1. Forty-one percent of surveyed K-12 educators said there is at least one unfilled teaching position at their school.
2. As a result of those unfilled positions, 39 percent of educators said they have larger class sizes, 32 percent said their school has high teacher turnover rates, and 23 percent said it results in more teaching “toward the middle.”
3. Thirty-four percent of K-12 teachers are career changers–of those, 36 percent come from the business and management field.
4. The top reasons that current educators left their previous fields for teaching include a desire to teach (36 percent), needing a change of pace (31 percent), and more flexibility (23 percent).
5. Most surveyed teachers said they are happy in their profession–93 percent said they are satisfied with their career choice.
6. Seventy-seven percent of teachers who joined the field in the past 10 years said they would recommend it. The top reasons teachers would recommend their profession include the opportunity to make a difference in children’s lives (70 percent), the opportunity to profoundly affect students’ lives (54 percent), and the variety that exists in the profession (36 percent).
7. Sixty-four percent of educators said their real-world experience is a benefit of having a career change lead the classroom.
8. Forty-eight percent of teachers said they agree that career changers bring fresh ideas to the education environment.
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