Educational Issues

» Irene Taylor - Teacher Shortages

Hi Barb,

Excellent piece on the reasons we're facing a teacher shortage!

Just yesterday I got a retirement notice in the mail from the school I taught at for 25 years. It listed four retirees!! That is unprecedented, but a sign of the times for sure. I taught in a small school, and one or two retirees each year was all we ever had - none some years! When I retired a few years ago, I was alone. So to hear of four retirees all at once was really a jolt.

Your reasons for why we are facing this shortage are telling - maybe "education" needs to do more to make teaching a desired profession!

Thanks for the great article!

Irene

Permalink Print Discussion Email Discussion How to subscribe to feeds

» Lynn1969 - Teacher shortage?

A lot of the research I've seen recently, and granted its been focused specifically on Texas and the southwest, is not so much that we have a shortage of trained/certified teachers--its that we have a shortage of persons who are trained/certified as teachers that want to work as teachers. Which, I believe, is an entirely different animal.

-- posted by Lynn1969

Permalink Print Discussion Email Discussion How to subscribe to feeds

» Barbara Pytel - Teacher shortage?

In response to Teacher shortage? posted by Lynn1969:

We seem to be seeing both in Iowa. Fewer getting their teaching degrees in shortage fields and fewer willing to work as teachers once certified. Of course, it doesn't help that we are surrounded by states that are paying teachers significantly more in addition to a sign on bonus, higher compensation for a Master's, and less paperwork/accountability. Iowa just gave the teachers the biggest raise in many years. The bad news, so did other states.

Permalink Print Discussion Email Discussion How to subscribe to feeds

» Lynn1969 - Teacher Shortage Looming

Lisa Lambert (Reuters) wrote a story earlier this month concerning the results of a national study of teachers. See Half of New Teachers Quit within 5 Years.

-- posted by Lynn1969

Permalink Print Discussion Email Discussion How to subscribe to feeds

» Barbara Pytel - Teacher Shortage Looming

In response to Teacher Shortage Looming posted by Lynn1969:

That is so true. My sister works for a major insurance company and half or more of the supervisors are former teachers. It is hard to find one that has taught 10 years. Average years of teaching seems to be about 7. Many teachers state that lack of support from administration and unreasonable parents are as much of an issue (if not more) than the students. The paperwork is so huge now that it is interferring with teaching. Education needs to be restructured.

Permalink Print Discussion Email Discussion How to subscribe to feeds

» Granan1 - Teacher shortage

I return to work tomorrow in NC. I am a semi-retired teacher who now works part-time in an alternative high school. Half of the staff members there are retirees who have come back to work because they want to stay involved, have the expertise to make the program work, and have been respected enough by the school system to be allowed to develop a program where they can use their talents working to reach at-risk students. In over 30 years of teaching, this is the one situation I would return to. We working retirees agree that we can continue to teach as long as the bureaucracy stays out of our hair and lets us do what we know how to do. When the hassle that we've experienced in other school settings begins, we're gone. We don't have to stay. Perhaps that's the way many teachers - retired or not - are feeling. When school buildings are dumps that no business would use as an office, rules and paper work usurp more time than is actually spent teaching students, and the public blames the educational system for everything that's wrong - in addition to the low pay - why should people stay in the education field. My son trained to be a teacher but managed a restaurant the first few years out of college and made more money. Also, he was his own boss and had the respect of the restaurant's owner.

When America wakes up and shows by its actions that this country truly values education and has respect for teachers, perhaps more people will enter teaching and stay in it.

-- posted by Granan1

Permalink Print Discussion Email Discussion How to subscribe to feeds

» Barbara Pytel - Teacher shortage

In response to Teacher shortage posted by Granan1:
I am in total agreement. Iowa just fell to 47th for pay in the U.S. but yet has more hoops for teachers to jump through than just about any other state. Oprah lists Iowa in the top 5 for education but the teachers are not treated with the respect they deserve. What a shock that teachers are graduating from Iowa colleges and going to other states. Our state legislature doesn't want to pay teachers more without adding more to the work load or adding more days. High schools are now faced with the problem of advertising for an opening and not one teacher applies. What is an administrator to do? Unfortunately, legislatures do not respond to warnings. They prefer a crises.

Permalink Print Discussion Email Discussion How to subscribe to feeds