Posts Tagged ‘shortage’

In the States: Ohio Stakeholders Address Critical Shortage of Educators, Update on Local Politics

The new “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.

recent Enquirer analysis of state data found educator resignations in Ohio nearly quadruped from 2019 to 2021, in addition to there being five times as many retirements. State and local education leaders met to address the teacher shortage crisis late last month during a series of solutions-centered meetings.

The first event, hosted by Miami University, took place at the Voice of America Learning Center in West Chester Township. University leaders and officials from the Ohio Department of Education and the Ohio Department of Higher Education were in attendance along with 100 additional stakeholders in education, business, and government.

In One Giant classroom, Four Teachers Manage 135 Kids – and Love It

This story was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education.

A teacher in training darted among students, tallying how many needed his help with a history unit on Islam. A veteran math teacher hovered near a cluster of desks, coaching some 50 freshmen on a geometry assignment. A science teacher checked students’ homework, while an English teacher spoke loudly into a microphone at the front of the classroom, giving instruction, to keep students on track.

One hundred thirty-five students, four teachers, one giant classroom: This is what ninth grade looks like at Westwood High School, in Mesa, Arizona’s largest school system. There, an innovative teaching model has taken hold, and is spreading to other schools in the district and beyond.

Opinion: Problems with the ‘Teacher Pipeline’ — An Unfit Analogy for Finding (and Fostering) Future Educators 

“Teacher Pipeline” is a common term used to encompass issues of teacher recruitment, preparation, and retention. The phrase is not new, popular in seasons of dire teacher shortages —from the 1980s (AACTE, 1988; Ekstrom & Goertz, 1985) to our present age (Choate, Goldhaber, & Theobald, 2020; Goldhaber & Mizrav, 2021; Kyser et al., 2021).  

 A “Teacher Pipeline” evokes vivid imagery: supply and demand, staff shortages akin to an energy crisis, and an impetus to extract and extrude future educators. To wit, the pipeline analogy lends itself to further symbolism such as “refueling” (Goldhaber et al., 2015/6); “widening” (Gagnon et al., 2019), “excavating” (Goldhaber & Cowan, 2014); and dealing with numerous “breaks,” “holes,” or “leaks” (Barth et al., 2016; Shah et al., 2018; Stohr, Fontana, & Lapp, 2018; TNTP, 2020). 

Important Work Continues While Congress on Recess

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.

Department of Education logoWe have finally made it to mid-term election week. Congress remains on recess until after the elections, but important work continues. It is my hope that by the end of the week we will have the complete results of the mid-term elections and I will provide an analysis on the makeup of the 118th Congress in our next Washington Update.

Innovative Tennessee Teacher Prep Program Aims to Prepare a New Breed of Educators

This article originally appeared on reimaginED, the policy and public affairs communications platform for Step Up For Students and is reprinted with permission.

The Early Learning Residency Program at Austin Peay University proved to be what recent graduate Malachi Johnson was looking for: a college education and a guaranteed job.

In her 20s, Heather Fracker set her sights on becoming a respiratory therapist. But as John Lennon observed, “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.”

Fast forward two decades, and Fracker, a 43-year-old single mom to two middle schoolers, is pursuing a new dream. In two years, she will be a fully credentialed elementary school teacher thanks to an accelerated program that began in her hometown.

FutureEd Releases Findings on Pandemic Spending Impact on Educators

Teacher shortages dominated education headlines during the summer. The billions of dollars of federal pandemic-relief money states and school districts are pouring into the teaching force—and the funding’s substantial consequences for longstanding policies and practices in the more-than-three-million-member profession—have received far less attention.

In the States: Facing the Teacher Shortage

The new “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.

Fairfax County Considering Recruiting Teachers From Barbados to Address Shortage

This week, leaders in Virginia’s largest school system, Fairfax County Public Schools, announced they are working with Barbados Ministry of Education to explore the possibility of recruiting teachers from Barbados to address its staffing shortage. Interested candidates would be required to have a Virginia Department of Education-approved degree and course transcripts. They will also have to qualify for one of the state’s alternative routes to getting a license, and would have to apply for an official statement of eligibility document from the state before applying for jobs in the county.

