More thoughts on the teacher shortage

More thoughts on the teacher shortage

Media has finally caught on to the fact that we have a national teacher shortage. A little (lot) late, but better late than ever. A couple of years ago, USED predicted that there would be a gap of 120K between the supply and demand for teachers by 2025, and between fall of 2020 and spring of 2022, 300K teachers exited the profession. That’s roughly the population of Pittsburg. Moreover, in one year (2020 to  2021), the number of teachers indicating that they are seriously considering leaving the profession nearly doubled (28% to 55%).

There are many reasons for the exodus, as stated by the teachers themselves: stress, being required to do things that have nothing to do with teaching, low pay, lack of appreciation, student behaviors, lack of administrative support, and dealing with difficult parents. The reasons why young people are less and less likely to become teachers are far less obvious, but I am willing to bet that these young people see how teachers have been treated over the past few years, watched what has been on display at school board meetings across the country, and witnessed the inability of our state and federal leadership to prevent school shootings, and choose to head in another direction. Who can blame them? When I got my first “teaching” job in Nyack, New York in 1988 ( I was a 180 day sub, but still a faculty member), I worked with people who had subbed for years waiting for a job to open up. There was a teacher surplus back then, but there were also NO school shootings, much less student assessment (standardized testing), and much greater respect for teachers. There was no such thing as social media, cell phones in schools, email, and voicemail. I don’t know if the additions of these things have made things any better or any worse for teachers, but I suspect they have made things more difficult.

There is really only one intended take away from this blog post. Here it is: there are no simple answers or “silver bullet” solutions to the teacher shortage issue, and if don’t all put our heads together and figure out how to deal with this issue, our students will ultimately pay the price. In fact, they are already.

Remember: there is not a single solution. Look again at the reasons given by teachers for leaving. Those reasons cut across several lanes. Don’t be offended, don’t point fingers, and don’t think that this is someone else’s problem. The problems belongs to all of us.


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