School District Job Postings and Staffing Challenges Throughout the Second School Year During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Bibliographic Data

ID21313596
AuthorsDan Goldhaber (0000-0003-4260-4040, American Institutes for Research, University of Washington, Seattle, USA), Nate Brown (0000-0001-8146-6483, University of Washington, Seattle, USA), Nathaniel Marcuson (University of Washington, Seattle, USA), Roddy Theobald (0000-0002-5479-4147, American Institutes for Research, Seattle, USA, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume61
Issue2
Pages323-358
Publication date2025-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEducational Administration Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0013-161X • E-ISSN: 1552-3519
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0013161x241308512
OpenAlexW4406951625
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited20

Purpose: In this paper we investigate school district staffing challenges during the 2021–22 school year, the second school year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Research Methods/Approach: We use novel data from Washington state collected by scraping websites for job postings during the 2021–22 school year; the districts represented in the study serve more than 98% of students in the state. We analyze these data using descriptive and regression analyses. Findings: There was considerable variation in staffing challenges across position types and throughout the year with postings per student tending to be higher in rural districts and districts serving larger populations of disadvantaged students. In Fall 2021, when postings likely signal vacancies at the outset of the 2021–22 school year, the data suggest that districts faced considerable challenges filling paraeducator and, to a lesser extent, teaching positions at the beginning of the school year. In the case of teachers, there is also heterogeneity in the postings per FTE across different teacher content areas. For instance, there are far more postings per FTE for special education teacher positions than elementary education positions. In Spring and Summer 2022, when postings likely signal anticipated staffing needs for the 2022–23 school year, districts with growing enrollments and that received more ESSER funding were more likely to have more postings

2019-20 coronavirus outbreak · Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) · Pandemic · Pedagogy · School district · Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) · Staffing · Medicine · Nursing · Psychology · Virology · Youth Substance Use and School Attendance