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Understanding the Eductor Pipeline

Current Research on Recruitment and Retention

Shereen Oca Beilstein, Ph.D (she/her) - IWERC

Tom Withee, M.S. (he/him) - Goshen Education Consulting

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Today’s Goals

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Two Main Goals for Today

Share current research on recruitment and retention of Illinois educators.
Improve your data fluency.

Today, we have two main goals.

First, we want to share some current research on recruitment and retention of Illinois Educators. We have worked collaboratively with the Illinois Association of Regional School Superintendents (IARSS) and the ROE LeadHUBS to conduct several projects including 1) An annual survey of district superintendents on employment trends in their district, 2) a working conditions survey of both current and former educators on why the chose to stay or leave their positions, 3) in depth analysis of teacher salaries both within Illinois and the surrounding states and 4) an in depth analysis of reciprocity between Illinois and the surrounding states. While we could spend our two hours together discussing just one of these studies, we want to share key findings from each and provide you the resources to dig in deeper on your own.

Second, we want to improve your data fluency. Meaning we want to help you ask more poignant questions about recruitment and retention of educators as well as provide some tools and resources for you to answer those questions independently. Specifically, we want to want you through some exercises in asking questions and then in finding the answers to those questions. We have some engaging, hands-on activities planned.

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Today’s Agenda

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Introduction - 5 min
Educator Shortage Survey - 15 min
1st Group Activity - 25 min
Short Break - 10 min
Working Conditions Survey - 15 min
2nd Group Activity - 25 min
Teacher Salaries and Border Certification - 15 min
Wrap up and Q&A - 10 min

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train

early entry

pipeline

learning loss

workload

sick days

NOW HIRING

Educator Shortage Survey

Fall 2022 Administration for the 2022 – 2023 Academic Year

Educator Shortage Survey AY23

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Response Rate

“I believe there is a problem with respect towards educators. 1. The lack of respect makes the profession seem lesser-than. 2. The lack of respect makes communities not want to raise taxes for competitive salaries. 3. The lack of respect from the private sector over the TRS program - years of being in the red on that account called for the Tier 2 retirement program - this scares people away. People will not enter this profession, which takes considerable criticism, without any type of monetary incentive either in the present or with a pension.”

Elementary Superintendent in a Northeast, Suburban Area

6^th Year of Survey

80% Response Rate

690 public school districts

Highest Response Rate

78% last fall (663 districts)

This past fall continued the hard work of IARSS to understand the educator shortage and promote positive solutions that elevate educators.

This year’s survey had responses from 690 district superintendents across the state, representing 80% of all districts. Illinois has a very diverse education landscape ranging from large affluent unit districts in the Chicago suburbs, to Chicago Public Schools, to small, rural schools in the remote parts of the state. Responses represent 45% unit districts, 45% elementary districts and 10% high school districts; which is comparable with the statewide distribution. Responses were also representative of the population distribution: 3% from cities, 39% from suburban areas, 19% from towns, 39% from rural areas. I would like to note that only two schools within CPS completed the survey.

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Highlights

of open teacher, support staff and special education positions remained unfilled or filled with someone less than qualified for the position.

30%

79%

of school districts indicated they had a shortage of teachers for Fall 2022.

2728

open teacher, support staff and special education positions remained unfilled or filled with someone less than qualified for the position.

“At this time, I am working with 8 people in positions that are not certified to do. We could not even find a qualified 3rd grade teacher. We have filled in two principal positions with unqualified individuals. This is at crisis level.”

Unit Superintendent in East Central, Rural Area

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Strategies to Enact Change

Today

Increase state funding for K-12 schools
Plug federal funding holes for educator resources
Learn from what is working to recruit teachers in high-need areas
Make teacher training more affordable
Extend the helpful changes allowing substitutes and retired teacher to fill gaps.

To combat the educator shortage, IARSS has proposed several strategies to enact change.

Focusing on how to alleviate districts shortages TODAY

Increase state funding for K-12 schools: More dollars from Springfield allow schools to compete for teachers and fill openings.

Initial investment in the Evidence-Based Funding (EBF) formula has helped schools make important strides in educator recruitment and ongoing support. Still, more than half of the state’s students still attend districts with less than 75 percent of the funding they need. At least $550 million in EBF funding would ensure more districts can meet students and staff needs today, and make the necessary investments needed from steady, reliable funding for the educator pipeline over the long term.

Plug federal funding holes for educator resources: Federal stimulus funds to support recruiting and retaining teachers ends in September 2023 and 2024, and policymakers here must step up to ensure efforts that are working continue without interruption.

Nearly $28 million of the $51.4 million the state of Illinois is spending this budget year on educator pipeline support is coming from federal stimulus funding that ends in September 2023 and 2024 – or about 54 percent. The state should create a plan to dedicate new state funding for Fiscal Years 2024 and 2025 to fill this gap.

Learn from what is working to recruit teachers in high-need areas: Study how districts have used ESSER funds to help teachers get provisionally licensed in shortage subject areas and consider ways to expand on those efforts statewide.

Federal dollars have helped boost ESSER investment in recruitment and retention, and ISBE investment in helping provisionally licensed bilingual teachers earn their PEL and special education certificates. How has increased compensation helped alleviate shortages in special ed and bilingual education, and what more can be done here?

Make teacher training more affordable: Increase funding for minority teacher scholarships and tuition repayment programs.

Increasing funding to $7M annually for the Minority Teachers of Illinois (MTI) scholarship, investing additional dollars into the Illinois Teachers Loan Repayment Program, and increasing the Monetary Award Program (MAP) by $50 million will ensure more teachers from minority communities are prepared and able to teach where they are needed most.

Extend the helpful changes allowing substitute and retired teachers to fill gaps: This will ensure we have short-term aid as long as we need it.

Two recent changes in Illinois law have helped schools statewide meet the day-to-day duties of providing educators in each classroom. One allows retired educators to serve 700 hours as substitutes in a given school year without jeopardizing their pension benefits. The other creates a short-term substitute teaching license for candidates with a college degree regionally or completion of 60 semester hours of coursework.

The challenge is that these two provisions are ending and require a legislative extension. The state should permanently allow retirees to substitute teach 700 hours or more and extend the provision that enables individuals with 60 credit hours to substitute teach. In addition to extending these provisions for more years, Illinois should look to increase the number of hours that retirees are allowed to teach and ISBE, ICCB, and IBHE should proactively communicate directly with individuals who have completed the required number of credit hours in Illinois higher education institutions about the opportunity to substitute teach.

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Strategies to Enact Change

Tomorrow

Address the educator pipeline as a continuum
Expand opportunities within classrooms for educator positions
Establish a robust teacher recruitment system in Illinois
Strengthen the state’s educator prep programs through increased transparency
Develop a statewide repository to share best practices

Focusing on how to prevent shortages TOMORROW

Address the educator pipeline as a continuum: A systemic PK-college effort to recruit and retain teachers will provide many long-term benefits.

Illinois has no quick fix. We need a coherent, comprehensive, and connected approach to strengthening and diversifying our education pipeline, with attention on school and district leaders who provide the environment for teachers to succeed.

Continued state investments in Educators Rising, future teachers clubs, and Dual Credit Educator Pathways at high schools that create pathways into college educator prep programs and a concerted effort to expose the tremendous benefits of a rewarding career in education to younger students considering their future should be part of the discussion.

Additionally, IBHE, ICCB and the Illinois Articulation Initiative should establish greater transferability of major coursework from community colleges into the state’s four-year universities for future educators seeking to teach in elementary and secondary settings.

Expand opportunities within classrooms for educator positions: Illinois has over 20k paraprofessionals and teaching assistants working in our schools and over half have bachelor’s degrees. Support those interested in earning their license to be a teacher in high need areas with funding and ability to retain current salary and benefits as they earn their new teaching license.

Investing in alternative teacher preparation routes for teachers’ assistants and paraprofessionals is a smart way to build the teacher pipeline. Allow TAs and paras to work while obtaining their teaching license. Expand the number of school personnel entering teaching positions in high-need positions or geographies. Over time, more people with a real interest in our students’ educational success will be prepared and ready to step up and teach full-time.

Establish a robust teacher recruitment system in Illinois: A uniform state system brings together resources and programs to ensure more young people can easily get into and navigate the teacher pipeline.

