The American teacher shortage is headlining news stories and infiltrating social media, although there’s little consensus on whether this shortage is new or if it even exists. My Twitter feed is having a rumble between those who say the teacher shortage is a myth and those who point to districts like Newark, where there were 500 teaching vacancies as of June.
Then there’s the reality on the ground: in New Jersey, both urban and suburban superintendents say when they post a job for a physical education or elementary school teacher, they get 20 applicants instead of the typical 200. Some say (off the record) they’d settle for a warm body, which does not portend well for the quality of our teacher workforce.
So what’s really going on? Do we really have a teacher shortage?
I think we do, and this signals the need to undertake a bold examination of our obsolete salary models and entry barriers, especially in light of COVID-19 (see this new report) and related cultural shifts.
Here are a few factors that impede a robust teacher recruitment and retention model:
Yet a teacher shortage is hard to quantify. That’s because we have lousy data—especially in N.J., which is why two years ago, JerseyCAN recommended the state perform “a robust study to ensure we have the data we need to drive future decisions” on teacher recruitment and retention, which it has yet to do. We’re all over the place (hence my Twitter feed):
Add in the pretty steep drop in K-12 student enrollment and you know things are complicated.
They’re complicated further by New Jersey’s (most of America’s) system of judging teacher applicants by inputs, not outputs. We see this pattern elsewhere: for instance, the State Department of Education’s accountability rubric for school districts called NJQSAC gives top grades to districts like dysfunctional Asbury Park— unlinked from student learning, teacher quality, and fiscal management.
Why do we value a passing grade on a teacher test more than classroom effectiveness? Why aren’t we focused on student outcomes rather than checking boxes? Given COVID-related learning loss and the need for more effective teachers, why does our system of certification remain so inflexible? Instead of being stuck in the institutionalized educational system John Dewey envisioned in the early 20th century, why aren’t we rethinking how we train, certify, evaluate, retain, and pay teachers?
There’s good work out there on this.
Bob Goodman heads the NJ Center for Teaching and Learning, which provides alternative pathways for physics and chemistry teachers. (Quick video here.)
Sharif El-Mekki is CEO of the Center for Black Educator Development, which creates innovative apprenticeship programs for aspiring Black teachers where the focus is not how well teachers do on the edPTA or Praxis but how much they raise student achievement.
If we stop relying on input models like NJQSAC and pivot towards output models like how much students learn, if the Murphy Administration’s DOE, as rigid and dysfunctional an agency as we’ve seen, lightens up on archaic and irrelevant accountability rubrics and trusts school leaders to control which teachers stay in the classroom, Newark–districts like Princeton too!—might be filling those open teaching slots.
Yes, school leaders do that already through the teacher tenure system. But let’s get real: with 98% of teachers rated “effective” or “highly effective” (might be 99%, but we don’t know because Murphy’s DOE doesn’t believe in robust data systems), evaluators can’t be serious; no real profession has that degree of success. Yet if leaders get serious and really make job security dependent on student growth instead of how many professional development credits or college degrees earned, we can elevate the profession and workforce quality.
And here’s a wild thought: what if our input-driven salary guide shifted toward an output system where teachers garnered higher salaries for moving the needle on student growth? What if districts were free to pay more for hard-to-fill slots in STEM and special education?
I know, I know, I’m dreaming. In what universe will union leaders allow teachers to be treated as something other than interchangeable widgets?
And, despite all the bluster out there, I’m not sure we do. But baby steps, right? Expand alternative certification pathways, like those created by Goodman and El-Mekki. Get rid of certification tests and licensing fees; instead, partner aspiring teachers with master teachers and judge their effectiveness–as both apprentices and veterans— by how much kids learn. Create robust data systems so we can plan long-term strategies for recruiting and retaining our best teachers instead of panicking at what was a predictable shortfall.
Surely that’s better than the alternative we’re living in now.
Originally published on New Jersey Education Report.
Laura Waters is the founder and managing editor of New Jersey Education Report, formerly a senior writer/editor with brightbeam. Laura writes about New Jersey and New York education policy and politics. As the daughter of New York City educators and parent of a son with special needs, she writes frequently about the need to listen to families and ensure access to good public school options for all. She is based in New Jersey, where she and her husband have raised four children. She recently finished serving 12 years on her local school board in Lawrence, New Jersey, where she was president for nine of those years. Early in her career, she taught writing to low-income students of color at SUNY Binghamton through an Educational Opportunity Program.
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