The Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) recently reported that the educator workforce shortage in PA is trending in the right direction, with 97 more Instructional I certificates issued in the 2023-24 school year than the previous year. Also, since the 2021-22 school year PDE has seen a steady increase in the number of Instructional I certificates issued every year. Overall, PDE issued a total of 6,612 in-state and out-of-state Instructional 1 certificates in 2023-24.

The Act 82 Report compiled and published each year by PDE also showed an increase of 793 newly certified PK-4 educators, 85 more health and physical PK-12 educators, and 762 PK-12 special educators over the past two years.

These improvements are the result of efforts to recruit and retain teachers by working collaboratively with leaders in the education field to ensure there is a robust pipeline of educators in place to provide a high-quality education to learners of all ages across the Commonwealth. Some of those efforts include reducing teacher certification processing times by more than 10 weeks, making intern certificates free to aspiring educators, creating a new Career and Technical Education (CTE) program in Education for high school students, developing accelerated certification programming to prospective special educators, and creating and expanding the Student Teacher Support Grant Program to provide a stipend to student teachers.

Earlier this year, the Accelerated Special Education Teacher Certification Program recently produced the first cohort of 142 students completing the program, and announced that the second round of awards for the Accelerated Special Education Teacher Certification Program will provide more than $1 million in funding to 14 postsecondary institutions throughout the Commonwealth.

Additionally, the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency (PHEAA) opened the second round of applications for the Student Teacher Support Grant Program last week, and more than 3,000 would-be teachers applied in the first 24 hours for stipends to assist with completion of their student teaching placements in the 2025-26 school year.

As of the 2023-2024 school year, Pennsylvania’s teacher workforce stands at 123,190, with the largest shortages in Grades 4-8, Special Education PK-12, Mathematics 7-12, Life & Physical Sciences 7-12, and Career and Technical Education 7-12. The United States Department of Education has designated these areas as critical shortages.

On March 12-13, 2025, the PA State Board of Education held its 384th meeting. Highlights of the meeting included a report by the Academic Standards Review Committee that said there was an overwhelming number of responses to a request for participants on committees for the review and revision of standards for the Arts & Humanities and Health & Physical Education., which will occur from March 2025 through March 2026. The committees will be comprised of members from all parts of the state. It was also recommended that social-emotional learning be included in the formulation of the revisions. Nominees to serve on the committees were approved.

New PA Secretary of Education Dr. Carrie Rowe reported that the PA Educator Workforce Committee will, in its strategic plan review, will be making many changes to the current model of teacher certification. She also reported on the tremendous impact that a loss of Title I federal funding would have on PA schools if cut by the U.S. Department of Education.

In addition to its public sessions, the Board held a March 12th executive session with counsel to discuss legal implications of Act 69 of 2024, which established a state board of higher education. Subsequent discussion by the Board in open session centered on the need to delineate the roles and responsibilities of both the State Board and the Board of Higher Ed., since there appears to be some overlap.

On both days, PA Senator Lindsey Williams expressed her opposition with the manner in which public participation now occurs during Board meetings. She particularly said that to entertain in-person only public comment during meetings is not an acceptable method and she requested a return to the previous way of providing public participation, which allowed for both in-person and virtual participation. Her request will be taken into consideration.

A motion by PA State Council of Higher Ed. Chair Pedro Rivera was unanimously approved to form a subcommittee comprised of members from both the State Board of Ed. and the Board of Higher Ed. to meet and discuss the delineation of roles and responsibilities, to ask the General Assembly to extend the established reporting deadline of May 1, 2025 as set forth in Act 69, and to ask the Board of Higher Ed. to join in the request for an extension of the deadline and the establishment of a subcommittee.

In other action items, the Board unanimously denied the application of the Association of Christian Schools International for recognition as an Approved Private School Accrediting Organization; the board unanimously approved the 2024 Annual Report to the Governor and General Assembly; and the Board unanimously approved resolutions to recognize the services of both former Secretary of Ed. Dr. Khalid Mumin and former Executive Director of the Professional Standards and Practices Commission (PSPC) Mr. Shane Crosby.