'The teacher shortage is very real and present for us every day'
One teacher speaks with an economist and NEA president Becky Pringle about America's problematic teacher shortage
Warning Bell is a new newsletter focused on the incredible stress being put on the teaching profession, and on teachers themselves. My name is Stephen Noonoo—I’m a longtime education journalist and editor for Edutopia, EdSurge, THE Journal and elsewhere.
If you like this post, please subscribe and recommend this newsletter to others. Thoughts? Suggestions? Reply to this email to reach me. And if you’re a teacher or former teacher with a story to share, I’d love to hear from you. Thanks for reading!
For years, headlines and researchers have warned of a coming teacher shortage that would plunge education into existential chaos.
According to the prediction, current teachers would begin leaving the profession driven by low wages, irritating red tape and poor working conditions, while college students wouldn’t bother training as teachers at all.
Back in 2016, Linda Darling Hamilton’s research group Learning Policy Institute wrote about it in depth, envisioning many of the problems that became impossible to ignore during the pandemic.
Whether or not the worst case scenario has arrived is up for debate (the shortage varies by state and district). But in recent years several LPI predictions have come to pass, including an over-reliance on under-credentialed teachers and, in places where the shortage is particularly acute, students who spend hours in auditoriums and gyms receiving little to no instruction because no one is there to teach them.
Perhaps it’s enough to know that influential (though left-leaning) groups from the Economic Policy Institute to the country’s largest union, the National Education Association, now take the teacher shortage for granted.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics does too. According to federal jobs data, local education payrolls, which include teachers and other workers like bus drivers, are down 3%—or 247,000 jobs—compared with pre-Covid levels.
That would be bad by itself, but it’s worse when you consider there are around 300,000 job vacancies nationwide in public education. One economist told Bloomberg the staggering loss of jobs is largely down to underpaid, burned out workers leaving for private sector gigs.
Last weekend, NEA president Becky Pringle joined EPI president Heidi Shierholz to talk about the teacher shortage at a panel hosted by the Education Writers Association (and sponsored by NEA), which I attended.
For Pringle, the shortage is simply the predictable result of decades of inaction, particularly in regard to the new teacher pipeline. “When we talk about the impact of students making the choice not to go into education for two-and-a-half decades, here we are,” she said. “And when you have students who do make that choice, they are saddled with overwhelming student debt.”
The reality, she added, is that teacher shortages hit under-resourced schools the hardest, particularly ones that serve students of color. The result is a vicious cycle. By the time they reach college, potential teachers who endured under-funded schools plagued by teacher shortages when they were kids don’t see a future for themselves in education. And really, who can blame them?
Those who do make it into the classroom are apt to burn out quickly. Here’s how she put it:
When we have those [unequal] systems that are impacting our education system, we’re going to have more teachers of color who are making the choice to leave our profession, because that’s where they teach.
The challenges they face are huge. The gaps they have to stand in are increasing. The reality is that they come into the profession too often from families that have gone through decades of poverty. They can’t afford to stay and raise their families or buy a house. And so when we think about educators shortage, we have to think about it from that interconnected place.
To the surprise of absolutely no one, pay is a big part of it. Heidi Shierholz, the EPI economist, noted the teacher pay penalty continues to grow, putting an even larger gap between teachers and other working professionals. In 1996, teachers made about 6 percent less than similarly educated workers in other fields. That’s unfortunate, but perhaps not dire. Today the pay penalty stands at a whopping 23.5 percent.
Last year an EPI report broke down exactly what that looks like in dollars (emphasis mine).
The average weekly wages of public school teachers (adjusted only for inflation) increased just $29 from 1996 to 2021, from $1,319 to $1,348 (in 2021 dollars). In contrast, inflation-adjusted weekly wages of other college graduates rose from $1,564 to $2,009 over the same period—a $445 increase.
“I feel like sometimes in [the press] you just see them not really digging in on pay and instead looking for some other reason that may be causing the shortage,” Shierholz said. “Even though it maybe seems run of the mill, it is what it is.”
There were a handful of suggestions for improving things bandied about during the panel, including a greater focus on community schools, which send strong signals to teachers through a focus on wraparound supports and social services. Fitting for an NEA session, there was plenty of talk on the power of collective bargaining. And Pringle called out North Carolina’s Teacher Cadet program that recruits and mentors teacher candidates from under-represented backgrounds starting in high school—and which has a solid track record when it comes to retention.
The panel also featured a middle school teacher, Carol Cleaver, who in her own teacher-like way lightly pushed back on Shierholz’s assertion that pay was single-handedly driving the shortage. Cleaver took turns bemoaning the state of education funding in Florida, where she lives, as well as the state’s voucher system that leeches money from public schools. And of course she reserved special ire for the culture war backlash that’s eating up more of her time these days.
Of the panelists, Cleaver’s in the best position to witness the impact of the teacher and substitute shortage—and she came with receipts. A coworkers daughter was recently taught high school chemistry by a rotating cast of substitutes. She’s had to crowd more than 40 students into her classroom by lining up barstools in the back. And she’s seen whole classes of kids sit in the gym for hours being babysat by subs or admins because there aren’t enough teachers.
Worst of all, she doesn’t see things getting better any time soon.
“I’m very flummoxed why parents are not standing up and outraged about something like this—versus things like banning books and playing culture wars,” she said. “The teacher shortage is very real and and present for us every day.”
👁👄👁 Show & Tell
Source: Twitter
🎒 Extra Curriculars
ISTE is taking place in Philadelphia at the end of this month (June 25-28). I’ll be there and will share more thoughts about the event as it gets closer. I anticipate it will be very AI-heavy because that’s what people will be expecting, and ISTE loves to hype up new edtech while covering its bases by urging an appropriate amount of caution and responsible pedagogy. Should be a blast.
📚 Independent Reading
For now, teachers will be the only Texas state employees to not receive raises this year. The legislature killed the bill after squabbling over school vouchers, which Democrats and rural Republicans both oppose. (It may happen later at a special session). Instead, they passed bills aimed at putting armed guards in every campus, banning “sexually explicit books in libraries” and boosting teacher residency programs. (Texas Tribune)
To get teachers to stay, schools should show them what they can offer in terms of mentorship and support. If nothing else, there are a few practical takeaways for schools here. (EdWeek)
A novel way to get teachers from underrepresented backgrounds into the profession: pay them. Student teaching is still largely underpaid, but a handful of teacher prep programs are taking (modest) steps to change that. Think: $20/hour for tutoring, stipends for residency programs. Better than nothing, I guess. (EdSurge)
“Recent studies find little evidence that school vouchers improve test scores—in fact, they’ve sometimes led to score declines,” Chalkbeat says. Research into a number of factors is more favorable when it comes to targeted voucher programs versus larger scale rollouts. (Chalkbeat)
That’s all I got. Until next time.