According to a 2021 Frontline survey, about two-thirds of over 1,200 school and district administrators reported having a teacher shortage. Some districts experienced the teacher shortage worse than others. About half of the respondents reported difficulty filling jobs across all grade levels and subjects while the other half felt the effects of the shortage in specific subject areas only.
Are vacancies for some teacher subject areas easier to fill than others?
We decided to find out!
Using data from the Frontline Research and Learning Institute, we examined teacher job postings from the 21-22 school year to see if jobs for certain subject areas tend to be filled faster than others.
For this blog post, we defined Hire Rate as the proportion of job postings that were filled within 30 days of the posting date. Chart 1, below, shows the Hire Rate by subject area relative to the average.
Chart 1
Vacancies for Business teachers had the lowest Hire Rate. Compared to the average teacher job posting, the Hire Rate for Business teacher jobs was 5 percentage points less. Vacancies for Technology teachers had the highest Hire Rate, 7 percentage higher than the average.
Want to dig into the data around one type of teacher shortage?
Let’s explore the Special Education Teacher Shortage
Most job postings eventually get filled with the ideal candidate, but the time it takes to fill certain jobs certainly varies. Chart 2, below, shows the number of days it takes, on average, to fill a job posting for each subject area relative to the overall average.
Chart 2
Job postings for Physical Education/Health teacher positions filled the fastest compared to other teacher positions and 12 days faster than the average. Postings for Lead Teachers/Department Heads took the longest and were filled 29 days later than the average teacher job posting. Subject areas that are typically the hardest hit by teacher shortages like Mathematics, Science, and Special Education, took longer to fill than the average teacher job posting.
In the face of the teacher shortage, what can you do?
If only there were one simple answer! Of course, complex challenges like the teacher shortage require nuanced solutions. This video discusses seven ways you can tackle the teacher shortage with a holistic strategy.
If your district has Frontline Recruiting & Hiring, you have access to the Institute Dashboard in your system. You can dig into data just like we’ve done here today, but with your district’s data, so you can gather insights that will make a difference in your community. Check it out today!