Too few high school and college students are thinking about a career in education, or about all of the state support available to help them down the path: early pathway programs, tuition waivers and loan forgiveness, scholarships, and more.

Financial, licensure, and job opportunity advertising should be located centrally online for prospective teachers to simplify recruitment and connect more to the insight they need to choose this rewarding career. North Carolina, Colorado, and Connecticut are among states seeing success with statewide uniform recruitment systems.

Strengthen the state’s educator prep programs (EPP’s) through increased transparency: More clarity will help districts develop smart partnerships and help candidates make informed decisions about EPPs.

When teaching candidates know which EPP path has strong results in teacher placement and success, and when school districts know which EPPs can be the right partners to place more candidates for success, the entire pipeline benefits.

Develop a statewide repository to share best practices: Expose more districts to practices working to address shortages elsewhere and solve problems.

With hundreds of school districts of all sizes solving problems from all directions, many good ideas for addressing shortages are playing out right in front of us in the classroom. This repository should collect those stories and insight to help districts connect and learn from each other, just as we challenge students from all backgrounds and abilities to learn together every day.

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Not Adequately Staffed

However, district superintendents lack adequate resources to fully understand their staffing needs according to EBF guidelines. Only one-third (32%) of districts who responded to the survey indicated they were not adequately staffed according to guideline for EBF.

Educator Shortage Survey AY23

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Shortage Severity

“At this time, I am working with 8 people in positions that are not certified to do. We could not even find a qualified 3rd grade teacher. We have filled in two principal positions with unqualified individuals. This is at crisis level.”

Unit Superintendent in East Central, Rural Area

Educator Shortage Survey AY23

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Fewer Applicants

“The question isn't how many unfilled positions we have, because we are filling positions with bodies, many times unqualified.”

Unit Superintendent in West Central, Town Area

Educator Shortage Survey AY23

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Causes of Shortages

“I feel the majority of the educator shortage is caused by a several different issues. 1. Difficulty of getting licensed…. 2. Overall Low Pay- $40K after a bachelor’s degree is not enough. 3. Working until you’re 67 for full retirement. 4. Political Climate- Poor mandates passed by legislators that have an agenda.”

Unit Superintendent in Southeast, Rural Area

Educator Shortage Survey AY23

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Un/underfilled Positions

Number and percent of positions that remained unfilled or filled with someone less than qualified for the position.

25%

1647

teachers

42%

528

support personnel

39%

551

special education

10%

65

administrators

Educator Shortage Survey AY23

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For fall 2022, districts posted 6,524 teacher positions. Of those positions, one quarter (25%), 1,647 positions, went unfilled or were filled with a less than qualified hire (un/underfilled). Elementary education and Bilingual education had the highest number of un/underfilled positions. Gifted education and computer applications had the highest percent of un/underfilled positions.

In total, 1,265 support staff positions were posted by responding districts of which 42% (528) went un/underfilled. For special education, 1,410 positions were posted of which 61% (552) went un/underfilled.

Among support staff positions, School Social Worker had the most un/underfilled positions and School Psychologist had the highest percent un/underfilled.

Among the special education positions, General Special Education (LBS1) had the highest number of un/underfilled, and Technology Specialist (LBS2) had the highest percent of un/underfilled.

Responding districts reported 675 open administrator positions of which 10% (65) remained un/underfilled for fall 2022. Principal (including all positions requiring a Principal Endorsement such as Assistant Principal) had the most un/underfilled administrator positions next to “Other” administrator. “Other” administrator included written responses such as Dean of Students and Curriculum Director. Chief School Business Official had the highest percent of un/underfilled administrator positions.

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Impact of Policy

At District Level

68% reported “my district supporting current educators completing additional endorsements…” increased recruitment and retention.
66% reported “my district proactively worked with universities to place student teachers…” increased recruitment and retention.
49% reported “my district supports our high school students to pursue a degree in education through electives…” increased recruitment and retention.

At Regional Level

51% reported “our local ROE or ISC advertises our open positions…” increased recruitment and retention.
47% reported “our local ROE or ISC works with ISBE to ensure quality educators are entering the profession…” increased recruitment and retention.
32% reported “our local ROE or ISC provides additional SEL resources through federal ESSA funding…” increased recruitment and retention.

