The findings reframe Michigan’s teacher crisis as a retention problem more than a recruitment one, with special education facing vacancy rates that far exceed other subject areas and researchers urging greater investment in mentorship, professional development, and starting pay — currently ranked 44th nationally.
Michigan lost nearly 8,000 teachers last academic year while gaining only 7,900, an exchange rate that researchers at Michigan State University said Thursday represents an unsustainable level of churn threatening stability across the state’s 1.4 million-student public school system.
The annual report from the Education Policy Innovation Collaborative at MSU found that more than 1-in-20 teachers currently leading classrooms — 5.3% — hold no teaching certificate, and that 3% are enrolled in teacher training programs, meaning a substantial share of students are being taught by educators who have not yet completed formal preparation.
“Stability is definitely a concern right now,” said Tara Kilbride, associate director of the collaborative and co-author of the report. “We’re making all this progress with teacher recruitment but just the level of turnover raises serious concerns about stability.”
Record spending, persistent exits
Michigan has spent at least $275 million over the past five years trying to address teacher shortages, funding scholarships for teacher candidates, stipends for student teachers, and “grow your own” programs through which local districts train existing employees. Those investments produced record numbers of new entrants, the report said — but not enough to offset departures.
“It is not realistic for Michigan to continue replacing nearly 8,000 departing teachers each year,” the report said. “This level of churn places ongoing pressure on districts’ capacity to recruit, support and retain educators. While recent investments in educator recruitment have greatly increased the supply of new teachers entering the workforce, this record-high growth is still not enough to offset the state’s current levels of attrition.”
Interim and non-certified teachers are more prevalent in charter schools than in traditional public schools, and more common in urban areas, the report said. “Students are increasingly likely to receive instruction from teachers who have not yet demonstrated proficiency in certain content areas or core teaching practices,” it added.
Kilbride said the state should invest more in mentorship, professional development, and compensation. Michigan ranks 44th nationwide in starting teacher salaries at $41,645, according to a separate analysis by the collaborative. The state’s average teacher pay of $69,067 ranks 19th among states.
Special education faces sharpest strain
Special education faces the most acute shortages of any subject area, the report found. Its vacancy rate stands at 5.2%, compared with 3.3% for world languages, 2.7% for arts, and 2.6% for science.
“Special education stood out in nearly every measure that we looked at as having just these particularly acute challenges: so highest vacancy rates, highest attrition rates, especially high rates of undercredentialed teachers in special ed positions,” Kilbride said.
Michigan had 223,100 students receiving special education services last school year across public, private, and homeschool settings — a population spanning birth to age 26 with Individualized Education Plans or Individualized Family Service Plans. Kilbride said the state should consider targeted incentives to draw people toward special education as a teaching specialty. Advocates and school groups have called for increased state funding for special education and changes to how those programs are financed.
Districts build coaching models
This week the State Board of Education discussed the teacher workforce. Heather Wolf, an instructional coach at Shepherd High School near Mt. Pleasant and regional Teacher of the Year, told board members that her district has seen an increase in teachers arriving through alternative-route training programs that serve candidates who already hold a bachelor’s degree.
Wolf said her district supports less experienced teachers through classroom visits and structured learning alongside veteran educators.
“The teachers I work with, they know I’m not there as an administrator to evaluate them,” Wolf told the board. “I am there to support them.”
Michigan has roughly 900 public school districts. Leaders have struggled to recruit and retain teachers for several years, particularly in world languages and science. The EPIC report, which is released annually, stressed that progress is underway while flagging that the pace of attrition undermines those gains.