An earlier post described research showing that experienced teachers are leaving the profession in droves. In 1988, the modal number of years of teacher experience was 15 (meaning there were more teachers with 15 years experience than any other cohort). By 2008, the modal years of teacher experience was ONE. There were more first-year teachers than any other group. This can’t be good for children or for the quality of education as every study I have ever seen says that first year teachers are the weakest of all because they are brand-new and just learning the ropes (sorry, TFA). There are anecdotal reports that enrollment in teacher education programs is plummeting. Here is more:
This was in my local paper on September 11, 2012: “The number of teaching credentials issued from 2004-2010 dropped by 40%, while the number of college students in teacher training programs plunged by 50% This comes from the Task Force Report on Teacher on Education Excellence (State of CA) which also stated, “The state has focused too heavily on holding teachers accountable for standardized test scores without properly equipping instructors and schools. This dangerous combination has driven many accomplished educators out of the profession.” Does this surprise anyone? I personally know of first and second year teachers who have bailed because of pressure applied by their site principals. Instead of supporting them, they have been overbearing in their expectations causing potentially wonderful teachers to second guess their choice of careers and leave. Not just move to another school, but leave the profession they worked so hard to join. We are losing a generation of students to the almighty test score. Do we want to continue to lose great teachers as well? Our children ARE our future. Invest in their future by investing in their teachers who are highly trained professionals.
Research needs to be done on enrollment in college and university Schools of Education. I would speculate that the number of students majoring in education has dropped considerably just in the last two years as teacher demonization and layoffs have spiked. Besides dealing with realizing that they getting a degree just to become a test-prep instructor, limited job prospects, and ongoing bashing by media and politicians, potential educators who see that their salaries are going to be frozen or even reduced from current levels are going to change majors in a heartbeat. What college student would want to enter a field that has this level of uncertainty. Add to that paying more for benefits and hearing the states are discussion reducing or taking away pensions from retired teachers. I’m a 32-year teacher in Pittsburgh and have a bad feeling that the United States will be facing a profound teacher shortage sooner than later. Those who do choose to work as a test-prep coach for low service industry wages are not going to be our best and brightest, not even close.
I am a currently a student in an education program, and I can attest to what you’re saying here. I’m in a class right now where we really explore the field of secondary education, and it seems that the more we learn, the more the class becomes uneasy in their futures in education. Policies and standards are indeed stressfull, and they take away the autonomy that many educators like to practice in their lessons. Even our professor is often fired up about new policies… It can be very hard to find optimism in our futures in the field of education- especially when EVERYONE we talk to only has negative things to say about the profession.
Ignore the negative voices. They are jealous. Follow your calling.
Chelsea,
Ignore the woman below me. She’s probably retired and has no idea of what’s happening to us right now. It’s worse than you can possibly imagine. Get out while there’s still time. Don’t waste your life going into a profession that has NO future! I’m 17 years into my career and the bottom has literally dropped out in the just the last 3-5 years. Find something where you will actually be valued, fairly compensated, and where no one is going to take your pension away just because it’s convenient. DO NOT go into teaching! It’s not about jealousy as the woman below says. It’s about survival.
PUBLIUS
Oops, sorry Chelsea, that would be the woman above me (at least above me on this page, not morally above me!)
EX PUBLIUS
Are the credentialing and certification demands also a factor? To get certified in California, my wife took a full-time, two-year program. The cost of the tuition, supplies, and the deferred income were not cheap. When we moved to Maine, she had to take additional courses part-time to meet Maine’s standards which were more extensive in some areas and less in others. Again, we had to defer more income while she met the demands of the state.
At that point I gave up on the idea of changing careers given what I would have to do to get my certificaiton despite having degrees in chemistry from the University of Chicago and Harvard and a law degree from the University of California.
I agree wholeheartedly with those who have explained why teaching is a very hard job, in many ways much harder than the sorts of professions that people consider “hard” to enter. But still, it seems like our current system keeps demanding more and more gilding of the lily beyond any real purpose. At some point even great candidates are turned off by the entry demands of a profession that provides a relatively small income, little public respect, and is not too portable among states.
The portability of credentials is a problem. From my talking with various teachers over the years who had taught in other states prior to coming to the Show Me State, Missouri is one of those states that demand a lot more than most other states. I guess there are up and downsides to this issue, but I can understand just how frustrating it must be to have many years experience and still have to jump through hoops. Federal legislation mandating portability? Don’t know, haven’t thought it through.
In the military we had total portability of many professional credentials. The requirements to keep them were very strict but moving base to base with professional licenses was done with a federal oversight through each military branch.. DOD has teachers who teach and move from base to base with spouses. Seems like a person is either a highly qualified and certified teacher or not. Crossing a state border doesn’t make you lose your skills and experience. I too jumped through hoops to become certified in Louisiana, my MA in administration doesn’t count for anything because it isn’t in education. It SEEMED like a good idea at the time, but today during my 8th period when a student shared that since the EAGLE baseline test I gave them online for my Student Learning Target didn’t count for points or a grade he just answered B to everything. Then the two years I spent getting my certification really didn’t seem like such a great idea.
