Finding Data to Cover the Teacher Workforce

Want to know how teacher pay compares across states or learn about teacher contracts amid labor disputes? Or maybe you’re wondering how many teachers cut back on lessons about social issues? Not to worry. That data – and much more – is out there.

Multiple think tanks and research organizations regularly collect information on teachers across the country. The Learning Policy Institute, for instance, has an annual report on what teacher shortages look like in different states. RAND, another research group, runs a survey of educators multiple times a year. And the National Council on Teacher Quality, collects teacher contracts from the country’s largest school districts.

Consider this Education Writers Association explainer a journalist’s one-stop-shop for finding helpful resources to inform stories on teachers.

Local and Federal Data

For the local news journalists out there, or national outlets zooming in on a particular state or district, it’s worth checking with a state’s education department to see what data it collects on public school teachers. Data that state officials collect is public. For instance, Maryland has a webpage called Staff and Student Publications that shows data on teacher race, salaries and years of experience, to name a few.

State data is something Dan Goldhaber relies on as well. He runs the Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research, or CALDER, based at the American Institutes for Research (AIR). The group’s goal is to inform education policy development through analyses of data on individual students and teachers over time.

Work from CALDER-affiliated researchers can be found on the publication page that lists hundreds of reports and includes a search tool. For example, a recent report is about how teacher strikes impact pay and productivity. 

Goldhaber offered suggestions on other useful sources of information for reporters, such as the National Center for Education Statistics, which is part of the Institute of Education Sciences. He said there’s “definitely stuff that’s been cut” since the Trump administration gutted the group housed under the U.S. Department of Education, but there’s still information on the site that he finds helpful. Among other topics, he said there’s historical data on teacher pay, for instance. 

He also suggested the education policy research site Live Handbook, which collects pieces written by leading scholars in a “Wikipedia type of style,” where each topic has its own page that breaks down everything a reader needs to know. Goldhaber wrote an entry about teacher licensure, he said.

National Council on Teacher Quality 

The National Council on Teacher Quality is probably best known for its grading system on elementary school teacher preparation programs. However, Lane Wright, the think tank’s director of communications and advocacy, shared an assortment of other resources.

“For anything related to improving teacher quality, anything to do with recruitment or hiring, district policy, NCTQ is your resource for that,” he said.

The nonprofit has a database on state policies that shape the teaching profession. These policies cover a variety of topics, such as reading practices and paid parental leave. Users can compare policies across states. The group also keeps a teacher diversity dashboard collected from federal data. It shows what the teacher workforce looks like in each state.

Additionally, NCTQ provides a collection of teacher contracts from 140 of the largest school districts in the country. At least one district in each state is represented. Reporters can use the database to compare different contract agreements and policies. Wright said a major update to the contracts database drops July 15.

Not everyone agrees with NCTQ’s analysis. However, Wright encouraged reporters to read the methodologies themselves to draw their own conclusions. 

Reporters who want to speak directly with NCTQ can email Wright at lwright@nctq.org.

Learning Policy Institute

The Learning Policy Institute also extensively tracks the teacher workforce. Its State of the Teacher Workforce tool offers an interactive map that allows users to examine how attractive the teaching profession is and equitable access to qualified teachers is in each state. The map also highlights many other factors that influence teacher supply and demand. 

Additionally, the institute publishes a report updating readers on teacher shortages, offers analysis on how student debt burdens educators and provides a tool to help calculate the cost of teacher turnover.

To speak to a press person directly, email press@learningpolicyinstitute.org. 

RAND

The research organization RAND has a few education resources, such as the American Educator Panels. Three surveys that fall under its umbrella include nationally representative samples of educators in the U.S. who regularly provide their feedback on important issues of educational policy and practice. These include: 

• American Teacher Panel with 25,000 teachers from pre-K to 12th grade 
• American School Leader Panel, where 8,000 principals participate
• American School District Panel that 1,000 school districts are part of

The 2023 State of the American Teacher Survey from RAND showed that educators worked more hours per week, on average, than other working adults. Additional survey findings, published in 2024, showed two-thirds of public school teachers decided to limit instruction about political and social issues in classrooms.

Then there’s Bento. It’s a free data visualization tool that helps users analyze the RAND survey data in a way that makes it easier to understand and compare. 

RAND’s Megan Guilfoyle said in an email that journalists looking for more research, or seeking to interview an expert, can send a message to media@rand.org.