For the last four years, Red Rover has partnered with Substantial to design, refine, and launch an annual survey to thousands of guest teachers across the U.S. Our goal is two-fold: to understand the unique challenges and motivators that influence a substitute teacher’s experiences and choices regarding assignments, and to bring these insights back to HR leaders to drive practice changes.
With Substantial’s expertise in designing high-quality professional learning for guest staff and Red Rover’s background in building modern K-12 workforce management solutions, we analyzed trends in substitute teacher responses. Our 2021, 2022, and 2023 summaries revealed critical insights during unprecedented times of high teacher turnover, increased absence rates, and hiring shortages.
For the 2024 survey, we set out to learn: What has changed now that life has returned to a “new normal?”
With nearly ten thousand responses from over a thousand schools and districts across the U.S., the number of substitutes who engaged in this year’s survey greatly surpassed previous years’ participation. Dani O’Shaughnessey, Co-Founder and CEO of Red Rover celebrates this huge influx of input:
In this article, Red Rover and Substantial unpack what factors matter most to guest teachers’ work, the kinds of support they seek, and their plans for the future. We also lean on what multiple years of trends reveal about the landscape of substitute teaching, and the implications they have on absence management.
Many of the data trends and insights shared here were also discussed during our joint AASPA webinar in May. Watch the recording (free for members to access) to learn more about how your district compares against national benchmarks in substitute teaching and discover tips to prepare for excellent absence management in the upcoming school year!
Our first trend sheds light on a positive pattern among substitutes: 91% of 2024 respondents intend to stay in K-12 education, either as substitutes or by pursuing a new role in the field.
While this is certainly great news for districts still facing the ongoing teacher shortage and the continued (if not increased) demand to fill long-term roles, there are finer details to detangle in the context of past surveys.
Specifically, between 2022 and 2024, we see an upward trend of guest teachers interested in maintaining their status as substitute staff after the summer holiday break ends. In contrast, during that same window of time, the percentage of respondents who expressed a desire to explore other opportunities within education dropped from 20% to 15%.
And yet, as Jessie Weiser, Chief Operating Officer of Substantial emphasizes, there are still substitutes who are eager to pursue a credential and become full-time, permanent teachers—34% of them, in fact!
In short, while some substitutes may be thrilled about expanding their education career in classrooms, others may be content to continue filling absences.
The nuances of these insights prove useful for HR administrators as they determine how to support schools with substitute engagement, design recruitment strategies to attract guest staff to their districts, and even invest in their future teacher pipeline. That’s why it’s important to create substitute feedback loops. That way, schools and districts can make space for guest staff to grow and develop by responding to their interests.
Red Rover also found a consistent pattern in top factors that motivate substitute teachers in their work. Across the past three years of survey data, guest staff overwhelmingly cited three drivers as consistently “Important” or “Very Important” when they decide to accept a teaching job:
The reasons why substitutes do this important work are clues to guide HR administrators as they motivate and support their guest staff, even from the district office. From celebrating substitutes’ roles within a school community to implementing user-friendly mobile apps that allow guest staff maximum flexibility and control over their schedule—the possibilities are endless!
Interestingly, “Pay” consistently ranked fourth among survey responses as an essential factor when substitutes consider a job. Weiser surmises how these data show that, though pay is not the highest motivator for many guest staff, it IS still important to consider as an HR administrator.
Weiser also highlights that pay may be one of the first factors a substitute examines when exploring open roles at organizations. With substitute pay ranging wildly across schools even in the same region, pay must meet minimum expectations—or else it may deter a potential candidate from further investigating the role.
Weiser recommends that HR directors evaluate their substitute pay against local market trends for other youth-focused jobs or gig-like work such as app-based food delivery roles. Districts can then make educated decisions about a budget for substitute pay that hits the minimum threshold to entice candidates.
In summary, Weiser reminds administrators that increasing pay alone will often not suffice to attract and retain guest staff.
When it comes to accepting job assignments at new or known campuses, substitutes responding to this year’s survey pointed to an additional three factors as essential in such decisions: “making a difference,” “having lesson plans prepared,” and “friendly office staff.”
This finding seems obvious—after all, which guest teacher wouldn’t want to have clear lesson plans and a friendly smile greet them upon arrival at a school?
However, Weiser also comments on the power of influence that HR directors and teams wield from the district level—even over these more school-centric factors in substitute teaching. She encourages administrators to find ways to bolster school teams to create these welcoming environments for guest staff, including:
Modern absence management tools like Red Rover make it even easier for school staff to prepare their guest staff. The platform’s School Profile and Classroom Profile are the perfect places to load emergency lesson plans, insights about classroom systems and incentives, and other basic info about the campus—such as where to park or how to check in at the front office.
As we see in the survey results, these small gestures can have a huge impact on a substitute’s decision to return to a school.
The final pattern to emerge from our multi-year analysis pertains to communication. Year over year, an average of over 60% of respondents agreed that pre-arranged assignments (direct calls or outreach from teachers) and mobile app notifications are the best ways to hear about available assignments or positions.
In contrast, other methods such as robocalls continue to head towards extinction. The percentage of substitutes who prefer automated phone calls has remained low since 2022 (less than 4%). Additionally, fewer guest staff are turning to their desktop computers to search for gigs, as respondents that prefer this method dropped from 26% to 17% between 2022 and 2024.
Substitute management is clearly becoming more mobile and tech-forward. This pattern points to the increased need for districts to embrace best-in-breed technologies like Red Rover to delight guest staff and streamline this crucial process.
As always, our intent with these substitute surveys is to gather insights that benefit HR administrators and teams collaborating with guest staff. We seek to empower all educators to create a positive teaching experience and improve student outcomes—especially our substitutes!
Here is a summary of key takeaways and actionable next steps that HR leaders can apply within their communities to improve their substitute fill rates: