Posts Tagged ‘shortage’

Offering Hope for Teacher Shortage

This article was originally published by Altoona Mirror and is reprinted with permission.

Pennsylvania’s children — many of whom face academic and social-emotional challenges — deserve high-quality, well-prepared teachers, but due to teacher shortages many school districts are struggling to hire and retain well-qualified candidates.

The teacher shortage is real and alarming, but there is hope.

The shortage has been building for many years.

Since 2010, new in-state teacher certifications have decreased by nearly 70% to record low levels. In response, the state has issued more emergency teaching permits than new certificates.

T.L.L. Temple Foundation and Texas Pioneer Foundation Co-Fund Grant to Texas A & M University – Texarkana

This article was originally published by TXK Today.

The T.L.L. Temple Foundation (TLLTF) and the Texas Pioneer Foundation recently awarded a five-year $1,137,835 grant to Texas A&M University – Texarkana (TAMUT) to work on building a teacher pipeline to help address the teacher shortage, a high concern shared by school leaders across the country. While many universities talk about high school recruitment to their teacher program, TAMUT is working to develop the teacher talent pipeline as early as 3rd grade and continuing all the way through earning a college credential or degree. “Effective teachers are critical to ensuring that young people learn,” said Wynn Rosser, TLLTF’s president and chief executive officer. “We need more effective teachers, and this approach is exciting because Texarkana-area youth will be prepared to give back to their community while entering a profession with career potential.”

A New Feature of Teacher Prep Programs? Compensating Future Educators for Their Time

A student is honored at the May 2023 graduation reception for the Dallas College School of Education.

This article was originally published by EdSurge

The request came from the students.

Those who were enrolled in — or considering enrolling in — American University’s School of Education said they wanted more classroom experience and more opportunities to practice their craft before being released to do it alone every day to a room full of kids.

Wish granted. Today, and for the last year or so, aspiring educators at American University are required to spend a minimum of 40 hours tutoring students in Washington, D.C. public schools, in addition to completing the long-standing requirement of student teaching for a semester.

“We see now, as students are entering student teaching with this additional experience tutoring, how much stronger they are and how much more prepared they are,” says Ocheze Joseph, director of undergraduate teacher education at the university. “They’re more comfortable in the classroom, more familiar.”

And these students aren’t just getting relevant teaching experience. They’re also getting paid.

STEM, Early Childhood Programs Expand with New Route to Teacher Certification

Beginning this summer, the University of Kentucky College of Education is expanding options for those who want to change careers to teach in the fields of science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM) and early childhood. 

The Kentucky Professional Education Standards Board’s university-based alternative pathway to certification, known as Option 6, allows qualified teacher candidates to work in a full-time teaching position within a Kentucky school while enrolled in a participating teacher preparation program. Through this option, teacher candidates obtain a temporary provisional certificate valid for one year. The provisional certificate must be renewed each year, up to a total of five years. Upon successful completion of the program, graduates are eligible to apply for a Kentucky teaching certificate. 

AASPA Seeks ‘Promising Practices’ for Addressing the Educator Shortage

We know the educator shortage is a national crisis. To promote conversations across traditional silos, the American Association of School Personnel Administrators (AASPA) convened PK-20 stakeholders, including AACTE, to discuss educator workforce and pipeline shortages at the annual National Educator Shortage Summit. The results of this gathering are represented in a whitepaper entitled 5 Shifts for Addressing the Educators Shortage.

This white paper moves beyond surface-level responses to examine deeper, systemic issues that contribute to mismatches between educator supply and demand. Five comprehensive shifts are presented in contrast to traditional calls to action. A discussion of each shift contains high-level recommendations, along with examples of actions that different stakeholder groups can take to address the educator shortage.

How Will Proposed House Debt Limit Bill Impact Pennsylvania Students?

The “In the States” feature by Kaitlyn Brennan is a weekly update to keep members informed on state-level activities impacting the education and educator preparation community.

For the first time in Pennsylvania’s history, the number of emergency teaching certifications issued across the state outpaced the number of newly fully certified teachers entering the field. The shift comes as the Commonwealth faces its most significant staffing challenges in well over a decade. During the 2021-22 school year, 6,366 people received emergency permits — compared to 4,220 students who received teaching certificates. According to the Pennsylvania Department of Education, more than 15,000 in-state certifications were issued during the 2010-11 school year. By 2021-22, that number dropped to more than 4,200 — a decrease of 10,800 certifications. As you may recall, those prepared through alternate pathways that require less coursework and student teaching experiences are 25% more likely to leave their teaching positions and the profession than those who are well prepared.

Washington Week Speaker Spotlight: What Has California Done to Address the Teacher Shortage and Why it Worked?

A Q&A with Susan Kemper Patrick and Karen Escalante

Susan Kemper Patrick Ph.D. and Karen Escalante, Ed.D. are presenting a session at AACTE’s 2023 Washington Week, June 4-7, “An Increased Number of Teachers?! What Has California Done to Address the Teacher Shortage and Why has it Worked?” Below Patrick and Escalante answer a few questions about the topics they will discuss at the session and tools attendees can take back to their organizations.

