Digging Into Emerging Research Concerning Educator Shortages in Michigan
In the post-pandemic period, news headlines relating to the state of the educator workforce in Michigan and nationwide have been concerning, to say the least. A cursory review of Google News from the last year reveals emblematic article titles like “Where Are All the Teachers?” from The USA Today, “No More Teachers: The Epic Crisis Facing Education In 2024” from Forbes, “What One Record-Setting Teacher Shortage Can Tell Us About the Profession” from Education Week, and “Special Education Teacher Shortage Creating ‘Point of Exhaustion’” from K-12 Dive. Surely, there have been significant efforts “in addressing teacher shortages in hard-to-fill subjects and specialties” via state scholarships and stipends for prospective educators, tailored “student loan repayments,” and local “Grow Your Own programs” (State of Michigan). That said, school districts have had to weather (and in many cases still face) seemingly intractable labor market issues, causing them to operate at less than full strength.
Recognizing this pressing problem for K-12 education, various editions of Emerging Research have dug into developing scholarship around the contours of educator shortages and how decision-makers might ameliorate the harm they cause. For instance, the October 2023 Emerging Research shared the release of a state-funded report titled “The State of the Educator Workforce in Michigan” by Dr. Chris Torres, Dr. Nathan Burroughs, Dr. Rebecca Frausel, Dr. Dirk Zuschlag, Calandra Reichel, and the Office of K-12 Outreach’s Director of Data and Evaluation, Dr. Jacqueline Gardner. This study, involving collaboration between the Michigan Alliance for Student Opportunity, Public Policy Associates, the University of Michigan, and Michigan State University, provides significant perspective on “the state of Michigan’s education workforce and the challenges Michigan faces with K-12 staffing” following a “year-long” look at “state-level and local administrative personnel data; surveys and interviews of central office administrators, school leaders, teachers, substitutes, and other staff, as well as an intensive review of the existing research literature and the strategies of other states for strengthening the K-12 labor force” (MSU COE). Relatedly, the April 2024 Emerging Research covered a presentation on this paper at the 2024 annual American Educational Research Association (AERA) meeting. During a conference symposium, these researchers detailed how shortages imperil student learning, schools’ functioning, and climate and culture considerations.
In January, the Education Trust-Midwest released a new report called “Closing the Opportunity Divide: Addressing Michigan’s Teacher Shortage Problem for Students Most in Need,” which similarly investigates Michigan’s challenges in adequately staffing its schools. A press release accompanying this paper’s publication explains that it was the “result of two years of research, analysis of hard-to-access data, interviews with community partners, and educator focus groups” (Ed Trust-Midwest). Reflecting on this process and the work that went into it, the Office of K-12 Outreach is proud to have had the opportunity to support this endeavor, with Dr. Jacqueline Gardner serving as a policy consultant to the Ed Trust-Midwest experts leading the charge and the Office of K-12 Outreach providing data management and analytical support during various research stages.
Considering research significance, this project builds on previous shortage-related analyses by moving from describing the nature of existing labor market challenges to outlining their effects on students. Specifically, the authors find that “Michigan’s students who are the most underserved face the highest rates of inexperienced teachers, teachers who have emergency or temporary credentials, and educators who are teaching classes that are not in their field of expertise” (Ed Trust-Midwest). In terms of the implications of this inequitable distribution of Michigan’s available “effective, experienced, [and] highly qualified teachers,” this new paper warns that status quo conditions are deepening “troubling and persistent disparities in reading and math outcomes for Michigan’s students who have long lacked access to strong educational resources” (Ed Trust-Midwest).
Thankfully, in addition to identifying the harms of these shortages, the Ed Trust-Midwest’s report explains that “these problems are not insurmountable” and offers a collection of suggestions to remedy current challenges (Ed Trust-Midwest). Based on their findings, the Ed Trust-Midwest team encourages policymakers to provide “fair funding” to districts to ensure entities can attract and retain high-quality teachers, develop “clear and effective data reporting” mechanisms, make “teaching an attractive and competitive career choice,” “invest in and prioritize supports for school administrators, which will improve their ability to evaluate teachers and offer effective, actionable, student-centered support for staff development,” and “increase access to high-quality professional development” (Ed Trust-Midwest). With that, local and state leaders can help address current shortages by sustaining existing recruitment and retention initiatives, including “the MI Future Educator Fellowship and the MI Future Educator Stipend, along with mentoring and induction programs, and a state funded student-loan repayment program” (Ed Trust-Midwest). Thinking about previous scholarship related to educator workforce challenges, many of these proposals align with the ones in the report “The State of the Educator Workforce in Michigan.” This study encourages leaders to “stabilize and enhance resources post-COVID,” “expand efforts to provide resources for hard-to-staff subject areas, school districts, and strengthening the teacher pipeline,” “account for poaching, absences in addition to vacancies, and other problem areas,” “promote intrinsic and solidary benefits to teaching,” “consider permanent district/building subs, and improving substitute expertise,” “strengthen data and evaluation systems,” and “streamline data collection and research” (Torres & Burroughs et al., 2023).
On top of leading the generation of this important emerging research and adding to the debate over how to address statewide educator shortages, the Ed Trust-Midwest recently kicked off “a new campaign called #TeachersWeNeed to uplift the voices of educators, parents, and students across the state” (Ed Trust-Midwest). Looking ahead, the Office of K-12 Outreach is excited to continue supporting research on this pressing issue, elevating Michigan’s excellent and dedicated educators, and joining advocacy efforts focused on raising the status of the teaching profession statewide. With that, K-12 Outreach is well-suited to support districts with the Ed Trust-Midwest’s recommendations concerning providing rigorous and engaging professional learning experiences to educators.
As legislators hopefully heed the call of the authors involved in the Ed Trust-Midwest’s new research and those elevated by previous education experts, future editions of In Focus will feature policy responses in Capitol Perspectives and added research insights in Emerging Research. In the meantime, readers interested in learning more about the Ed Trust-Midwest’s report and this topic can review related coverage in MLive and Chalkbeat Detroit this month. With that, they can explore another new publication, titled “Michigan Teacher Shortage Study: 2025 Report,” from the Education Policy Innovation Collaborative (EPIC) in Michigan State University’s College of Education. This analysis, spotlighted in Bridge and local publications like The Iosco County News-Herald, offers some of the latest data points concerning teacher vacancies, educator placement, the use of temporary teaching credentials, educator experience levels, workforce retention and stability, and teacher preparation.
Read the Ed Trust-Midwest‘s report online!