North Carolina’s education leaders are bracing for another tough conversation this week, as the annual State of the Teaching Profession report lands before the State Board of Education on Wednesday. The document, compiled by the Department of Public Instruction, lays out how teacher turnover and empty classrooms continue to dog districts statewide, charting where shortages are most severe and how many students started last year without a licensed, permanent teacher in sight.
According to WRAL, DPI leaders will walk board members through data on both teacher turnover and “classrooms without a qualified teacher” during Wednesday’s meeting. WRAL reports that the tally of classrooms without a properly licensed teacher has climbed for years, forcing districts to lean on quick fixes rather than long-term solutions.
State figures in the report show that more than 6,200 classrooms in North Carolina were staffed without an appropriately licensed teacher in fall 2024, with 6,217 vacancies on the first day of school and 7,141 by the 40th instructional day. Those numbers, along with a deeper breakdown by subject area and district, are captured in a DPI data dashboard and in coverage from EdNC.
Pay, Pipeline, and Experience
Per the National Education Association, North Carolina sits near the bottom of the national rankings for average teacher pay, a gap that state leaders say only deepens staffing troubles. The DPI report also notes that attrition hits beginning teachers hardest and that fewer candidates are entering traditional teacher-preparation programs, trends that are likely to keep the pressure on hard-to-staff subjects.
How Districts Are Coping
To keep classrooms covered, districts are turning more often to career changers and international hires, and some have inked deals with virtual-teacher companies to beam in instruction remotely, according to WRAL. Local leaders told the outlet that these strategies help put an adult in front of students but do not always provide the continuity or special-education expertise that many children need.
What Officials Are Proposing
State Superintendent Mo Green and board members have advocated for higher salaries and more robust pathways for teacher advancement as part of a broader push to stabilize the workforce, as reported by EdNC. DPI officials also highlight mentoring programs, teacher residencies, and targeted recruitment efforts as a mix of short- and long-term responses outlined in the report.
Advocacy groups and teacher leaders maintain that pay and working conditions are still the most powerful levers to reverse the trend, warning that ongoing shortages mean larger class sizes and less instructional time for students. As WUNC reported last year, the state’s average teacher salary lags behind the national average, a reality that educators say weighs heavily on whether they stay in the classroom or walk away.
