Oklahoma’s public schools are poised to hire more teachers and make other classroom investments thanks to back-to-back years of increased education funding, but teacher recruitment and retention remain challenging, according to a new survey from the Oklahoma State School Boards Association.
Schools had 596 teaching vacancies on Aug. 1 while districts reported mixed plans for staffing that will boost the number of teachers statewide. Districts that serve nearly half of Oklahoma’s public-school students reported they would hire more teachers, adding 599 teaching positions. A smaller number of districts reported plans to reduce staffing, eliminating 207 teaching positions. The vacancy number doesn’t include positions filled by emergency certified teachers and is higher than in each of the last four years. Nearly half of vacancies are in districts that added teaching positions.
Tonkawa Superintendent of Schools Lori Simpson said they have hired eight with emergency teaching certificates. “It doesn’t seem to be getting any easier to hire teachers,” Mrs. Simpson said.
This is the sixth year OSSBA has conducted the survey, which was completed by 305 school districts that serve 81% of the state’s public-school students.
“The survey shows the historic investment in teacher pay is beginning to put a dent in the teacher shortage. The overall hiring of more teachers is an especially encouraging sign, but it’s also obvious the teacher pipeline is weak,” OSSBA Executive Director Shawn Hime said. “The teacher shortage crisis is not over.”
During much of the last decade, funding failed to keep pace with increased student enrollment, and budget cuts forced schools to eliminate teaching positions. Hime said the reduction in teachers during tough budget years and the financial inability of districts to hire more teachers as enrollment grew likely masked the depth of the shortage. With the restoration of many positions, it’s no surprise that finding qualified teachers remains a challenge, he said.
Superintendents across the state are more optimistic about their ability to hire teachers than previous years but will remain heavily reliant on stop-gap measures to fill vacancies, including seeking emergency teaching certificates, hiring retired teachers and hiring adjunct instructors who teach on a part-time basis. Last year, the state granted a record 3,038 emergency teaching certificates. This year, districts have already sought and received more than 1,600 emergency teaching certificates, an increase from the same time period last year.
This year’s survey also provides a first look at district plans for as a priority of state leaders in approving ...
