The Teacher Talent Pool Has Changed. Has Your Staffing Strategy?

Traditionally, becoming a teacher usually meant one path: applying to openings directly with districts and taking on a full-time salaried role. There usually wasn’t much room for flexibility. But today, that path is one option among several. That, along with nationwide school staffing shortages, is helping change market dynamics. Teachers now have more options to work with staffing agencies for short-term assignments, and on top of that, a scarce market means they have more leverage to test out what options give them better benefits, pay, or work-life balance. If your staffing strategy still assumes every candidate wants a single full-time contract, it may be time to reassess.

This Isn’t Unique to Education

Workers choosing contract or gig-style work over traditional employment is a national trend, not a school-specific one. In 2024, short-term W-2 and 1099 positions made up 27 percent of all U.S. jobs held, and roughly 1 in 4 workers took on some form of gig work during the year, according to ADP Research Institute. The education industry is simply catching up to a shift that’s already reshaped retail, healthcare, and logistics. One survey showed that 83% of teachers felt that improving work-life balance is the top benefit of flexible work and that 57% of teachers are more likely to apply for roles at flexible-friendly schools.

Why Educators Choose Agency Work

For many teachers and paraprofessionals, the decision comes down to two things. The first is pay versus benefits. Assignments through a staffing agency typically pay a higher hourly rate with fewer benefits, while a district role offers strong benefits at a lower hourly equivalent. That trade-off works well for some educators’ family and budget situations, but it isn’t the right fit for everyone at every career stage. The second is fit. School culture and leadership style can vary widely from building to building, and agency assignments let educators try out different environments before committing anywhere long term. An MSP can make that path easier for districts too, helping them identify and convert professionals into internal hires once they complete an agency assignment.

How Scarcity Impacts This Shift

One possibility behind the shift is scarcity. More than 425,000 teaching positions nationwide, about 1 in 8, are either unfilled or staffed by teachers without full certification, according to the Learning Policy Institute. When demand outpaces supply, this often leads to candidates having an upper hand in setting terms, and that’s helping pull more educators toward flexible assignments. To put it simply, in a scarce market teachers can demand more of what they want, flexibility, while having multiple options to try out to get it. This is also why a growing number of schools are considering MSP partnerships to help them find the optimal staffing approach that saves them money and improves retention.

It’s also worth noting that implementing a flexible staffing approach doesn’t have to mean paying more. It requires allocating resources differently to find the most effective and cost-efficient solution for each staffing challenge.

For example, ADP and Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows that a district’s full hourly cost for a permanent special education teacher, accounting for salary, statutory costs, benefits, and hiring costs, is about $77. That’s nearly identical to the average agency bill rate for the same role. This shows that flexible staffing isn’t automatically the expensive option. It’s a different way of allocating the same resources. The key is to find the right mix of staffing approaches based on each role, since paraprofessionals and specialists like speech-language pathologists will have a different cost picture.

Why Districts Are Working with More Staffing Partners

The same shortage pulling educators toward flexible work has pulled more staffing agencies into education to serve them. For districts, that means more options, but also more noise: more vendors to vet, more rates to compare, and a harder time telling which agency is actually delivering top talent. The instinct in that environment can be to cut back on agency use altogether. But that limits your access to the total talent pool right when you need it most. An MSP resolves that tension. It keeps your access to multiple agencies open while creating enough competition among them to keep pricing fair, without adding the administrative load of managing each vendor relationship separately.

Why You Need One View of the Whole Talent Pool

As workers spread across more flexible arrangements, and districts spread across more agencies to find them, keeping track of who’s available, where, and at what cost gets harder fast. Districts that lean heavily on contingent labor already draw close to half their total workforce from non-employed workers, spread across a mix of vendors and worker types, according to a report from Staffing Industry Analysts. Without one point of visibility, it’s easy to lose track of how much contingent labor you use. You also can’t see if you have internal resources that could have filled openings you used agency staff for.

An MSP should be built to close that gap. Beyond managing your agency relationships, Sunburst Workforce Advisors simplifies managing your entire workforce by giving you a genuine view of your total talent pool and helping you find the optimal balance of external and internal staff.

Scarcity isn’t going away, and neither is the shift toward flexible work. Districts that build their staffing strategy around that reality should be better positioned to fill gaps and hold onto the talent they find.

Want to see what that looks like for your district? Connect with the Sunburst team today.