Educator Shortage Survey AY23

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Impact of Policy

At State Level

80% reported “ISBE/Illinois Legislature increased the number of days a retired educator can substitute…” increased recruitment and retention.
79% reported “ISBE/Illinois Legislature increased the number of days a substitute can sub…” increased recruitment and retention.

At State Level

86% reported “ISBE/Illinois Legislature offering additional scholarships and waivers to teaching candidates…” would increase recruitment and retention.
86% reported “ISBE/Illinois Legislature made it easier to offer additional compensation for staff in high need areas…” would increase recruitment and retention.

Educator Shortage Survey AY23

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Shortages Over Time

Percent of Un/underfilled Teacher² Positions Over the Past 6 Years

Educator Shortage Survey AY23

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This past fall, the beginning of academic year 2022-23 or AY2023, superintendents reported 30% of posted teacher (teacher, support staff and special education) positions went unfilled or filled with a less than qualified hire. The highest rate of un/underfilled since IARSS started administering the survey for academic year 2018, in fall of 2017. To accurately compare with previous years, in this context, teacher includes regular education teachers, special education teachers and support staff.

To clarify, this increase in NOT likely* due to an increase in number of responses to the survey. Adjusting for survey response rate, there would still be a 14.5% increase from last year.

Furthermore, that’s DOUBLE the percent of “underfilled”, and only 4% increase in “unfilled”.

Finally, this increase is NOT due to an increase in posted positions. In fact, for Fall 2023, superintendents reported significantly fewer posted positions (only 9,200 compared to 11,700 in fall 2022).

*There is no logical way to account for districts that did not respond to the survey, or the fluctuations in who responded from one year to the next. However, with this sample size, it is unlikely that this jump is related to changes in who responded to the survey. A deeper analysis, tracking responses by district over the years, could provide additional insight.

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Today’s Agenda

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Introduction - 5 min
Educator Shortage Survey - 15 min
1st Group Activity - 30 min
Short Break - 10 min
Working Conditions Survey - 15 min
2nd Group Activity - 30 min
Teacher Salaries and Border Certification - 10 min
Wrap up and Q&A - 5 min

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Think, Pair, Share with Data Placemats

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Think - on your own

Interesting - What on the data placemats do you find interesting?
Still Curious - What do you still want to know more about?

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Think, Pair, Share with Data Placemats

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Pair - With your shoulder partner

Discuss what you found.
Ask what you want to know more about.

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Think, Pair, Share with Data Placemats

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Share - At your table

Discuss what you found.

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Today’s Agenda

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Introduction - 5 min
Educator Shortage Survey - 15 min
1st Group Activity - 30 min
Short Break - 10 min
Working Conditions Survey - 15 min
2nd Group Activity - 30 min
Teacher Salaries and Border Certification - 10 min
Wrap up and Q&A - 5 min

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Today’s Agenda

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Introduction - 5 min
Educator Shortage Survey - 15 min
1st Group Activity - 30 min
Short Break - 10 min
Working Conditions Survey - 15 min
2nd Group Activity - 30 min
Teacher Salaries and Border Certification - 10 min
Wrap up and Q&A - 5 min

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Educator Working Conditions Survey

Link to the quick summary and quantitative and qualitative reports

STUDY GOAL�

To understand the individual- and school-level factors that contribute to educator attrition and mobility across the state.

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Educator Working Conditions Survey - Method

Employment data

26,462 teachers and administrators, �or educators
From 6 ROEs
Over 4 school years: 2018-19, 2019-20, 2020-21, 2021-22�

Timeline and response rate

Administered March 7 – April 11, 2022
3,478 educators responded (13% response rate)

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Educator Working Conditions Survey - Method

Categorizing

Educators

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Educator Working Conditions Survey - Method

Categorizing

Educators

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Method - Factor Analysis

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ç

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Educator Working Conditions Survey - Results

A majority of educators feel that their salary is low.

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Onto the results. We highlight several key findings here.

First is related to salary.

The survey found no difference between stayers and leavers - the graph on your left

With about 40% from both groups agreed that their salary was appropriate.

