🛝 1 in 8 Teacher Posts Empty, Attendance Crisis Persists, Schools Abandon Credits

Welcome to Playground Post, a bi-weekly newsletter that keeps education innovators ahead of what's next.

This week's reality check: College applications just shattered records while high schools can't find enough qualified teachers to staff classrooms. The response? Districts are abandoning century-old credit systems and building their own workforce pipelines.

💎 Data Gem

College apps just crossed 10 million for the first time. Common App's 2024–25 season ended with 10,193,579 applications from 1,498,199 applicants. Underrepresented minority and first-generation applicants each grew 14%.

Teacher Shortages Hit New Milestone: 1 in 8 Positions Unfilled or Understaffed

The numbers keep getting worse. Nearly one in eight teaching positions - 411,549 total - are either vacant or staffed by uncertified teachers, according to new Learning Policy Institute research.

This represents a 4,600 position increase from last year's already troubling figures.

The teacher pipeline isn't just broken - it's collapsing. 

Traditional preparation programs can't keep up with demand, and districts are turning to international recruitment and emergency certifications just to keep classrooms open.

Oklahoma is hiring teachers from Mexico through a pilot partnership with Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla.

"They are coming in as full-fledged teachers; they had experience," Carson Aldridge from Santa Fe South Schools told KFOR. "Two out of the three have master's degrees in their content areas."

Companies focused on teacher preparation, certification, and alternative pathways should see this as a massive market expansion. Think accelerated training programs, mentorship platforms, and tools that help districts manage mixed-certification staffing models.

Chronic Absenteeism Refuses to Budge, and Illness Isn't the Real Story

Despite years of intervention efforts, chronic absenteeism remains stuck at 22% - well above the 15% pre-pandemic baseline, new RAND research shows.

Students cite illness as the top reason (67%), but researchers suspect families and schools "overcorrected" post-COVID, keeping kids home for mild symptoms. 

But here's what's really happening: the definition of "acceptable absence" shifted permanently. 

Mental health days became normalized, family priorities changed, and traditional attendance incentives lost their power.

District leaders are trying everything: revised attendance messaging, age-tailored approaches, community partnerships. One suburban high school opened a drop-in mental health clinic staffed by social work interns from a local university.

The intervention market is wide open. 

Districts need tools that address the root causes: family engagement platforms, mental health support systems, and creative re-engagement strategies that work in a post-pandemic culture where staying home became socially acceptable.

The Race to Redefine High School Is Accelerating

Forget Carnegie units and credit hours. 

Districts are moving toward competency-based models that prioritize skills over seat time, and the transformation is happening faster than expected.

Aldine Independent School District in Texas launched HEAL high school programs in partnership with Memorial Hermann Health System. Students pursue nursing, rehabilitation, pharmacy, imaging, or administration pathways with paid internships starting junior year.

The Northeast Academy for Aerospace and Advanced Technologies in North Carolina graduates one-third of students with two-year degrees already completed. 

They receive four applications for every open seat.

These aren't isolated experiments. 

The Carnegie Foundation's Future of High School Network just launched with 24 districts from across the country, all working to establish a "new architecture" for high schools that measures competencies instead of class time.

"There is really broad scale recognition that the current design for the American high school isn't meeting the needs of young people," says Timothy Knowles, Carnegie Foundation president.

The shift creates opportunities across multiple markets: competency assessment platforms, industry partnership management tools, and alternative credentialing systems. 

Districts need technology that can track skills acquisition across work-based learning experiences, not just traditional classroom metrics.

⚡️ More quick hits

This week in education:

School choice support grows — Latest PDK poll shows rising parental support for using public funds for private or religious schooling

AI skepticism increases — Americans grow more wary of AI in K-12 schools, with strong parental concerns about student data access

TikTok targets students — New "Classmates" feature lets students verify school affiliation to connect in-app, raising safety and FERPA questions

AI security guidelines proposed — NIST proposes "COSAIS" framework adapting cybersecurity controls for AI systems, addressing model integrity and training data exposure

AI teacher assistant reliability — EdWeek outlines best practices for AI assistants: teacher-controlled workflows, curriculum alignment, and guardrails preventing student misuse

🔎 Worth Checking Out

Monthly roundup of resources you might like:

• NCES District Revenue and Expenditure Data 2022-23 — Fresh national and state-level tables on district finances for FY2023, providing essential baseline data for market sizing and pricing strategies

• UK GenAI Literacy Study 2025 — Survey of 60k+ teens and 2,908 teachers shows 66.5% of students and 58% of teachers using AI, with strong calls for training on critical use

• 2025 PDK Poll Results — 57th annual survey shows strong public support for improving teacher pay, addressing shortages, limiting cell phone use, and majority opposition to eliminating the Education Department

• EdChoice August 2025 Polling — Half of Americans say K-12 is on wrong track, ~25% of parents report school switching, mixed views on eliminating Education Department

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