SVSU Sees Teacher Certification Enrollment Growth and Student Achievement

Saginaw Valley State University is seeing gains in the number of students pursuing teacher certification at the university for the fall 2022 semester.  In addition, SVSU’s award-winning residence halls are completely filled, as student interest in living on campus has rebounded.

SVSU has 146 students pursuing teacher certification, up from 126 last year, including 23 new students who are employees of Saginaw Public Schools and enrolled through a new partnership between SVSU and the school district. All of these students have previously completed bachelor’s degrees and want to become certified teachers.

Call for Manuscripts: The Teacher Educators’ Journal

The Teacher Educators’ Journal (TTEJ) is published by the Virginia Association of Colleges and Teacher Educators (VACTE), a state unit of the Association of Teacher Educators (ATE) and the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE). The journal aims to stimulate discussion and reflection about issues related to teacher education; authors need not be based in and research need not be conducted in Virginia for manuscripts to be considered for publication. Manuscripts submitted for consideration may be research/empirical reports and analyses, position papers, book reviews, or conceptual essays.

To facilitate collaboration amongst teacher education scholars and practitioners and improve teaching, research, and student learning, the Fall 2023 special issue of the journal will call on authors to address two related sub-themes in two distinct sections.

  • Section I: The sub-theme for this section is “Opportunity Gaps and Collaborative Inquiry: Structures, Explorations, and Early Outcomes of the ATE Inquiry Initiative.”
  • Section II: The sub-theme for this section is “From Policy to Practice: Striving for Inclusive Excellence through Personal Reflection, Connectivity, and the Building of Support Systems for Leaders, Educators, Students, and Families.”

A ‘National Teacher Shortage’? New Research Reveals Vastly Different Realities Between States and Regions

First national comparison of unfilled, full-time teacher roles shows that nine states are experiencing high vacancy rates

This story was produced by The 74, a non-profit, independent news organization focused on education in America.

A new report casts doubt on the narrative of a widespread “national teacher shortage,” finding instead that thousands of vacancies appear to be localized so far in nine states across the country. 

Mapping the vacancies nationally, a recently published working paper and website crafted by three education researchers offers the latest, though incomplete, snapshot of reported teacher shortages.

Pinning Hopes on Future Educators

Colleges of education hope that celebrating teaching candidates with pinning ceremonies will help validate their decision to enter an increasingly demanding field.

This article originally appeared on Inside Higher Ed.

Savannah O’Connor, a junior in Rowan University’s College of Education, doesn’t have much free time. She balances her regular classwork with weekly classroom observations, all while studying for the challenging Praxis Subject Tests, which she must pass to become a certified teacher.

College of Education Receives $9.6 million Federal Grant to Diversify Teaching Workforce

Mercer University’s Tift College of Education will partner with five local school districts on a three-year, $9.6 million U.S. Department of Education grant project aimed at strengthening the teacher pipeline in order to increase and diversify the teaching workforce.

The award is the largest federal grant in the history of the College of Education, which was formed by the merger of Tift College with Mercer in 1986 and is the largest private preparer of teachers and other educators in Georgia.

NCES Releases Alarming Data on School Staffing

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.

Department of Education logoOn Friday, Congress passed a short-term spending measure that keeps the government funded at its current levels through December 16 and averts a government shutdown. Now is the time to flex your advocacy muscles — tell your story and encourage your Members of Congress to advocate for and support the highest possible investments in the educator workforce and pipeline in the final FY23 spending bill.

In the States: Spotlight on Discriminatory Practices and Teacher Shortage

The new “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.

Arizona: Peoria Unified School District to Remedy Discriminatory Harassment of Students

This week, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced the resolution of a complaint of racial harassment filed against Peoria Unified School District in Arizona. Following an investigation, OCR determined that the district failed to address harassment of students on the basis of race, color, and national origin, in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and its implementing regulations.