�Slightly larger differences were found based on educators’ employment intentions for the next school year - the graph on your right

44% of educators who would return agreed that their salary was appropriate

compared to 28% of those who would not return.

These findings raise the importance of increasing educators’ salaries�but they also suggest that salary may not be the main factor that pushes educators out of the profession for two reasons� (1) Both stayers and leavers’ satisfaction with their compensation was uniformly low� and (2) Although educators who indicated that they would not return to their positions reported lower levels of satisfaction�compared to those who would return� this difference wasn’t as large compared to other factors inquired about by the survey.

*Salary not significant

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Educator Working Conditions Survey - Results

Relationships with school leadership are a critical factor for retention.

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Teacher-School Connection Factor

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“My [former] school's administrator micromanaged every educator … including plan time. No matter how much hard work was put in, there was never any praise or acknowledgment. Many … felt unappreciated.”

-Mid-career elementary teacher, WR mover

“It is a NIGHT and DAY difference… Professionalism and collaboration are the best part of it… We have professional development, and the school support is amazing. The collaboration is something that I am not used to since last year I was completely on my own.”

-Mid-career elementary teacher, WR mover

Note:

* indicates statistically significant differences

+ indicates medium sized differences

++ indicates large sized differences

This slide takes a closer look at the Teacher-School Connection factor, for which the last survey item is part of

*The chart on this page will be available to you during the next breakout activity

�Our analysis revealed that the largest difference found between stayers and leavers�was on a factor we called the teacher-school connection

Which asks about feelings of support from school leadership, which you saw previously� involvement in decision-making, autonomy,� positive relationships with leadership, etc.

Leavers expressed less agreement with items under this factor than stayers

This was also true for educators who would not return versus those who would

The thing i want to highlight here is that we also analyzed participants responses to an open-ended question about their working conditions.

And these two quotes really illustrate the ways school leadership can impact educators’ job satisfaction.

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Educator Working Conditions Survey - Results

Feeling safe from COVID-19 was a larger concern for former educators compared to current educators.

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Educator Working Conditions Survey - Results

Fewer educators of color, when compared to white educators, felt that their personal beliefs aligned with school policies.

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Percent of Would Return and Would Not Return educators who agreed that school policies aligned with their personal beliefs.

Educators of color

White educators

In the report, we also explore differences between respondents’ workplace perspectives based on their race/ethnicity

A large difference was found between educators of color and white educators based on

The agreement between their personal beliefs and school policies

�For educators of color, 21% of those who would not return agreed that school policies aligned with their beliefs

compared to 55% of those who would return.

�For white educators, differences were slightly smaller

33% of those who would not return agreed

compared to 63% of those who would return.

�We also want to note that the overall level of agreement with this statement for educators of color, whether they Would Return or Would Not Return, is lower than white educators.

Successfully recruiting and retaining educators of color is important for many reasons, �which include socioemotional and academic benefits for all students, especially for students of color. �Specifically, results point to the need to actively revise and rebuild school policies, practices, and cultures that align with the beliefs of educators of color (Philip & Brown, 2021).

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Educators from Historically Marginalized Race/Ethnic Groups

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Percent of HMG Who Would Return vs Who Would Not Return Who Agreed on Specific Prompts: Top 10 largest differences.

“The partnership [my school] has with AUSL (Academy for Urban School Leadership) is the best part of my experience… [My coach] and I usually meet weekly or every other week and go over various areas of my practice.”

-Mid-career elementary teacher of color, WR mover

“The vast majority of my struggles … throughout my career have stemmed from my experiences as a black male elementary teacher… commuting from a city to a rural, predominantly white community. From implicit biases, miscommunications, and microaggressions (without any willingness to learn and/or adapt by leadership or the majority of colleagues) to the embarrassingly low pay, workload, and disrespect, the children have always been the only reason I have remained.”

-Mid-career elementary teacher of color, WNR stayer, St. Clair County

Note:

* indicates statistically significant differences

+ indicates medium sized differences

++ indicates large sized differences

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Educator Working Conditions Survey - Results

Feeling accepted in their workplaces is important for early career educators.

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Percent of Would Return and Would Not Return educators who agreed that they felt accepted in their school/district.

