Oklahoma’s public schools are poised to hire more teachers and make other classroom investments thanks to back-to-back years of increased education funding, but teacher recruitment and retention remain challenging, according to a new survey from the Oklahoma State School Boards Association.
Schools had 596 teaching vacancies on Aug. 1 while districts reported mixed plans for staffing that will boost the number of teachers statewide. Districts that serve nearly half of Oklahoma’s public-school students reported they would hire more teachers, adding 599 teaching positions. A smaller number of districts reported plans to reduce staffing, eliminating 207 teaching positions. The vacancy number doesn’t include positions filled by emergency certified teachers and is higher than in each of the last four years. Nearly half of vacancies are in districts that added teaching positions.
This is the sixth year OSSBA has conducted the survey, which was completed by 305 school districts that serve 81% of the state’s public-school students.
“The survey shows the historic investment in teacher pay is beginning to put a dent in the teacher shortage. The overall hiring of more teachers is an especially encouraging sign, but it’s also obvious the teacher pipeline is weak,” OSSBA Executive Director Shawn Hime said. “The teacher shortage crisis is not over.”