For four years, the Arizona School Personnel Administrators Association (ASPAA) has produced a survey attempting to quantify the ongoing teacher shortage in our state.
This year, like the last, the numbers show gaping vacancies within the 211 participating school districts and charter schools throughout Arizona.
Among the findings, ASPAA says around 23 percent of teacher vacancies across the state are open and unfilled, with more than half the vacancies filled by teachers who don’t meet standard teacher certification requirements.
Another startling number: 913. That’s the number of teachers who abandoned or resigned from their teaching position within the first half of the school year.
To give provide an overview of the teacher shortage in Arizona, The Show turned to Dan Hunting at the Morrison Institute for Public Policy at ASU. He’s a longtime researcher into these issues.