Early-career educators

Late-career educators

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Early Career Educators

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Percent of Early Career Educators Who Would Return vs Who Would Not Return Who Agreed on Specific Prompts: 11 of the largest differences.

The external agenda was often overwhelming … that it was difficult to focus on the kids. The training for first year teachers is too much … you barely had any time to prepare your classroom before kids arrived on their first day, let alone prepare mentally and strategically for the lessons and year ahead. There needs to be more support for first year teachers and less responsibilities as they are gaining their footing and there is much to learn… These teachers need more support especially from a mentor teacher at their current grade level.

-Elementary teacher who resigned

Note:

* indicates statistically significant differences

+ indicates medium sized differences

++ indicates large sized differences

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Leavers Who Would Return

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“Resigned due to improper hiring/ hostile work environment.”

Late-career bilingual special education teacher, WR leaver

“I have a medical condition that made it unsafe to go into the building during the pandemic. In August of 2020 school year. I was put on a forced leave after asking to teach remote at a time when the district was allowing remote teaching.”

-Mid-career elementary teacher, WR leaver

Another point you raised after the October meeting centered around the educators who have left the profession but would return. From our sample of 3,478 responses, 494 were educators who had left the profession (14% of the sample). Among those 494 educators, 180 indicated they would return to IL public schools (5% of total sample, 36% of leavers). Extrapolating to a “statewide” view, 5% of the total teacher population (roughly 135,000 teachers) would be 6,750 teachers. I mention this to give some scope to what impact understanding these teachers could have on the educator pipeline.

Here we share more information about why these leavers left the profession.

The chart on the left breaks down the factors that contributed to their decisions to leave. “Other” and “Working Conditions” are the top factors. Our qualitative analysis of the 50 “other” reasons included resignations, administration, end of contract, medical leave, relocation and/or terminated. The two quotes on the right were some of the “Other” factors that contributed to their decisions to leave. (These were “choose all that apply” options.)

The chart in the middle breaks down the method through which they left. Roughly half resigned. More than a third retired. Only 8% were terminated. (Single select options.)

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Leavers Who Would Return

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Note:

* indicates statistically significant differences

+ indicates medium sized differences

++ indicates large sized differences

“The amount of work required of us was not proportional to our salary. This district is one of the lowest paying for high school teachers, and additional work was always necessary because the curriculum was not always appropriate for my students and several adjustments needed to be made. We also were required to provide additional assistance outside of class, time in which we were not compensated.”

-Early-career high school teacher, WR leaver

“There were parents that did not agree in methodology, classroom discipline and some topics taught. There were some community members that did not personally support me and tried to have me fired.”

-Mid-career high school teacher, WR leaver (retirement)

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Today’s Agenda

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Introduction - 5 min
Educator Shortage Survey - 15 min
1st Group Activity - 30 min
Short Break - 10 min
Working Conditions Survey - 15 min
2nd Group Activity - 30 min
Teacher Salaries and Border Certification - 10 min
Wrap up and Q&A - 5 min

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Think, Pair, Share with Data Placemats

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Think - on your own

Interesting - What on the data placemats do you find interesting?
Still Curious - What do you still want to know more about?

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Think, Pair, Share with Data Placemats

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Pair - With your shoulder partner

Discuss what you found.
Ask what you want to know more about.

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Think, Pair, Share with Data Placemats

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Share - At your table

Discuss what you found.

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Today’s Agenda

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Introduction - 5 min
Educator Shortage Survey - 15 min
1st Group Activity - 30 min
Short Break - 10 min
Working Conditions Survey - 15 min
2nd Group Activity - 30 min
Teacher Salaries and Border Certification - 10 min
Wrap up and Q&A - 5 min

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Salary and Reciprocity

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3 Reports

Starting Salary in Illinois
Average Salary in Illinois and Neighboring States
Certification and Employment between IL and Neighboring States

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Starting Salary Results

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Here are some KEY findings from the Starting Salary report.

Starting salary varies GREATLY across the state of Illinois. The minimum starting salary for the 2020-2021 school year was $28,915 in the southeast area. The maximum starting salary for the 2020-2021 school year was $61,570 in the Cook County area. Overall, that’s a $32,655 difference between the lowest and highest starting salaries.

