406,000 Teacher Vacancies: The Solution Schools Are Using to Keep Classrooms Staffed

The education landscape is in turmoil as schools cope with a teacher shortage that leaves over 400,000 positions unfilled. This episode tackles the pressing issue head-on, exploring how innovative education leaders are transforming staffing challenges into pathways for continuity and excellence in learning. We welcome Nicola Soares, the president of Kelly Education, to share her insights from her frontline experience in education. Discover how Kelly Education addresses staffing shortages through a commitment to training, competitive compensation, and strategic partnerships focused on enhancing the quality of substitute teaching. 

Throughout the episode, we delve into the impact of substituting on student learning and well-being. Nicola discusses how frequent teacher absences can lead to significant learning disruptions, particularly for students needing consistent environments. With data showing that educational discontinuity can equate to a considerable loss of learning time, we highlight the necessity for strategic solutions that can improve retention rates among educators while enhancing the educational experience for all students.

• Discussing the staggering statistic regarding unfilled teaching positions
• Insights from Nicola Soares on improving staffing strategies
• Benefits of professional development for substitutes and support staff
• Exploring the impact of substitute teacher variability on student learning
• Evaluating the importance of pay raises and policy changes in education
• How to partner with organizations like Kelly Education for effective staffing solutions

If your school is facing staffing challenges or if you want to become a substitute, visit mykelly.com to explore innovative workforce solutions like those we've discussed today. Listen to Wake Up and Teach Podcast, hosted by Nicola to learn more!

Chapters

• 0:00 The Current State of Teacher Shortages
• 11:22 Innovative Solutions for Staffing Challenges
• 44:43 The Importance of Continuous Support for Educators
• 1:10:07 Understanding the Impact of Substitute Teachers
• 3:07:46 Insights from Nicola Soares on Education Staffing
• 21:58:03 Closing Messages and Resources

Transcript

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 0:00

With over 406,000 teaching positions either unfilled or staffed by educators without full certification, our children's education hangs in the balance. Today, we're exploring how innovative educators are transforming these staffing challenges into opportunities for educational continuity and excellence. Welcome to the brighter side of education, research, innovation and resources. I'm your host, dr Lisa Hassler, here to enlighten and brighten the classrooms in America through focused conversation on important topics in education. In each episode, I discuss problems we as teachers and parents are facing and what people are doing in their communities to fix it. What are these variables and how can we duplicate it to maximize student outcomes? Today we're addressing a challenge that touches virtually every school community across the country preparing and maintaining our education workforce, particularly substitute teachers and support staff.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 1:09

According to the Learning Policy Institute's August 2024 report, approximately 406,000 teaching positions nationwide are either unfilled or filled with teachers without proper certification, representing about one in eight of all teaching positions nationally. This staffing instability creates educational discontinuity where learning momentum is repeatedly disrupted, affecting student achievement and well-being. Imagine a third grade classroom that sees four different substitute teachers in a single month each, with different classroom management styles, instructional approaches and familiarity with the curriculum. The impact on students is significant. Research published in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis shows, students in classrooms with frequent teacher absences can lose the equivalent of 20 to 25 days of learning in a single academic year. For parents, this means your child's educational experience can vary dramatically depending on substitute quality and preparation. For students with learning differences. Studies from the Center of Education data and research reveal the negative impact is nearly twice as severe. These students, who often rely on consistency and routine, experience the greatest disruption when faced with a revolving door of different educators.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 2:30

Red Rover's 2023 Substitute Teacher Survey provides additional insights into the substitute teacher workforce. Nearly half of current substitute teachers 44% are in their first year and almost 50% desire more training in trauma-informed teaching practices. And what's great is that 73% of substitutes plan to continue in their roles next year. This presents a tremendous opportunity for schools to invest in this workforce through better preparation, support and systems, especially as teacher shortages continue to grow nationwide. In systems, especially as teacher shortages continue to grow nationwide. Today, I'm thrilled to welcome Nicola Soares, president of Kelly Education, the nation's largest education staffing provider. Nicola began her career as a public school social studies teacher before holding leadership positions at McGraw-Hill Education and NBC Universal, where she helped create the education initiative NBCLearn. She believes that education is the bedrock of a thriving society and that the talented people who work in our schools, colleges and universities are crucial to powering the future of learning and unlocking student potential. Today, she'll share insights on solving staffing challenges through competitive pay, professional development and innovative approaches to build a resilient workforce. Welcome to the show, nicola.

Nicola Soares: 3:51

Thank you, Lisa. Thank you for having me today. I really looked forward to this conversation.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 3:56

Yeah, me too. I'm excited to hear about Kelly Education and the services that it provides to help schools out. What exactly is your role with Kelly Education and how has it expanded under your leadership?

Nicola Soares: 4:07

Yeah, so my role at Kelly Education. I like to think that I'm the head learner of the organization, but I am president of the organization, so I've been with Kelly for over 10 years and Kelly Education is a specialty division of Kelly Services. So I'm sure many of our audience participants have heard about Kelly Services, the temporary staffing organization, but really what we are is a global workforce solutions that works across industries and all sorts of workforce solutions and human capital strategies, but for us it's really around staffing primarily focused on K-12. Us it's really around staffing primarily focused on K-12. We place substitute teachers, we do direct hire placement and over the years we have grown into other service lines, like in special needs, special eds think of paraeducators.

Nicola Soares: 4:56

We also supply therapists physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech, behavior, mental health and wellness kinds of services, and then, last but not least, we also do executive search placements especially focused on public higher ed institutions. So think of, like presidents and chancellors and provosts and academic deans. So we have a really full end-to-end service when it comes to human capital or workforce solutions. I like to think that we have a front row seat to America's institutions and public school districts and that, of course, spans over 40 states, and we've been doing it probably close to about 30 years. But since the time I've been here, we've grown and obviously have added all sorts of services that I think you know. In this time, I like to think that what we do provide are essential services.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 5:48

Especially with over 400,000 vacancies in teaching positions and a lot of those without certifications. How do you address that kind of big challenge, even in remote areas?

Nicola Soares: 6:01

So let me say this the fact that we do place substitute teachers. Every single state has a minimum set of requirements when it comes to credentials, so fortunately, we're not placing candidates that don't have any credentials. What we see there are some states that might require a high school diploma or X amount of college credit hours, or you might have states that might require that you need to be a four-year degree certified teacher in order to be a substitute teacher. So we do see the gamut of that, which is great, and if we do convert talent into full-time positions and that's part of the benefit of our program those individuals do need to have the credential requirements in order to be teachers.

Nicola Soares: 6:45

I would say you know your question, lisa around remote areas, every single state, whether it be populous, and I think also a lot of folks think that the pandemic sort of exacerbated or started this whole problem around teacher shortages, but actually it started well before then. For all the reasons that we know, the pandemic did exacerbate it to be even a bigger problem and really fast forward. Today I characterize this as a national crisis that I think every state, even at a federal level, needs to put attention to. The need is pretty huge out there for sure.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 7:32

Yeah, I felt that pressing need. While teaching in a private school, we had to secure our own substitute teachers, which was extremely difficult given our small pool of candidates and many times we were left with no other alternatives, which then became commonplace for teachers to cover each other's classes, missing plan times and even lunches. So when I went to your website and I saw the phrase filling classrooms at 5.30 AM, so you don't have to that really resonated deeply with me. Why do you think principals need a mindset shift about substitutes and how does partnering with a staffing service save schools time and money?

Nicola Soares: 8:11

Right, oh, wow, so really good questions.

Nicola Soares: 8:14

Usually the mind shift for building principals once they hear about a program like ours and typically we contract it was centrally with the school district administration so that there is sort of the equitable distribution of talent across the board it takes them literally a nanosecond to see the benefit.

Nicola Soares: 8:32

Because when you think about the administrative benefit that we provide to schools, especially to our building principals, usually that burden either falls on A the principal, or B the school secretary, if you will, and so you know the scramble for last minute absences due to illness or even a long-term absence due to maternity leave or a scheduled professional development day.

Nicola Soares: 8:54

There is so much logistically that you have to coordinate on that.

Nicola Soares: 8:58

So if you have a program like ours that is actually building a talent pool so that those people are ready to go at any given literally within minutes, is incredibly helpful and the idea of that really allows a building principal and all of the support staff there too to really focus every day on what they need to focus on, and that's really around student achievement. And, from a financial perspective, a program like ours, if we do it well, it really does save a district or a school money over time, because if you think about all the hidden costs of having to market and source and recruit and to advertise, but I think the biggest cost impact, you know sort of slash benefit is all of those lost student learning days too, without having qualified talent within the classroom. So that continuity of instruction is really important and I would say superintendents, chief financial officers, chief HR officers and of course, our building instructional leadership, they absolutely get that value proposition to be more efficient, more cost effective and then also having the best talent.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 10:03

Yeah, the educational discontinuity, with frequent teacher absences equating to 20 to 25 days of lost learning time for students in a single academic year, was a pretty impactful data point that was brought up in the research intro. What kind of impacts have you seen when schools do a more comprehensive approach and expand beyond a substitute teacher, paraprofessionals, tutors, custodians, special education staff, even nurses, when they can tap into a resource like yours for a talent pool? What kind of impacts are you seeing?

Nicola Soares: 10:38

Yeah, I think we're seeing a lot of positive impacts. So let me start with teachers and paraeducators. You know, part of the value proposition of a program such as ours is that we get the opportunity for school districts and building principals to experience talent. So think of us as sort of a program that also helps to source talent as well that come into our employment. You know, just trying to find is there an individual? If we have an opening, the right fit, because retention is a big issue we convert lots of folks that are qualified to become full-time teachers. It's an opportunity, it's a pathway to do that.

Nicola Soares: 11:13

I also think that when we think about support staff like food and nutrition services, school nursing, paraeducators, you name it those folks consistently go to the same schools every single day, so they're an extension of the workforce. So I like to think a workforce model within a school district or even a school, has evolved. It's changed from what it was 20 to 30 years ago, and so, with school budgets especially being pressed right now, labor coming in in different kinds of channels is maybe more cost effective for school districts, especially when enrollments are sort of fluctuating and depending on what the needs are for resources that particular year. That's really helpful. So an example like a speech therapist or a physical therapist, depending on the needs of the school that year, that can contract with a service like ours where they have somebody dedicated for the year and then comes back the following year. But you know, where a district might not necessarily be able to afford a huge amount of staff or professionals on a full-time basis as well. So they are our employees and that are contracted to the schools.

Nicola Soares: 12:21

The other thing, a lot of the relationships that are built. This is an extension of the team. It takes a village to raise a child, as we say. So many of our folks are employees. They're part of the team and they're treated as such. Our substitute teachers. They'll go to faculty meetings, they're a part of professional development trainings, just like they would be considered to be a full-time employee. So that makes it very seamless. I think so that there's no you know, hopefully not a whole lot of differentiation around that, and I think that's really important for engagement with all stakeholders.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 12:52

And you've got a lot of case studies also that support the data on the impacts as well.

Nicola Soares: 12:57

Oh, absolutely.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 12:58

Absolutely.

Nicola Soares: 12:58

Very positive.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 13:00

I was seeing some of the case studies with data that supported your fill rate and how it was impacting student learning In Florida. It seems to be like there's a lot of districts that are going your way, which is exciting. What positions do you think you could see yourself expanding into next?

Nicola Soares: 13:17

Well, you know, I mean, we do a lot of positions that are outsourced positions, from interim placements, of high level positions, while districts are seeking their next full time appointment. We do executive search. We, you know, from instructional and non-instructional positions. I really do think maybe the question would be, what sorts of human capital services do we offer? And so, you know, I think about being a human capital organization. We do a lot of work and have a lot of demand around being able to do workshops for building principles, whether it's leadership development or HR professionals, to give them the latest and greatest about wage and hour compliance or anything that might be relative to new legislation, depending on the state, and that is very complementary in our programming as well. You know, I can't think of anything that we don't do today. The only thing that we don't do is bus drivers.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 14:11

I was about to say bus drivers.

Nicola Soares: 14:14

That's a whole unique industry unto itself. That's not an area we specialize in, don't have any plans to specialize in that, but you know, I think we're always very happy to partner with our districts to see how we can help solve problems in partnerships and just to elevate human capital within our districts too, especially coming out of the private sector, where the private sector tends to have the latest and the greatest and where they can share that with educators, I think is fantastic, and you touched on the professional development.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 14:45

I'm just thinking back to Red Rover survey where they were saying that substitute teachers really wanted more professional development in trauma-informed strategies, and you're talking about being able to provide those professional development pathways. How does Kelly Education provide those pathways? And then could you share maybe, a success story about how that kind of preparation transformed your employees' effectiveness?

Nicola Soares: 15:12

Yeah. So professional development is at the heart of everything that we do. At a minimum, somebody that's coming into our employment before they're even placed, after interview and onboarding process, receives about four hours of professional development training, depending on the criteria. Sometimes there's state-specific requirements on training but we give the minimum of four hours. So when I think about professionals, we've seen an interesting dynamic of, like healthcare professionals, coming in trying their hand at substitute teaching. So, as an example, somebody was an RN or an LPN or a PA that might've gotten so burned out coming out of the pandemic, but I'm really I'm a care provider and I'm a purpose-driven individual. Substitute teaching is a great way to try out a different kind of a career. But of course they come into our employment. Let's say an RN who's got a wonderful credential profile of having a STEM degree, right, a bachelor's of science, and when you think about those degrees and how they transfer into a science classroom, into a special ed classroom physical science, biology you know it's great. But what a service like ours does gives them all the other additional wraparound things best practices on classroom management, lesson planning, you know, think about all of those kinds of things. So if you have that on top of your credential, then you're going to be well prepared entering into your first day. Lot of examples of that and somebody recently substituted called Linda, out of Miami-Dade public schools, who did something like that and as a result, probably got hired into full-time employment in terms of then getting the next level of credential degrees so that they are qualified to teach.

Nicola Soares: 16:54

And we don't stop there. So, lisa, what I can share to you too we do continuous education. So our employees have the opportunity to literally choose from 2000 continued education modules, and it could be in a variety of things. It could be the latest suite of Microsoft Office tools. So if you think about all those things that classroom teachers get to use and have the best in class, they might have an intro to AI, they might have another course into something different that might be complementary to the discipline that they prefer to teach in. So training is, at our core, really, really important. We also provide professional development training for those states that would want to purchase it for their substitute teachers. They don't even have to hire a staffing component of that. I fundamentally believe that substitute teachers do need to receive a minimum of training before they're ever even placed into the classroom.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 17:45

Yeah, it makes it so that when they walk into that classroom that first day they feel good about what they're doing and confident to be successful with it. So many school districts don't provide benefits or perks for their substitutes. How does addressing compensation and benefits, as well as that professional growth, help both your recruitment and then the retention of those high quality education professionals?

Nicola Soares: 18:09

I think it's critical, especially if they become an extension substitute teachers, generally speaking to the over the workforce of a teacher at large. I can tell you many districts that we partner with at a minimum, if, let's say, a substitute teacher is fulfilling a long-term assignment, that they're paid an equivalent of an annual salary of a full-time teacher. Meaning, as it translates to the daily salary or daily wages, that's really really critical, excellent. An enormous amount of districts increase the wages of not only substitute teachers but understanding they need to do that for their full-time teaching workforce too, to be commensurate to other industries, that should be just as valued. If substitute teachers come through our employment, we do offer the opportunity for like 401k or health benefits if they choose to participate.

