If you need an extra reason to celebrate at the end of this year, take note that Utah achieved an impressive educational milestone by increasing starting teachers’ salaries. For the 2023-2024 school year, eight school districts now have new teachers earning the recommended starting salary of $60,000 per year.
(This recommendation emerged from the Vision for Teacher Excellence.) For years, we have been talking about the need to increase teacher pay and the multiple ways this will help students, but is increasing teacher pay actually helping with Utah’s teacher shortage?
There are two ways to answer this question and consider the teacher shortage: we need to look at (1) what’s currently happening with Utah’s teacher shortage, and (2) what the future of Utah’s teacher shortage looks like.
Over the last several years, schools, school districts, and states around the country have been concerned about the teacher shortage getting worse. And for a lot of states, it has. We’re happy to report, however, that Utah’s teacher shortage is not. Other states have seen teacher vacancies grow by 35%; according to numbers from USBE, our numbers have stayed about the same. Higher salaries seem to have prevented the increased teacher vacancies that other states have seen over the last few years. It’s not perfect, but it is a clear win. (For more information, check out the report from the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute that shows recent trends in teacher turnover).
Next, we need to look at the future of our teacher shortage. Unfortunately, the outlook here may not be so positive. New student enrollment in teacher preparation programs across Utah have generally decreased. Early next year, we will distribute a college state-wide student survey to get more information about declining numbers, but our recent high school data has already given us some insight into how students are thinking.
Often young children want to become teachers, but somewhere along the way, they lose that desire. This is okay to an extent — not everyone can or should become a teacher. However, we would like to be able to tip the scale and encourage more people to become teachers. When more people want to enter a profession, employers are better able to ensure quality in the people they hire and retain.
Earlier in 2023, we surveyed high school students from around the state. We asked questions about their high school experience, plans after high school, and any barriers they may be facing (stay tuned for our upcoming report!). We also asked them several questions about teachers. Students are the most direct recipients of teachers’ successes and failures, making them a valuable resource to evaluate their effectiveness.
82% of the students surveyed strongly agreed that “teaching is an important job/profession in our society,” but only a meager 5% of students who strongly agreed that “teachers are paid adequately for their jobs.”
80% of students either somewhat or strongly agreed that “higher pay would help teachers do better at their jobs.”
More than half of students somewhat or strongly agreed with the statement, “I would be more likely to consider becoming a teacher myself if teachers were paid more.” This may be because news about higher salaries hasn’t reached high school students yet, or it could be because increases haven’t been enough to overcome recent economic headwinds, or it could be a combination of both.
14% of students choose “maybe yes” or “definitely yes” to the question, “Are you considering becoming a teacher yourself?” Another 23% chose “don’t know.”
If we make the right positive changes to the profession, we could motivate 37% of students — which is about 19,000 students each year — to consider becoming teachers.
Think for a moment about those last two bullet points. They tell us that If we make the right positive changes to the profession, we could motivate 37% of students (14% who are considering the profession plus 23% who don’t know) — which is about 19,000 students each year — to consider becoming teachers. That is enough people to fill our teacher shortage several times over.
Increasing starting teacher salaries to a competitive range is an important first step in encouraging students (or even mid-career professionals) to become teachers. We also need to make sure they get the message that salaries are going up. And while we can celebrate Utah’s recent success in increasing starting teacher salaries, we cannot forget the importance of also increasing end-of-career salaries. In order to make the job attractive to prospective hires and retain excellent teachers, people need to know there is room for their salaries and professional development to grow.
Utah has made some positive changes to what it means to be a teacher in the state — and it’s going to have a positive impact on student learning. We just need to keep going.
2023-24 Teacher Starting Salaries in Utah School Districts