Think of your most-liked teacher from elementary, middle or high school. What made that teacher your favorite? Perhaps that teacher saw something in you that you had not seen in yourself. Maybe that teacher helped you choose a path in life or encouraged you to develop new skills that served you well.
Maybe that teacher changed your life.
Now imagine your life without that teacher. Imagine if students in our public schools didn’t have teachers who impacted their lives in the same way that teacher impacted yours?
Virginia is experiencing a crisis with teacher vacancies. State (Centegix.com Blog February 15, 2023) data show that 10,900 teachers left the workforce before the 2022-23 school year, while only 7,208 teachers with first-time licenses were hired. Simply stated, there is a disturbing shortage of qualified and licensed teachers in the Commonwealth.
The causes of this shortage are alarming. The Learning Policy Institute, a Palo Alto, California-based nonprofit, cites six reasons why teachers leave the profession: inadequate preparation, lack of support for new teachers, challenging working conditions, dissatisfaction with compensation, better career opportunities, and personal reasons such as pregnancy and child care. Departures are increasing with negative impact on our children and their learning.
Teacher vacancies connect directly to fewer college students entering the teaching profession. Across the nation and in Virginia, the number of college students preparing for teaching careers is declining. According to the Washington, D.C.-based National Council on Teacher Quality, “Enrollment in teacher preparation programs in 2021 is 70% of what it was 10 years earlier.”
In any other profession, a 30% decline in people preparing for the profession would set off blaring alarms. We would consider a 30% decline in doctors entering the medical field, for example, a crisis in need of immediate and aggressive action.
The crisis is evident at the national, state and local levels and is reminiscent of the fable about the frog placed in a pot of lukewarm water that gradually heats to boiling. By the time the frog notices the temperature change, it is too late for the frog to jump out, and it is boiled alive. As trends in teacher vacancies, teacher attrition and declining enrollment in teacher preparation programs continue, a boiling point is inevitable.
And our children and their learning will bear the brunt of the problem.
What can be done to address the increase in teacher attrition with fewer replacements to fill the ranks of the “profession that teaches all the other professions?” While the trends and patterns are disturbing, there is a silver lining. There are school districts and individual schools that have been successful in attracting and retaining teachers. Their efforts can be examples for others. We can also pinpoint the areas where the crisis is most severe, enabling us to focus our efforts. Finding STEM and special education teachers in rural and urban schools presents the greatest challenge for filling vacancies with highly qualified teachers.
There is ample cause for hope if we mobilize to address this quiet crisis.
How can we mobilize?
Student learning improves when we can attract and retain the great teachers. Student learning diminishes when there are insufficient teacher candidates who are professionally prepared and qualified. Here are examples of steps we can take to address our crisis.
- Communities, foundations and colleges can develop scholarships earmarked for teachers of color, STEM educators or those serving high-poverty schools, for example.
- Supportive administrators make a difference. Teachers need administrators who have their backs when the teachers are doing the right things with students.
- Supportive parents who trust and believe in teachers must speak out. Their voices can be louder than chronic critics of teachers.
- Parents, fellow teachers and administrators can all call attention to excellent work being done by teachers. There are countless examples of good things happening in classrooms across the region. Publicly calling out the good actions of teachers will help restore interest and prestige for the profession.
- Sharing best practices in programming and adapting them can go a long way toward addressing teacher vacancy issues in ways that are sustainable. The BONDS program in Roanoke City Public Schools has effectively changed the patterns of teachers of color retention. The performance results are impressive with 100% teacher retention in some years. The Wise, Virginia-based Comprehensive Instructional Program is doing great work to identify districts in Virginia where the performance in student success exceeds expectations. Districts can and are learning from one another.
- We can pay teachers better. Putting our money toward supporting students through attracting and retaining must be a higher priority for the educational health of our nation.
- We can support teachers, administrators and school boards all together. They all deserve our appreciation for caring for the most precious beneficiaries of their work — students.
- We can articulate the prestige and high regard we hold for teachers. We thank armed service members for their dedication to our nation. Perhaps it is high time to do the same for K-12 teachers.
Remember your favorite teacher — the one who opened your eyes to your potential? We want and need more of them to serve in the “profession that teaches all of the other professions.”
Identifying and addressing the reasons teachers leave or avoid the profession is a solvable problem. Solutions will not be easy, but the stakes are high enough to call on our best efforts to find and use them.
Having a crisis that is quiet makes it no less of a crisis. We can mobilize now for the good of our children.
Authors: The Emeriti Presidents’ Council
The Emeriti Presidents’ Council was created to call attention to issues and potential solutions to help make our region of Virginia and the Commonwealth a better place to live. Given the nonpartisan intention of the council, the council’s work avoids political issues and controversies.
After discovering that five former college and university presidents with more than 200 combined years of experience in college administration and teaching — all holding the title of president emeritus — had retired to the Roanoke region, the council was formed. N. L. Bishop, Jefferson College of Health Sciences; Jim Davis, Shenandoah University; Ken Garren, University of Lynchburg; Nancy Gray, Hollins University; and Michael Maxey, Roanoke College, are members of the council.
It is the intention of the Emeriti Presidents’ Council to provide insight, research and analysis for public consideration on a range of topics with the potential to offer direction for discourse and solutions. We are unpaid, independent educators with a commitment to helping our communities address critical issues.
