Miami-Dade Schools list fewer teacher vacancies

As the new school officially starts in Miami-Dade County, teacher vacancies are fewer compared to this time last year, according to Miami-Dade County Public Schools.

Since the launch of several teacher accelerated training programs, the need for teachers for this year is far less than last year, said Jose Dotres, school superintendent, while visiting county public schools during the first day of school.

“We were able to attract, recruit and hire new teachers and I think we are doing much better in that area. The need is there, but not as much as last year,” he said.

Overall, 150 to 200 more teachers were hired than last year thanks to all the partnerships with other institutions to get teachers in classrooms quicker and vacancies were in the low one-hundreds, according to school officials.

One of the major programs helping to close the teacher vacancy gap, Achieve Miami’s Teacher Accelerator Program (TAP), has tripled its impact with 151 new teachers graduating from this year’s program who are set to teach in public, private, and charter school classrooms across Miami-Dade County as full-time teachers. That is up from 43 new teachers during the program’s first year.

Following its first year at the University of Miami in 2023, the education nonprofit expanded to Florida International University and Miami-Dade College, making the accelerator program accessible to college seniors and graduates with a four-year degree.

“While Miami students are performing better than their peers in other major cities, learning gaps exist and the teacher shortage is exacerbating the problem. A strong education system is critical to ensuring the viability of South Florida’s economy over the long-term, and that begins with building a robust pipeline of teachers,” said Leslie Miller Saiontz, founder of Achieve Miami. “TAP will be the single largest source of new teachers in Miami-Dade County this school year, and we’re eager to scale up our program in Florida and beyond.”

TAP has 103 educators and counting in Miami-Dade County. While it is difficult to assess the need, TAP has data from the previous two years that helps illuminate the magnitude of the shortage, Jasmine Calin-Micek, the program’s senior director, told Miami Today.

In the accelerator’s first year, the 2022-2023 school year, the county schools reported 200 vacancies, she said. “The subsequent year, that number had risen by 40% to 280 vacancies. This total does not include the vacancies in charter and private schools.”

“The need for teachers is incredible and cannot be understated,” she said. “While the vacancy rate continues to increase, TAP’s enrollment numbers are increasing faster, and we are confident in our ability to solve this problem with the support of and collaboration with our community partners.”

According to the Florida Education Association’s latest data on teacher vacancies in Florida, Miami-Dade County is currently facing a total of 694 teacher vacancies across the board compared to 389 in August 2023. Overall, teacher vacancy numbers in Florida have gone down from 6,920 in August 2023 to currently 5,007, the report said.

“South Florida is full of talent, both at our local colleges and across the workforce, and we find that many qualified individuals are excited about a flexible and fulfilling career in education,” Ms. Calin-Micek Jasmine added. “TAP’s success in Miami is proving that when you offer an onramp to teaching, there’s no shortage of demand.”