teacher shortage

They published a letter to the editor from us today!! Always nice to get a plug.
http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2008/10/a-way-to-tackle.html?csp=34

Always nice to get the word out about ways to solve the math and science teacher shortage in the Fairmont Sentinel.

It is interesting that many of the same ideas get recycled regarding teacher shortages. One of the favorites is for professionals to spend a few hours a week teaching math or science. This was a President Bush proposal a few years back known as Adjunct Teacher Corps and Minnesota is the latest to raise the proposal.

Let’s review what is going on right now in America:

Great article about the shortage of math and science teachers even affecting suburban schools now. These are schools that normally have a waiting list for jobs and now they can't find math and science teachers. Why is that?

First Missouri and now Utah. When people honestly look at what is best for students and not just consider the politics, things can actually get done in education. In 2004, Utah accepted ABCTE’s math certification as a pilot program. Friday, after seeing the quality of the teachers who complete our program and an exhaustive look at our exams, the Utah State Department of Education recommended that the Utah State School Board accept all the ABCTE certifications. And the School Board did just that.

When people try to claim that the teacher shortage we face is a retention problem, I laugh. Don’t get me wrong – I would love to see better working conditions and even higher salaries for teachers. But that will not come close to fixing the problem.

We no longer live in a society where someone works in one job, let alone one career, for life. Based on my daughter’s college friends, it is not going to get any better.

It has been a while since I blogged - but it turns out that many states are looking for the solutions we offer.

In Missouri, the Senate passed a bill allowing ABCTE to recruit, prepare and certify teachers. A lot of press on this since one senator attempted to filibuster the bill that ultimately passed 25 to 5. It is now on to the Missouri House.

The use of long term substitutes as a story is getting legs. As school districts continue to experience severe shortages, the practice of using substitutes to fill positions grows. And the students suffer. The US DOE says that we now have double the number of long term subs in the classroom since 1994 and that over 20% of schools now use long term subs every year.

Schools continue to use long term substitutes as a way to mask the critical issue of a shortage of highly qualified teachers - especially in math and science. The latest is from Michigan which hired 20 long term subs even as they close schools and teachers graduating from schools of ed are leaving to find jobs in other states.

This quote from Dominque, the student representative on the school board in Flint Michigan, highlights the issue: