Missouri is recruiting and retaining teachers at a higher level.
State Department of Elementary and Secondary Education data shows that the retention rate increased during the previous school year by about a half-percent to 88.7%. It says Missouri had 72, 353 teachers during the 2023-24 academic year.
Assistant State Education Commissioner Paul Katnik said increases in teacher pay, educator scholarships, and recruiting K-12 students to become future teachers have helped.
“It’s because of a little bit of everything,” said Katnik. “I mean, we’ve tried to pull every lever and push every button we can think of to work on the workforce. It takes some kind of a comprehensive system like that, which is why one of the cornerstones is a state system, to make that happen.”
The retention rate of first-year teachers continues to drop – it was 81.9% last school year, compared to 83.6% during the 2022-23 academic year.
Missouri’s teacher retention rate is still lower than the 2019-20 school year’s 91.1%.
Katnik said the number of Missouri teacher college students has increased 26.1% since 2018.
“And you might recall the enrollment numbers prior to that (20)18-19 year were even lower than what is shown here. We’re pleased to see this increase in enrollment. We’re holding at about 13,000 now for two years in a row.”
Despite being higher than the 2018-19 school year, 669 fewer teacher college students were enrolled last year than during the 2022-23 academic year.
Katnik said the state had about 500 fewer teaching vacancies to fill this school year.
“This is certainly an improvement,” said Katnik. “It is important to note, though, that it still has Missouri at an overall hiring rate of around 11%. The most recent data available from the National Center for Education Statistics shows the national average still appears to be around 8%.”
According to Katnik, the data also shows 1,500 additional teachers of color in 2023-24, compared to the educator supply six years ago.
To see the data, click here.
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