Ensuring the Future
A New Pipeline for Preparing Teachers Must Be a Top Priority
By Hans Andrews and Greg RockholdJournal | May/June 2024
We cannot deny that we have fallen short in our responsibility to prepare the next generation of young minds in the United States and the world. This is a staggering number of projected teacher shortages: 225,000 in the U.S. by 2025. We must wonder why a country and its educational and political leaders have not yet crafted new ways to overcome this crisis. It has been brewing now for over a decade.
Unlike the Boy Scouts of America motto of “Be Prepared,” the educational systems in the U.S. and many other countries appear to have been anything but prepared. Being prepared for this teacher shortage crisis would not have allowed it to reach the crisis level. “Being prepared” must become the way to get into high gear, even though it is now late in the game.
It is disheartening to see that over an 8- to 10-year awareness period, adequate measures have not yet been taken to prevent or mitigate this crisis into the future. Lee Perlis found some 56% of parents in the U.S. seriously worried that far too many teachers are still in the system and are too burned out to be as effective as needed. He also found that 65% of parents felt uncomfortable that their school districts would open in 2023-2024 with a shortage of qualified teachers.
Illinois Teacher Shortage Update
In its sixth annual survey of teacher shortages in Illinois schools, the Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools (IARSS) published the following:
- 73% of schools indicated they had teacher shortages
- 93% said the shortages were as bad or worse than the previous year
- 95% reported shortages in substitute teachers
- 2,728 teacher, special education, and support staff positions were reported as vacant or filled with persons less than qualified
- Many applying for their open positions were not qualified
The U.S. National Crisis Continues
The once reliable university pipeline of educating future teachers in the U.S. has declined by 50% in the last decade. From 2010 to 2019, 340,000 fewer students were preparing to become teachers.
A 50% decline is documented in nine states: Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Ohio, New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and California. Oklahoma reported that the University of Central Oklahoma teacher preparation enrollments had dropped from 1,800 to 856 in seven years.
Montana is concerned when it sees far too many teachers leaving early in their careers. Reports from Montana schools have found that 86% of students preparing to become teachers do not enter the profession, or leave the state. Montana entered the new school year over 1,000 teachers short.
How are they presently coping in Montana? A report by Nicole Girten in The 74 shows that the emergency authorization needed through the state’s Office of Emergency Authorization of Employment has allowed a doubling of emergency authorizations by 90% over two years. As with most other states, Montana has found the present solution is to hire more paraprofessionals.
In New Mexico, over 104,000 students did not have a licensed teacher over the last seven years.
Diversity also continues to decline. Studies have found that 15,000 fewer Black students enrolled in teacher preparation programs in 2018 compared to 2010. Latino and Black student enrollments in these programs stood at 9% and 7%, respectively.
Innovative Solutions
The idea that countries with severe teacher shortages need to “innovate” new solutions is widespread. We have pushed the past couple of years to leverage the 1,200 community and technical colleges as a new pipeline source for teachers in the U.S. It is now at the time when decisive action needs to be taken. Florida was the first state to pass legislation for its state community colleges to offer baccalaureate degrees in the education areas most in need. Illinois has 50 community college campuses that could provide a significant new pipeline for the state.
Some school districts and states have started “grow your own” programs to seek out young persons in their schools to consider teaching as a career. These programs will take several years for future teachers to enter the field.
In a few states, laws have changed, and they are now enticing recently retired teachers to return. Their former teachers will not have any decrease in their retirement pay, as was the case previously.
Preparing For Attracting, Educating, And Retaining Teachers
There are numerous reasons teachers are leaving the field in large numbers across the U.S. and other countries.
Low pay comes out on top or near the top in every survey in recent years as to why teachers are considering leaving. It is also a significant concern for students when considering teaching as a career choice. In recent years, the lack of support from many school administrators, school boards, and parents is also a concern for teachers.
Brad Johnson’s “Hierarchy of Needs for Teachers” highlights what he has found as most important for teachers: (1) autonomy, (2) maximizing potential, (3) being valued and respected, (4) being appreciated, and (5) having adequate resources and time, and (6) work and life balance. How do these play out for teachers today?
Recognition and being respected – School districts that provide a recognition program for their excellent teachers should be better able to attract teachers. The Gordon Beck survey of over 23,500 teachers found over 50% of the respondents reported that there was not any form of teacher recognition in their schools.
Having adequate resources and recovery time – Another prevalent concern mentioned by teachers leaving the profession is the lack of administrative support. Some teachers report that they still spend their own funds to purchase supplies needed for their students. Far too much emphasis on high-stakes testing has replaced far too much instruction time. This has eroded much of the support teachers had given each other as now they are put into a competitive position with the other teachers.
Overloading present teachers – With the large number of teacher shortages, burnout becomes a significant problem for those teachers who now have to take on one or two more classes daily.
Work and life balance – Teaching with an average teaching load is stressful in and of itself. Being assigned an extra teaching load takes away recovery time after school and on weekends.
Into the Future
University teacher preparation pipelines have fallen short. The universities can no longer draw enough students to their teacher preparation programs to meet the present and projected teacher shortages. Secondly, they do not enroll the number of diverse students needed by school districts within the inner cities or throughout the rural areas.
The time to leverage community colleges is now. Community colleges already have many students with diverse backgrounds in two-year associate degree pipelines. In addition, community colleges are already partners with almost every secondary school district in Illinois and throughout the U.S. with dual-credit programs.
In short, the schools needing teachers would only have a two or three-year waiting period for many of these students to obtain a baccalaureate degree in teaching. Many students in secondary schools who are enrolled in community college dual-credit programs end their high school years with one or two years of college coursework completed.
Many potential adult students live in communities and may have jobs and family commitments. This makes it a much better possibility that they would remain in their home area school districts and find their teaching positions there. The needs that Johnson presented in his Hierarchy of Needs will also have to see much more effort by school districts in the U.S. and other countries to meet these needs.
Each of the other countries mentioned needs to consider what may best serve as new pipelines in their countries. The teacher shortages provide the same challenge worldwide, and developing new teacher preparation pipelines needs strong consideration.
The approaches outlined here in addressing the teacher shortages are both common sense and necessary. The severity of the teacher shortages will continue without addressing these needs now and continuing into the future.
Hans Andrews, Ph.D., is a Distinguished Fellow in Community College Leadership through Olney Central College (Illinois). He is a former president of the college and he started the first dual-credit program in the country between community colleges and secondary schools. Greg Rockhold, Ph.D., is a former superintendent of schools and has served on the National Association of Secondary School Principals board, as former president of the New Mexico Coalition of School Administrators, and as executive director of the New Mexico Association of Secondary School Principals.