This is by design. Soon many school districts will have no choice but to resort ro virtual schools and schooling for many of their subjects. Much of the curriculum will be canned, like spam, which will mean fewer teachers and more profits (unfortunately this will also mean much poorer educations.)
If you want a decent education you can always opt to send your kids to one of those nice private schools, that cost as much as colleges, with real live teachers. Public education will be little more than a profit center that meets the bare minimum of what an education should be.
I agree. ALEC is not made up of stupid people. One of the vey important reasons they are interested in eliminating all collective bargaining rights for public school teachers is that union protection and the benefits won through collective bargaining make doing this job tolerable. With pensions in jeopardy, due process all but gone and the crazy unrealistic expectations of the testing obsession firmly in place, there is no good reason to consider teaching as a career.
Many of you know that in early 2011, the governor of my state, WI, gutted the right for teachers to collectively bargain. In the fall of 2011, according to a friend who works for the University of WI system, the enrollment in pre-service teaching programs dropped by 80%. I have not verified this information, but if it is true and if it is typical, this will manufacture a teacher shortage that should have exactly the desired effect–an emergency situation in which the most reasonable solution will seem to be a massive shift toward uncertified staffers monitoring students working on computers with canned curriculum.
Dave, I would love to get more information on this phenomenon at U of WI. Is there anyway that you could find out of this is true and somehow find it in writing, or get it in writing for me?
My email is danielwydo@yahoo.com
That’s the goal. Do you honestly think the privatizers will give up? They will simply lower the standards for “teachers” so that any idiot off the street can do it or else force feed online “learning,” a TOTAL disaster for children.
Now that information on modal # of years experience, and the drop in students in teacher prep programs is quite scary. But then again why spend four years in getting certified when you can just join up with TFA (yes, I know you need to have a degree but what the hell, don’t have to do free labor-student teaching).
I am a recent “dropout” of the Teaching Fellows program after realizing this was not an effective way to become a teacher. I believe more people tricked by Rhee and her TFA and Teaching Fellows programs are starting to realize the same-the original cohort for 2012 in RI was 28 and by the 8th day it was down to 23. Hopefully
more people wake up and see the light and not fall for the Rhee and her Students First propaganda. I have decided not to pursue my life long dream of becoming a teacher and enter the private sector due to all the reasons discussed on this blog.
Student teachers are getting as rare as hen’s teeth. We used to get a lot of student teachers, now we have none. The education program where many of our teachers come from, has now started a fast track program for TFA, in addition to its regular program. The faculty are up in arms, but they have no say, as the president of the college says that few are entering their traditional programs anymore. This is a college particularly know as an education school, especially since its origins was a “normal” institution.
Many teachers with ten, fifteen years in wish the economy would improve so they can get something else. I have twenty-nine years and will more than likely retire in June, even though I can I’ll afford the health insurance. Most of us can’t bear what’s happening with testing, lack of respect, bully principals, unresponsive union leaders…
I have to say though, the CTU strike has given me new hope that things may turn around. I hope Randi Weingarten is taking this situation as a wake up call. I knew this strike would force the media to respond to education deform, and compel the public to face what the corporate goons are doing to their kids education. If things reverse, teachers may begin to become optimistic about the profession again. I really couldn’t thank CTU enough for having the courage to use the only power a teacher’s have–an industrial action.
I wouldn’t hold my breath for Randi Weingarten to “wake up.” She is scheduled to join Arne Duncan on his current bus tour promoting Race to the Top.
from the Department of Education website
School Bus Tour Promoting Education
“Education Drives America” to Spotlight Education Successes, Engage Communities in Conversations about School Reform, College Affordability, and Education and the Economy
“In McDowell County, Secretary Duncan will engage in a panel discussion at Mount View High School with community members and stakeholders. Participants will discuss how to build public-private partnerships to support educational improvement as the path to a brighter economic future. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, will join the Secretary for both events. Mount View is one of 20 schools in West Virginia that has received a part of $28.5 million in School Improvement Grants (SIG) awarded to the state by the Education Department during the past three years to turn around schools and improve student achievement.”
Today (Tuesday, Sept. 18) he will be joined by NEA President Dennis Van Roekel at the National Teacher Hall of Fame.
Details about the stop with Van Roekel are here:
http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/us-secretary-education-arne-duncan-visit-emporia-kan-part-2012-cross-country-bac
Does the term sell-outs still have meaning?
A bus ride with Arne? I can think of much better things to do.
I have a real hard time believing this unless students are actually paying attention to what is going on in the world. The job market for teachers is SO glutted, it’s hard to believe there would actually be any kind of shortage of teachers anytime in the near or distant future.
