Re What Happened To All The Teachers?

["Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Chuck McManis <chuck.mcmanis () gmail com>
> Date: August 25, 2017 at 1:25:08 PM EDT
> To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
> Subject: Re: [IP] What Happened To All The Teachers?
>
> For IP if you wish,
>
> I note, sardonically, that no school that has offered $100K a year salary for an elementary or middle school teaching 
> position has ever failed to fill it. There are interesting economic parallels to any market where there are external 
> forces preventing the market from responding to changes in demand.
>
> When I engaged with the Sunnvale public school district, where they asserted that I would need a "court order" to see 
> the 'actuals' in their budgets (what they really spent and on what), we eventually switched to home schooling for the 
> k-8 years and let the kids decide if they wanted to go to high school or community college after that for their 9-12 
> years. The lack of transparency on expenses allows mismanagement to persist.
>
> In Sunnyvale, the school board, the various school administrators, the state, and the teachers Union are all 
> operating at cross purposes. They know it, they accept it as "just the way things are" and it  creates really serious 
> impediments to schools and their mission.
>
> --Chuck
>  
>
> > On Fri, Aug 25, 2017 at 9:18 AM, Dave Farber <farber () gmail com> wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> > Begin forwarded message:
> >
> > > From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
> > > Date: August 25, 2017 at 11:25:02 AM EDT
> > > To: Multiple recipients of Dewayne-Net <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
> > > Subject: [Dewayne-Net] What Happened To All The Teachers?
> > > Reply-To: dewayne-net () warpspeed com
> > >
> > > What Happened To All The Teachers?
> > > By Jeff Bryant
> > > Aug 24 2017
> > > <https://ourfuture.org/20170824/what-happened-to-all-the-teachers>
> > >
> > > A recent headline from CNN that declares “schools throughout the country are grappling with teacher shortages” may 
> > > seem like a rerun to anyone who’s been paying attention to news about public schools over recent years.
> > >
> > > “A perennial issue,” an article in Education Week calls it, and points out most states have had chronic teacher 
> > > shortages “for years, if not decades,” particularly in staffing positions in special education, math, science, and 
> > > foreign-language instruction.
> > >
> > > But this year’s reports of teacher shortages seem different. Indeed, mounting evidence should convince anyone who 
> > > cares that providing students a guaranteed access to highly qualified teachers, no matter where they live – an 
> > > ideal that’s never been a well-kept promise to begin with – is weakening even further.
> > >
> > > CNN reporter Caitlin Ostroff cites evidence of teacher shortages in school districts as diverse as rural Maryland 
> > > and New York City, but the evidence is even more widespread.
> > >
> > > State officials in Colorado are estimating a shortfall of 3,000 teachers statewide this school year.
> > >
> > > In Detroit, a shortage of teachers means classrooms are overcrowded and students won’t have music, art, and gym. 
> > > Looming teacher shortages in New Orleans are forcing the city to think of new and creative ways to hire more than 
> > > 900 teachers annually, until 2020.
> > >
> > > Rural school districts have it particularly tough.
> > >
> > > In a Minnesota small town school district that has struggled with teacher shortages for years, the superintendent 
> > > tells a local reporter about advertising an opening for a fifth-grade teaching position and getting “zero 
> > > applicants. None.”
> > >
> > > A recent news story on teacher shortages in rural Texas schools finds, “Some districts without any takers for open 
> > > jobs have resorted to livestreaming instruction from other schools or having educators teach more than one grade.”
> > >
> > > To make up for the teacher drought, government officials in many places are resorting to drastic measures that 
> > > can’t be good for the quality of instruction in our schools.
> > >
> > > Indiana schools are using substitutes as a solution for its five-year dearth of first-year teachers entering the 
> > > system. In Oklahoma, school districts experiencing years of teacher shortages are resorting to “novice” hires with 
> > > little to no K-12 teaching experience. An investigation by an Arizona news outlet finds that chronic teacher 
> > > shortages in that state have led to districts hiring unqualified, inexperienced staff – as many as 22 percent of 
> > > teachers may now lack qualifications. An Arizona school district cited in the above Education Week article is 
> > > filling in the gaps with parents, much like they’d call for chaperones for a field trip. Utah’s State Board of 
> > > Education has responded to growing teacher shortages by letting schools hire teachers with zero teaching experience 
> > > and no training.
> > >
> > > Causes for these widespread shortages vary. Education Week reporter Madeline Will links Oklahoma’s teacher 
> > > shortfall to the fact the state has “the lowest average teacher pay in the country.”
> > >
> > > Teacher pay is a serious problem for sure. Ostroff quotes from a study that finds, “Salaries for U.S. secondary 
> > > school teachers have largely remained the same over the past two decades.” Stagnant wages are particularly 
> > > detrimental to recruiting math and science teachers because potential employees with these skills can often find 
> > > higher paying work.
> > >
> > > Retaining current teachers is a problem too. Another study Ostroff references notes, “eight percent of teachers 
> > > leave teaching each year, with two-thirds quitting before retirement.”
> > >
> > > That study, published last year by the Learning Policy Institute, provides the most robust analysis to date of 
> > > what’s causing teacher shortages in many places. Among the factors analyzed include teacher working conditions, 
> > > compensation, turnover, preparation and certification, and the attractiveness of the positions that are available.
> > >
> > > [snip]
> > >
> > > Dewayne-Net RSS Feed: http://dewaynenet.wordpress.com/feed/
> > > Twitter: https://twitter.com/wa8dzp
> >
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