Districts in Cook County and the Northeast had significantly higher starting salaries than in the other five regions of the state.

Districts in urban areas had significantly higher starting salaries than in rural areas.

There were significant differences between all three sizes of districts with Large districts paying higher than medium districts which were higher than small districts.

High School districts had significantly higher salaries than unit or elementary districts.

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Starting Salary Results

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There was a weak positive association (r = 0.276, p <0.001) between starting salary and teacher retention rate. This implies that districts that had higher starting salaries also had higher retention rates.

Note: Gray districts did not have data.

Note: r ranges from -1.0 to +1.0.

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Starting Salary Results

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There was also a weak negative association (r = -0.222, p <0.001) between starting salary and severity. This implies that districts that had lower starting salaries had superintendents who rated the shortage as more severe.

Note: Gray districts did not have data.

Note: r ranges from -1.0 to +1.0.

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Starting Salary - Specific IARSS Areas or by Type

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In the East Central area, those districts that had higher starting salary also had higher #unfilled.
In the Cook County area,

those districts that had higher starting salaries also had lower #un/underfilled.
those districts that had higher starting salary also had lower %unfilled.

For unit districts, those districts that had higher starting salaries also had higher #unfilled.
In the Southwest area, those districts that had higher starting salaries also had higher #un/underfilled.
In the West Central area, those districts that had higher starting salaries also had lower %un/underfilled.

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Starting Salary and Local Funding

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Districts that had higher funding through local property taxes also had higher teacher retention rates.
Districts that had higher funding through local property taxes also had superintendents who rated the shortage as less severe.
There were very weak to no associations between all six measures of teacher shortage and %EBF. This implies that teacher shortages exist in both well-funded and poorly funded districts.
There was a weak positive association (r = 0.343, p <0.001) between %EBF and starting salary. This implies that districts that had higher capacity to meet expectations were also likely to have higher starting salaries.

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Starting Salary and District Characteristics

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Districts that had a lower percent of the student enrollment who were from low-income households also had higher teacher retention.
Districts that had a higher percent of the student enrollment who were from low-income households also had higher percent of unfilled positions.
There were very weak to no associations between the multiple measures of teacher shortage and costs of living. This implies that teacher shortages exist in communities that have high as well as low costs of living.
There was a moderate positive association (r = 0.503, p <0.001) between the annual family budget and starting salary. This implies that districts that fall in geographic areas where family budgets should be higher also had starting salaries that were higher.

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Neighboring State Salaries

	Illinois	Indiana
Average	$59,251	$50,432
Median	$55,735	$50,162
Minimum	$32,315	$38,892
Maximum	$124,834	$68,298

IL and IN with outliers

IL and IN without outliers

	Illinois	Indiana
Average	$54,644	$50,219
Median	$53,968	$50,022
Minimum	$40,595	$38,892
Maximum	$72,983	$61,874

Illinois and Indiana Teacher Salary – 2020-21 School Year

1) https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/teacher-pay-by-state

2021 ILLINOIS EDUCATOR SHORTAGE STUDY

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As we mentioned earlier, teacher salaries vary greatly across Illinois. When thinking about recruitment and retention, many superintendents have expressed concerns about future and current teachers moving to neighboring states to teach. Yet, Illinois continues to be ranked in the “top ten” nationwide for teacher salaries.¹ Our analysis shows that there are several “extreme” outliers that are conflating the “average” teacher salary in Illinois. For example, New Trier Township High School District 203 posts an average teacher salary of $121,805. This is over double the average salary for the whole state.

An extreme outlier was defined as a district whose average salary was above the “upper fence” or below the “lower fence” of the original distribution of average teacher salaries. This was done independently for all eight states in our analyses.

As you can see, removing the outliers does not change the median salary. However, the average salary across IL drops by over $4,000 while the average salary across IN only drops $200.

1) https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/teacher-pay-by-state

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Neighboring State Salaries

8-State Teacher Salary – 2020-21 School Year

Although IL continues to be ranked in the top ten nationwide¹ for teacher salaries, that is conflated by “extreme” outliers.

