By Alex MacDonald | Cronkite News
WASHINGTON – A few weeks into last school year, 30% of teacher positions in Arizona remained unfilled. The shortage persists, but there are signs of improvement.
Tucson Unified School District currently has 164 classroom openings – down from 300 at the same time last year. Deer Valley Unified School District is close to fully staffed. Tempe Union High School District has just one opening to fill compared to five at this time last year.
“We have been more successful this year than we were last year,” said Dawn Anderson, director of human resources at Flagstaff Unified School District, which employs about 600 certified teachers and has only eight openings still to be filled.
Low pay is one of the many challenges when recruiting teachers.
