DETROIT — Low-income, students of color in Michigan face the highest rates of having teachers who are inexperienced, have temporary credentials and are teaching classes not in their field of expertise, according to new report released Tuesday by an education nonprofit.

Students in school districts with the highest concentrations of poverty are 16 times more likely to learn from a teacher with temporary credentials than their peers in Michigan’s wealthiest school districts, the analysis by the Royal Oak-based education advocacy organization EdTrust-Midwest found.

Michigan allows temporary credentials — which range from a teaching permit to an annual career authorization — to provide flexibility for schools to place non-certified/non-endorsed individuals in teaching or administrative assignments.

At the same time, more than 16.5% of teachers in high-poverty school districts were teaching out-of-field during the 2022-23 school year, which is twice the state average, ETM officials said. In districts where a majority of children are Black, students are nearly four times more likely to learn from an out-of-field teacher. They are also four times more likely to learn from a teacher with emergency credentials and nearly twice as likely to learn from a beginning teacher than in districts serving primarily white students, EdTrust-Midwest researchers found.

The findings were released in a new report, "Closing the Opportunity Divide: Addressing Michigan’s Teacher Shortage Problem for Students Most in Need."

The concern, the organization says, is the uneven distribution of effective, experienced, highly qualified teachers contributes to persistent disparities in reading and math outcomes for Michigan’s students who have long lacked access to educational resources.

“Michigan is facing a teacher shortage crisis that is far worse for our students who have been the most underserved by the educational system,” Amber Arellano, executive director of EdTrust-Midwest, said in a statement. “Too many students from low-income backgrounds, Black and Latino students, and students living in rural and urban areas systematically lack access to strong teachers who are well-prepared and effective in the classroom. That leaves them at a significant disadvantage in their school journey.”

The report includes the results of two years of research and data analysis as well as interviews with community partners and educator focus groups.

Additional findings include:

— Students who learn in school districts with the highest concentrations of poverty are nearly three times more likely than their peers in other districts to learn from a beginning teacher with fewer than three years of teaching experience.

— Districts with the highest concentrations of poverty employ 13.5% of all the teachers in the state, yet they account for 38% of all teachers with emergency credentials in Michigan.

— Districts with the highest concentrations of poverty accounted for more than a third — 33.5% — of all out-of-field teachers in the state despite only employing 13.5% of all teachers in the state.

Officials with the Michigan Department of Education said having credentialed and experienced teachers in Michigan schools — particularly in high-poverty, urban and rural schools — is important. The state Legislature and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer have appropriated $1.1 billion in the last three fiscal years to address the teacher shortage, department spokesman Bob Wheaton said.

Programs recommended by MDE that have begun to help the state improve teacher recruitment and retention, Wheaton said, include scholarships to future educators, stipends for student teachers, mentoring and induction programs for new teachers and administrators, teacher student loan repayments, Grow Your Own programs for support staff and students to become teachers and a rural credentialing hub.

The number of teachers who have become initially certified in Michigan has increased each year over the past five years, with 4,017 teaching certificates issued in 2018-19 and 4,518 issued in 2022-23. Teacher preparation program enrollment in Michigan was 9,512 in 2016-17, but has increased every year since, to 16,260 in 2022-23, a 71% increase, Wheaton said.

“Michigan has made progress in increasing the number of certified teachers in areas of shortage…and has received national attention for the state’s efforts,” Wheaton said. “That said, the state has much more work to do to strengthen funding and by extension staffing, particularly in the state’s highest-poverty schools and districts, whose staffs are often the hardest hit initially and the last to rebound from the inadequate funding of Michigan’s public schools prior to the historic increases in funding."

EdTrust-Midwest says solutions to addressing these issues include fair and adequate education funding, improved state education data systems, making teaching a more competitive occupation, supporting and investing in school administrators and increasing access to high-quality professional development.

The full report can be found here. EdTrust-Midwest is also launching a new campaign called #TeachersWeNeed to uplift the voices of educators, parents and students across the state.

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