of mental health professionals and specialists in schools and forming the Public Education Compensation Committee to evaluate and improve educators’ pay.