Teacher Recruitment and Retention Trends Across North Carolina and the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Research has continuously demonstrated that teachers are the most important school-related factor affecting student learning and achievement. However, in North Carolina and across the nation, districts and schools struggle to recruit and retain effective teachers, especially teachers of color. For more than a decade, declining enrollments in educator preparation programs and rises in teacher vacancies and attrition rates, coupled with population growth and increasing demand for teachers, have foreshadowed an impending crisis for the teaching profession. This was a significant challenge even before the COVID-19 pandemic led to unprecedented disruptions in all aspects of K-12 education. Since the pandemic began, reports about growing teacher shortages have been widespread across the country. Yet, there is a need for more comprehensive and up-to-date data on the state of the teaching profession that reflect the current nuances and realities in schools across North Carolina. In an effort to fill this gap, our team developed Teacher Recruitment and Retention Trends Across North Carolina and the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic by analyzing statewide data and conducting a series of focus groups with district superintendents and leaders of educator preparation programs to address the following research questions: