Annual Study Shows Decline in Number of Teacher Positions, Fewer Vacancies for 2009-2010 School Year

ROCK HILL, SC – January 13, 2009 – As temperatures—and K-12 funding—drop South Carolina school districts continue to weather the storm. They’re doing so this year with fewer teachers in a year where the number of teachers hired from the previous year fell by nearly 50 percent, according to the annual Teacher/Administrator Supply and Demand Survey released today by the Center for Educator Recruitment, Retention, and Advancement.

“Over the past year district personnel administrators have consistently communicated the extraordinary intricacies of predicting human capital and the best, most efficient use of resources for the past two school years as well as looking down the road for the next several years,” said Gayle Sawyer, CERRA executive director. “As national data become available, we expect South Carolina’s figures to reflect national hiring trends for this school year.”

The total number of teachers hired in South Carolina’s public school districts and special schools this year was 3,619.3, nearly a 50 percent decrease from last year’s 7,159.2 hires and the lowest number of teachers hired since 2001 when CERRA first began conducting the annual Teacher/Administrator Supply and Demand Survey. Similarly, a 22 percent drop in the number of newly hired administrators occurred this school year. These significant reductions, however, came as no surprise considering the state’s unstable economic climate over the last year.

During the 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 school years, the largest majority of middle level and high school teachers were hired to teach mathematics, English/language arts, science, special education, and social studies. While the actual number of teachers hired this year was much smaller than last year, the proportion of elementary, middle, and high school teachers hired remained relatively constant. And, like last year, more than half of all teachers hired this year either graduated from teacher education programs in South Carolina or transferred from one district in the state to another.

Approximately 20 percent of teachers hired for the current school year were minorities and another 20 percent were males. These figures are slightly larger than the number of minority and male teachers as a percentage of the total teacher population in South Carolina. According to the South Carolina Department of Education, about 18 percent of all 2008-2009 public school teachers in the state were non-white and another 18 percent were male.

School districts reported 203.75 vacant teacher positions at the beginning of the 2009-2010 school year, which is a 31 percent reduction compared to the previous year. The number of administrator vacancies remained the same as last school year at 24, with other district level positions as the majority of unfilled positions. The high schools held a majority of the vacant teacher positions this school year with 52.5 percent or 107.05 vacancies. High school math teacher positions accounted for the single highest number of vacancies.

Survey results indicated an interesting, yet logical, trend related to the location and size of the districts that reported these vacancies. Nearly 30 percent of the vacancies reported were located in three very small districts in the Pee Dee that account for only 3.5 percent of the total teacher population in South Carolina. According to the 2007 Census Poverty Data, all three of these districts had an average poverty level of 31 percent. Poor, rural areas of the state often have hard-to-staff schools with high teacher attrition rates. 

A total of 4,652.5 teachers did not return to their classroom at the beginning of the 2009-2010 school year, which is a 19 percent reduction from last year’s 5,746 teachers who decided to move on for various reasons. More than one out of every four teachers who did not return to the classroom this year retired from the profession while another 21 percent are now teaching in different South Carolina district or state or accepted an administrative role or another position in education.

A majority (64 percent) of teachers who left their classroom last year had more than five years of teaching experience, and over 40 percent of these experienced teachers retired from the profession. While retirement data are included in attrition rates, they are not indicators of turnover due to dissatisfaction with the teaching profession. Teachers who left the profession mid-career accounted for about 4 percent of the 4,652.5 teachers who did not return to their classroom this school year, and of this small proportion of teachers, only 117 (2.5 percent) taught for five or fewer years. This evidence is encouraging as the first few years in a teacher’s career are crucial to success in the classroom and retention in the profession and this is a key area in which CERRA is able to provide support across the state.

“There are many uncertainties in this economic time, but one issue remains constant, which is every student deserves a quality teacher and every teacher deserves quality support. We must do everything possible to tailor support for educators to become the very best teachers and leaders of tomorrow,” said Jason Fulmer, CERRA program director. “An investment in teacher quality starts at the earliest stages of teachers’ careers and continues throughout their professional lives.”

About two-thirds of districts experienced a loss in the number of allocated teacher positions. For example, Hampton 2, a very small district with a poverty level of 39 percent, lost nearly one-quarter of its teacher allocations. Other rural districts with high poverty levels (greater than 20 percent), including Barnwell 45, Clarendon 2, Edgefield, and Florence 4, all experienced about a 12 percent reduction in funded teacher slots. The remaining third, however, experienced only a slight increase in funded positions or no change at all. One district, the South Carolina Public Charter School District, did stand out as it increased its positions more than 63 percent with the addition of three new charter schools.

Results indicated no real statewide distinction among certain subject areas or grade levels with fewer teacher positions this school year. Districts reported fewer funded positions in most subjects across all grade levels, and the minimal growth that did occur within a small number of subjects is not substantial enough to highlight. It is worth noting, however, that nearly 70 percent of all teacher positions lost since last school year were at the elementary level. In fact, almost 60 percent of all unfunded teacher slots this school year were attributable to just three certification areas: elementary, early childhood, and elementary special education.

Through collaboration with representatives in each of the state’s school districts and special schools, CERRA compiles a statewide report detailing hiring and vacancy data for widespread use in South Carolina. This is the ninth year for the report. To access this year’s full report and archived reports dating back to 2001, visit the CERRA Web site at www.cerra.org/research.

CERRA thanks all school districts who participated in the survey for their commitment and assistance in helping to produce this valuable resource.

About the Center for Educator Recruitment, Retention, & Advancement:

CERRA, an independent state agency located on the campus of Winthrop University, is the oldest and most established teacher recruitment program in the country. The purpose of CERRA is to provide leadership in identifying, attracting, placing and retaining well-qualified individuals for the teaching profession in South Carolina. CERRA’s programs have been adopted at school, district and state levels in more than 30 states in the United States. More information about the Center and its programs is available at www.cerra.org. You can no
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