Number of Teacher Vacancies per 10,000 Students

Comparing states based on their raw number of teacher vacancies can be deceiving. A state like Florida might have a larger total number of vacancies (3,900 unfilled positions) than Mississippi (3,000 vacancies), but it also has a lot more students (2.8 million to Mississippi's 443,000 students). Comparing states using a ratio that equalizes their student populations gives a truer look at how deeply they are impacted by vacancies in their teacher workforce.