A National Crisis or Localized Problems? Getting Perspective on the Scope and Scale of the Teacher Shortage

Authors

  • Patrick Murphy University of San Francisco
  • Michael DeArmond University of Washington
  • Kacey Guin University of Washington

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.v11n23.2003

Keywords:

Teacher Supply and Demand, Urban Schools, Low Income Groups

Abstract

Despite the considerable attention the popular press has devoted to the question of teacher shortages, there have been surprisingly few attempts to systematically measure the size and nature of the problem. This article attempts to estimate the size and nature of the celebrated teacher shortage of the late 1990s by using data from the U.S. Department of Education’s 1999-00 School and Staffing Survey. While limitations of the SASS data do not allow us to directly estimate the absolute size of the shortage, they do allow us investigate its relative impact. An examination of the data shows that the problem was distributed unevenly: urban schools and those with relatively high populations of minority and low-income students bore the brunt of the shortage; southern and western states had more problems filling teaching slots than other regions did. These findings suggest that state and local officials should keep distributional concerns in mind when they design policies to improve teacher recruitment and retention.

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Author Biographies

Patrick Murphy, University of San Francisco

Patrick Murphy is an Associate Professor of Politics at the University of San Francisco.

Michael DeArmond, University of Washington

Michael DeArmond and Kacey Guin are policy researchers at the Center on Reinventing Public Education, Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs, University of Washington.

Kacey Guin, University of Washington

Michael DeArmond and Kacey Guin are policy researchers at the Center on Reinventing Public Education, Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs, University of Washington.

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Published

2003-07-31

How to Cite

Murphy, P., DeArmond, M., & Guin, K. (2003). A National Crisis or Localized Problems? Getting Perspective on the Scope and Scale of the Teacher Shortage. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 11, 23. https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.v11n23.2003

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Section

Articles