SCORE report says more data needed to evaluate and strengthen teacher pipeline programs

A stock image of a classroom during lessons. 

Despite several state initiatives in recent years to strengthen the teacher pipeline and fill K-12 classrooms with trained educators, many Tennessee districts are still struggling to meet their staffing needs, a recent report from the State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE) said.

According to the report, which provides an overview of current teacher pipeline initiatives like “grow-your-own” educator training programs, many districts still “do not have access to a reliable, effective, and diverse teacher pipeline.” The report noted that the 2022-2023 Tennessee Educator Survey (TES) revealed that three-fourths of administrators did not believe there was a sufficient pool of licensed applicants from which to choose qualified candidates for open teaching positions. Furthermore, since 2020, statewide vacancies have hovered at 1,000 positions but teaching permits have increased substantially by 74 percent over two years. As a further complication, the report said that from 2010 to 2022, the number of Tennessee educator preparation program cohort members fell by 45 percent, which suggests that “the traditional path into teaching is becoming an increasingly less common route and that there may be fewer candidates in the hiring pool in the future.”

“The shrinking traditional teacher pipeline is indicative of a growing demand for more flexible and supportive pathways to and through the teaching profession,” the report said.

The report noted that there are not enough qualified teachers in high-poverty schools to help close achievement gaps for students in most need of support. It said teacher staffing needs are highly localized and vary significantly by geography and endorsement area, meaning school districts have “unique staffing needs and engage differently with state initiatives to bolster the pipeline.”  

“Better access to data can help us measure the efficacy of teacher pipeline initiatives and assess the reliability, effectiveness, and diversity of the pipeline. This information is imperative to crafting policy and pipeline solutions informed by local context to make the teaching profession more sustainable and build solutions that address staffing challenges for districts over the long term,” a SCORE memo about the report read.

The report recommended that Tennessee leaders and policymakers should use more data to further understand the impact of teacher pipeline initiatives on vacancies at the state, district, and school level moving forward. In addition, it said, the state should examine how these initiatives contribute to a diverse teacher workforce and student access to effective teachers.

“Tennessee’s teacher pipeline challenges are highly localized and therefore state and local leaders need individualized data to identify targeted solutions that are appropriate for each district’s unique context. Tennessee should provide district leaders with personalized reports so they can better understand their teacher pipeline and labor market at the district level,” the report read.

The report also recommended prioritizing quality across the multiple pathways into the teaching profession, adding that that more information is needed to understand which pathways are best preparing teacher candidates to serve the state’s students. In addition, SCORE recommended developing strong district mentoring programs to support staffing and make the profession more “attractive and sustainable.”

“Using Tennessee’s teacher evaluation and state assessment systems will be vital in understanding which licensure and preparation requirements and pathways to teaching are most impactful for student success and will help ensure future policymaking decisions have student outcomes in mind,” the report said.

To read the full report, visit www.tnscore.org.