Across the country, districts are still struggling to staff classrooms even as budgets tighten and expectations grow. Nearly one in seven teachers moves schools or leaves the profession each year, and roughly 70% of educators report their schools are understaffed (Learning Policy Institute, 2026).
At the same time, hundreds of thousands of teaching positions remain vacant or filled by underqualified staff nationwide. Hiring has become a constant cycle for district leaders, filling positions is only the beginning of building teacher capability for effective instruction.
Districts are also facing growing pressure to justify their investments in technology and instructional programs. Across the country, debates are emerging about limiting or reducing technology use when results are inconsistent or unclear.
When leaders cannot clearly demonstrate impact on learning, confidence erodes and restrictions follow. The most reliable way to protect innovation is not by defending tools, but by ensuring teachers have the knowledge and support to use them effectively.
Asking teachers better questions
One of the most powerful opportunities to strengthen teacher success begins before a teacher ever steps into the classroom, during the hiring process itself.
Interview panels often focus on content knowledge, classroom management, and relationships with students, yet rarely ask candidates to demonstrate how they use technology to support learning or how they adapt when new tools are introduced.
Adding a small set of essential questions about technology and AI literacy and foundational skills can provide leaders with critical insight into a candidates readiness and support needs.
Just as important, those insights can guide the development of structured support plans that help every teacher reach a shared baseline of instructional and digital competence.
Consider adding a few targeted questions to your interview process:
- How do you decide when a digital tool improves learning and when it doesnt?
- How do you support students who struggle to access or use technology?
- What role do you see artificial intelligence playing in teaching and learning?
- Where would you want support as you integrate technology into your classroom?
These conversations help leaders identify strengths, anticipate support needs, and design onboarding that prepares teachers to use technology effectively in the classroom.
When teachers feel supported and equipped to succeed, retention improves and students benefit from more stable and equitable learning environments.
These questions are starting points that help leaders understand strengths and reveal where support is needed. Most importantly, adding these questions during the hiring process sends a clear message that technology isnt an add-on or optional, its part of teaching.
Too often, districts provide the same orientation and training to every new teacher, even though their experience, confidence, and instructional needs vary widely.
Path forward is not complicated
The insights gained during hiring should not end with a selection decision; they should inform a clear support plan for every new teacher. District leaders can use interview responses to identify strengths, anticipate challenges, and design targeted onboarding and professional learning that ensures all teachers reach a shared baseline of technology and AI literacy.
These plans do not need to be complex, but they should be intentional, consistent, and connected to instructional goals. When support is structured from the start, teachers build confidence faster, classrooms become more equitable, and leaders gain clearer evidence of what is working.
Just as we design learning experiences to meet the diverse needs of students, districts can design onboarding and professional learning that responds to the strengths and readiness of each teacher.
What a foundational support plan might include:
- A clear definition of baseline technology and AI competencies expected for all teachers.
- Flexible onboarding that varies support based on experience, confidence, and instructional role.
- Coaching or mentoring during the first semester focused on classroom implementation.
- Opportunities for teachers to reflect on student learning evidence and adjust practice.
- Short, practical professional learning aligned to real classroom needs.
The path forward is not complicated, but it does require intention. By asking better questions during hiring and designing support that responds to teacher needs, districts can build the conditions for success at scale.
In a time of staffing shortages, low teacher retention, and increasing expectations, the most powerful investment leaders can make is not in new tools, but in the capability of the people who use them in the classroom.
Reference:
Learning Policy Institute. (2026). Teacher Turnover in the United States: Patterns, Drivers, and Policy
