2018 Look-Back: A Year of Research, Data and Insights for Education Leaders

New Research on the Teacher Shortage and Hiring Practices

In 2018, we released our Leak in the Pipeline report series on teacher recruiting and hiring practices that may be worsening the teacher shortage.

In part one, the research uncovered a potential hiring bias towards “word of mouth” candidates. Specifically, while only 15% of job applications come from referrals, over 30% of educators are hired from those sources. 

Percent of Teachers with Active Certifications

The data also revealed that approximately 1/3 of all educators abandon their positions for other teaching jobs within just 3 years. One has to ask — are we hiring the best-fit teachers with the most potential for success (and retention)?

Following on the heels of the first report, the second report, Repairing the Leak, pointed out an additional bias: hiring for “cultural fit” — an often-ill-defined concept that could be masking unconscious bias in teacher hiring.

In our survey, cultural fit was ranked one of the most important factors in teacher hiring – even higher than teacher experience or teacher training. Yet many districts lack a clear definition for measuring what cultural fit actually is.

Perceived Importance of Hiring Factors

Added to that – fewer than 10% of respondents expressed full confidence in their recruiting and hiring strategies to yield the best available applicants. Clearly there is room for improvement, and rooting out unconscious hiring bias could be a key area of improvement for school districts.

Read the Report 

Exploration of a Strategic Approach to Human Capital Management

With growing teacher shortages and teacher burnout, school district leaders are turning increased attention to their human capital management strategies. But many lack a framework for how to bring a data-based approach to this important area.

The Institute’s report, Balancing the Equation: How Talent Data Can Lead to Better Decision-making for K-12 Leaders, explores the rich history of policy and practice around data usage and applies the lessons learned to a strategic vision for data-driven human capital management.

Read the White Paper 

Annual Report: National Absence & Hiring Trends

Our popular annual absence report was expanded this year to include both absence and recruiting and hiring data.

Based on millions of records from Frontline Absence & Time and Frontline Recruiting & Hiring, the report revealed many interesting insights.

One of particular note: although employees requiring a substitute were absent less often during the 2017-18 school year, fill rates continued to fall — in part because substitutes worked fewer days on average. In fact, nearly half of all substitutes did not work at all.

Average # of Absences per Employee

Average Fill Rate

% Non-working Substitutes

Average # of Days Worked by Substitutes

These unfilled classrooms resulted in a loss of approximately 850 million instructional days nationwide throughout the school year.

Read the Full Report