Nicola Soares: 18:59

So we need to think about how people desire to work, because there really has been a movement. I mean about a third of the workforce in the USA today I mean Kelly does a lot of research and a lot of thought leadership around the space, freelances, and not because they have to, because they choose to, because it's what we call work life designers, the way that work needs to fit into people's lives, and I think that's one of the sort of post-pandemic lessons coming out, especially for people, and then having an opportunity to be a substitute teacher is really an opportunity to earn income the way that they want to and how it fits into their lives, if that makes sense. We do see many of our individuals in our talent pool. They're taking maybe two, three days assignments a week. Might be doing something else for the remainder of the week, so very, very interesting in terms of workforce dynamics, I think.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 19:53

In the area regarding pay and substitute salaries, aligning better with credentials and experience. I think it's really important that we're addressing that, because school districts that I've been in substitute teachers might get $40 a day, and so you could see where that could be a little disheartening because you're thinking really $40 for the whole day.

Nicola Soares: 20:15

It's come a long way and I would say it's somewhere between national average is $110, $120 maybe, so we've seen it as high as over $200, depending on credentials or where they are.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 20:25

We've seen a lot of districts increase the daily pay rate, which has been great because we needed to do that, quite frankly, oh, yeah, if you wanted to be able to attract qualified individuals to be able to take on that role, then I could see compensating them fairly would be a great step in the right direction, and you were talking about legislation a little bit earlier. What kind of policy challenges and opportunities do you believe would have the greatest positive impact on building a sustainable education workforce?

Nicola Soares: 20:55

There are quite a few states that have had increasing of teacher salary bills on the table. There's been a lot of states that have since kind of passed some very I think, exciting legislation recognizing the fact that we need to pay teachers differently. So I suspect that that's going to continue. I mean, especially in light of the teacher shortages, we need to do that. So I think it's an opportunity. I'm in the teaching profession. I started my career as a teacher. It's an exciting profession, so I'm hopeful that we will see the average teacher salary go up. It needs to.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 21:31

Yes, fingers crossed, me too. I hope so. What's the best way for school leaders or potential educational professionals to explore partnerships with Kelly Education?

Nicola Soares: 21:42

So I think the easiest and fastest way. If they go to kellyeducationcom, they will be able to see a lot of information on how to connect with us and what are the steps and how we go about. You know the partnering process, so kellyeducationcom.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 21:58

Well, thank you so much for joining us today and telling us about your work at Kelly Education, transforming what could be viewed simply as a staffing challenge into an opportunity to enhance the quality of education through well-prepared professionals making a difference for schools, educators and, most importantly, the students. I appreciate you taking the time to come and talk with me.

Nicola Soares: 22:20

I appreciate you taking the time to come and talk with me. Thank you, lisa. It's been a pleasure being here with you today, so I wish you a very good week and thank you for your podcast, because it is valuable content, so thank you so much, thank you.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 22:31

And yours as well. So shout out to your podcast. Wake Up and Teach.

Nicola Soares: 22:35

Wake Up and Teach. Yes, I will have to have you come on in the future as well.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 22:40

I would love to do that. Thank you. If your school is facing staffing challenges or if you want to become a substitute, visit mykellycom to explore innovative workforce solutions like those we've discussed today. The research is clear Educational continuity matters tremendously for student outcomes. If you have a story about what's working in your schools that you'd like to share, you can email me at lisa at drlisahasslercom, or visit my website at wwwdrlisahasslercom and send me a message. If you like this podcast, subscribe and tell a friend. The more people that know, the bigger impact it will have. And if you find value to the content in this podcast, consider becoming a supporter by clicking on the supporter link in the show notes. It is the mission of this podcast to shine light on the good in education so that it spreads, affecting positive change. So let's keep working together to find solutions that focus on our children's success.