MTSU’s College of Education ‘Optimizes’ Math Literacy Teacher Training for MCS Educators

MTSU’s College of Education continues to strengthen its relationship with Murfreesboro City Schools, this time through math literacy training for K-5 teachers who will return to their district and share their new knowledge with teacher colleagues. 

“We love the teachers teaching teachers model,” said Katie Schrodt, assistant professor of education and one of three faculty running the professional development. “Teachers want to hear from other teachers like them who are in the classroom, so it’s a really effective professional development model.”

NSU Partners with Department of Education to Offer Teacher Apprenticeship Pathway

Northern State University is helping South Dakota solve the teacher shortage by creating a flexible, low-cost pathway for educational assistants (para-educators) who are working in schools to become teachers.

The South Dakota Department of Education opened applications for the Teacher Apprenticeship Pathway to thousands of para-educators working in accredited school districts across the state. The program will help para-educators pursue certification to become licensed teachers.

In the States: Arizona School District Uses Housing Project to Attract Teacher

The “In the States” feature by Kaitlyn Brennan is a weekly update to keep members informed on state-level activities impacting the education and educator preparation community.

As school districts across the nation struggle to find qualified educators to fill classroom vacancies,  one Arizona school district will utilize an unconventional recruitment tool: tiny houses. As reported by CNN, the Chino Valley Unified School District is using federal money to build 10 studio units, each 400 square feet, on a vacant lot behind an elementary school, where teachers will pay roughly $550 per month in rent — well below the market rate for the area.

Cardona Urges Lawmakers to Support Department of Education’s FY24 Budget Request Amidst Proposed Debt Limit Bill

This weekly Washington Update is intended to keep members informed on Capitol Hill activities impacting the educator preparation community. The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of AACTE.

To say it was a busy week following the spring recess would be an understatement. The House Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee held their Budget Hearing on the FY24 request for the Department of Education, Speaker McCarthy released his Debt Limit Proposal calling for a roll back to the FY22 funding levels — a nearly 22% cut in funding to non-defense discretionary programs, House Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education held a hearing on school choice and vouchers, and the house passed a GOP-led bill that would ban transgender athletes from women’s and girls’ sports at federally funded schools and educational institutions.

I cannot overstate this — now is the time to get to the table. We need you to help lawmakers understand what these proposed cuts could mean for education. Stay tuned for more direct next steps, but in the meantime don’t forget to respond to action alerts  and to follow up with Member offices who you have relationships with.

Illinois State Receives $800,000 IBHE Grant to Support Teacher Education

Illinois State University was awarded a grant of more than $800,000 by the Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE) to support the ongoing education of early childhood teachers.  

The funds are part of the $3.37 million awarded in IBHE Early Childhood Faculty Preparation Grants. “The grants will help increase the diversity of faculty in early childhood education in Illinois at a time of great need by expanding the educational pipelines for aspiring early childhood faculty,” said IBHE Executive Director Ginger Ostro, in a news release from the Governor’s Office.

States See Uptick in IHE Faculty and Staff Strikes

The “In the States” feature by Kaitlyn Brennan is a weekly update to keep members informed on state-level activities impacting the education and educator preparation community.

On Monday, employees at Rutgers University went on strike for the first time in the institution’s nearly 260-year-old history. As reported by Politico, three unions — AAUP-AFT, Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union, and AAUP-BHSNJ — which collectively represent 9,000 workers are striking after working without a new contract since last summer. In a statement, Todd Wolfson, general vice president of Rutgers AAUP-AFT said: “The strikes that are happening right here in New Jersey and in other parts of the country right now are building on a historic strike wave in higher education.”

In the last year there has been an uptick in the number of faculty and staff from institutions of higher education who have gone on strike. Generally, the move comes following a breakdown in contract negotiations over low wagers and poor benefits. Just in November, there was a historic strike at the University of California with 48,000 employees taking to the picket line, in Philadelphia hundreds of graduate students at Temple University walked off the job to fight for a living wage.

In addition to low wages and poor benefits, educational gag orders are targeting higher education more frequently. According to PEN America, in 2022, 39% of legislation introduced across the United States targeted higher education as compared to 30% in 2021. In several states, including Florida, South Dakota, Mississippi, and Tennessee these bills have been signed into law.

Project Impact Focuses on Increasing the Number of Minority Male Teachers

Students participating in the Project Impact program during an event in May 2022 at the James R. Watson and Judy Rodriguez Watson College of Education.

The goal of California State University, San Bernardino’s Project Impact, a community outreach initiative of the James R. Watson and Judy Rodriguez Watson College of Education, is direct: Help close the academic achievement gaps in the state’s K-12 schools, which will ultimately pay dividends in the classroom and its students through the recruitment, training and deployment of minority male teachers into California’s classrooms.

Project Impact was a vision that Watson College of Education Dean Chinaka DomNwachukwu brought with him when he came to CSUSB. It was born out of his own educational journey as a public school teacher in East Los Angeles in the 1990s. He knew firsthand how it felt to be the only Black male teacher on campus at the K-12 schools where he worked.