Report: Fewer Pennsylvania Teachers Getting Certified
A new report by Penn State College’s Center for Evaluation and Education Policy Analysis found that fewer Pennsylvania teachers are getting certified and many are leaving the field altogether.
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In his study, “Pennsylvania Teacher Attrition and Turnover from 2014 to 2024,” Penn State professor Ed Fuller notes that the 2022-23 state’s teacher attrition rate of 7.7% was the highest on record.
According to a Chalkbeat report, Pennsylvania was within the range of national trends during that time period. About 9,500 Pennsylvania teachers left the profession between 2022 and 2023, which led to concern that attrition rates would exacerbate ongoing teacher shortages. While demand for teachers has increased, the supply has decreased.
But Fuller’s study found that fewer teachers left the profession in Pennsylvania than in the prior year. The teacher attrition rate from 2022-23 to 2023-24 dropped from 7.7% to 6.7%. This equals about 8,326 teachers.
However, the attrition rate is still greater than the rates for six of the 10 years since 2014-15.
Early Learning Shortages
The teacher shortage in Pennsylvania extends to child care and early learning professionals. A September 2023 survey by The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s PolicyLab on behalf of StartStrongPA detailed a child care staffing crisis in 762 of the state’s child care programs as well as its effect on working families’ ability to access care.
That study found that 2,395 open positions across the state have resulted in the closure of 934 classrooms. It also found that child care providers’ inability to recruit and retain staff is having a direct impact on the quality of their programming. An additional 26,000 children could be served at state child care programs if fully staffed, the report found.
Similarly, a total of 145,010 Pennsylvania children, ages three and four, are eligible for high-quality kindergarten - but only 46% of them have access, according to 2024 Pre-K for PA fact sheets.
Pre-K for PA’s campaign amid the 2024-25 state budget process called for increased investments in Pre-K Counts to address teacher shortages and greater access to eligible children.