Colleges Overproducing Elementary-Level Teachers

Data, while imprecise, suggest that some states are producing far more new teachers at the elementary level than will be able to find jobs in their respective states--even as districts struggle to find enough recruits in other certification fields. For some observers, the imbalances reflect a failure of teacher colleges--by far, the largest source of new teachers--and their regulatory agencies to cap the number of entrants. Scholars who study the issue, however, acknowledge that, even if a net oversupply of elementary teachers exists in some states, remedies are difficult. They are complicated, such scholars say, by a lack of comparable, cross-state data and by the complex and variable nature of the education labor market.