Average Teacher Salary – Overall State-to-State Comparison

Average Teacher Salary – State-to-State Comparison Outliers Removed

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When removing these extreme outliers for all 8 states, it becomes apparent that Illinois teacher salaries are lower than in Michigan, comparable to Iowa and Wisconsin, still higher than in Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee, much higher than in Missouri.

(Average teacher salary data from retrieved from each states publicly available data:

IL: https://www.isbe.net/Pages/TeacherSalaryStudy.aspx

WI: https://publicstaffreports.dpi.wi.gov/PubStaffReport/Public/PublicReport/AdministrativeSalaryReport

MI: https://www.michigan.gov/mde/Services/financial-management/state-aid/publications/bulletin-1011-analysis-of-michigan-public-schools-revenue-and-expenditures

MO: https://apps.dese.mo.gov/MCDS/home.aspx?categoryid=3&view=2

TN: https://www.tn.gov/education/finance-and-monitoring/differentiated-pay.html

IA: https://educateiowa.gov/documents/iowa-public-school-and-aea-teacher-counts-and-salaries-district/2021/03/2020-2021-iowa

IN: https://www.in.gov/gov/teachercompensation/

KY: https://education.ky.gov/districts/FinRept/Pages/School%20District%20Personnel%20Information.aspx)

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Neighboring State Salaries

Bordering Districts Comparison

Comparing average teacher salaries of district along the borders, IL is comparable to IN and KT, higher than WI, MI, TN and MO, and lower than IA.

Iowa-Illinois Border

Missouri-Illinois Border

Quad Cities

St. Louis

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Issues of educator shortages vary greatly for the various geographic regions of Illinois. A broad picture of the state does not always reveal these nuances. To better understand issues of salary along bordering states, we looked more closely at just those districts along the border. For example, looking closely at the IL-IA border, the IA districts along the border have significantly higher salaries than their neighboring IL districts. Similarly, along the IL-MO border, the MO districts along the border have significantly lower salaries than their neighboring IL districts.

For the selected IA-IL districts: IL avg = $52.4K for 29 districts, IA avg = $57.7K for 27 districts (statistically significant p < 0.05, large effect size (0.837))

For the selected MO-IL districts: IL avg = $53.2K for 69 districts, MO avg = $45.2K for 35 districts (statistically significant p < 0.001, very large effect size (1.223))

(Note: for these “close ups” along the border, outliers were NOT removed)

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Border Certification

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Border Certification

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Border Certification

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Putting these numbers side-by-side, we see that, at a high level, it appears that IL is an IMPORTER of educators. For FY19, IL imported 961 educators from out-of-state EPPs, exported 453 educators from IL EPPs to out-of-state public schools while 1056 educators from IL EPPs were employed in IL school districts.

Considerations:

Limited available data - missing data from IN, IA, KY and TN

Use of substitutes - this analysis did not factor in subs, admin, paras, etc. which are a significant portion of the education workforce

Changing Policies - this analysis did not attribute for changes in policy during the time of investigation. For example, waiving the EdTPA.

Licensure versus employment - this analysis was based solely on licensure data. There are many educators who live along the borders who get licensed in multiple states as they weigh employment options

Mobility - there was no way to track where educators came from, originally. For example, a IL HS grad could complete their EPP out of state and then return to IL to be an educator

Population - IL is significantly more populated (and employs more educators) than the surrounding states

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Today’s Agenda

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Introduction - 5 min
Educator Shortage Survey - 15 min
1st Group Activity - 30 min
Short Break - 10 min
Working Conditions Survey - 15 min
2nd Group Activity - 30 min
Teacher Salaries and Border Certification - 10 min
Wrap up and Q&A - 5 min

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Q&A

THANK YOU!

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Online Resources

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IARSS.org - one stop shop for all our work.

Educator Shortage for Fall 2022 - dashboard, report

White Paper: Chronic Teacher Shortages Continue: Districts Struggle to Find Qualified Teachers

Educator Working Conditions - brief, dashboard, report

Qualitative Report: “Having to Fight for Everything” - Voices of Illinois Educator on Why They Leave or Stay in the Profession

Related Research

IL-Base-Teacher Salary Analysis - dashboard, report
Neighboring State Salary Analysis - dashboard, report
Does IL Import of Export Teachers - report