@susannunes
Trust me, sister, there’s a shortage – at least in some content areas such as mathematics and science, as well as SpEd teachers.
I am not even living in the United States right now (though I maintain certification in a couple states) but I have been getting regular cold-calls and email requests from principals asking if I would like to come suffer in their zoos. I actually had two calls this week to my local number, which requires dialing an international prefix! I can understand calls to my Google number because that one has a regular US area code, but to call someone that you KNOW is living on the far side of the planet? That’s some serious desperation!
So where are the voices of legions of education professors who are willing to support the profession of teaching? I see some here on this blog but never see anything written by them in my local paper…..and these folks know the ropes. Colleges of Education will just quietly go away unless the people who work there start advocating for their programs and public schools.
The same pressures for conformity and complicity that k12 teachers are experiencing are bearing down on teacher education in the form of standardization, Pearsonization, making the work more technocratic, and highs takes surveillance. That does not excuse the tenured faculty who are telling themselves stories about why ‘getting a place at the table’ is enough while public education is being dismantled. We all have to be as strong and committed as the Chicago teachers if we are going to stop this juggernaut. I lost my job when I spoke up. I would do it again.
Find out more here:cantbeneutral.org
and here: http://academeblog.org/2012/09/14/the-hard-sell-and-the-educator/
barbara madeloni
Barbara,
I hope your efforts to re-secure your position bear fruit or that another position comes along soon for you. Thanks for helping to fight the fight! I did what little I could and signed the petition that was circulating. As one who was forced out of one district for speaking out against the testing madness, I fully sympathize with your plight.
Again, thanks for fighting the fight!!
Duane
This kind of abuse really makes me sick. How can anyone think that Pearsonization of teacher training programs is an improvement?
The deafening silence of Ed Profs, with few exceptions is very disturbing. I guess they’ll ask why no one stood up for them and their Colleges of Educations. Sorry, Prof. didn’t know you were still around. It’s time for them to be seen and heard. Otherwise, perhaps a career at the TFA, “Intensive” Training Institute may be where they end up. And then, only if they are so lucky as to be chosen. You snooze- you lose. Wake up!
We would be interested to know what the statistics on teacher experience is for private schools such as the ones Bloomberg, Obama and Rahm send their children to
This is worth a letter to your congressperson, senator, and Obama.
Even if they don’t do anything, they can’t say they didn’t hear about it.
Obama http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments
Contacting Congress will find your rep and senators contact info for you: http://www.contactingthecongress.org/
Diane,
My sister is an experienced teacher struggling to keep her chin up in an impoverished district serving children whose parents are non-English speaking or meth addicts. She and her staff want to form a book study group this year – looking for ways to enhance their professional practice and their children’s lives – wanting desperately to have positive and productive conversations about this important work during these bleak times. Can you or any of your “followers” recommend some titles for them to consider? A retired teacher myself, I remain passionate about helping those who carry on.
Thank you for any and all suggestions.
Susan Morris
Paul Tough’s new book “How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character” addresses education approaches that are informed by current brain scan research and successful programs in Chicago. His survey of research and programs does not offer an easy solution, but it does offer new insights into working with children stressed by poverty. You could also go to NPR’s “This American Life” website. They did a story on Paul Tough’s work that aired this past Saturday.
“Teaching Children to Care” by Ruth Charney is a good read. It gives practical solutions on how to get your students invested in their work and how to deal with behavior problems. I read it during my master’s course work and use many things from it daily.
I’ll ask the community and get good ideas from them.
“Teach Like a Champion” is a great read
Thank you so much! Hope to hear from more but these are great starts! I will share them with my sister.
The exodus of experienced teachers not due to retirement belies the notion of the cushy job others say we have. That “excessive” salary for “a few” hours work is not enough to keep teachers on. Maybe our critics will avail themselves of the opportunity to switch careers and flock to the profession. Come on, I dare you!
Think of all the harm that would be done to the students if the critics switched to teaching.
I find this hard to believe since there is a such massive glut of teacher job applicants now. Perhaps five years down the road there could be a REAL shortage. There never has been before in the history of the United States.
I am in my 21st year of teaching and have been close to quitting every year for the last six years. The pressures to conform and follow a script even when I know it’s bad for kids have been really, really stressful. I am a creative teacher, and I feel like I’m fighting for the right to work 3 times harder than I have to. We now have teachers who are “script followers” telling those of us who aren’t standardized that we are sub-par because we actually plan our lessons rather than doling out prefabricated workbook pages. I haven’t quit yet because I’m not sure what else I would do– teaching is truly a calling for me. I also have a great, supportive principal who gives me the autonomy I need to get the job done– which I do with most kids. As for the shortage– our small department has been going through first-year teachers like crazy– one per year lately. Here’s what I’d like: a little respect, a huge hunk of autonomy, and the ability to openly discuss what the real issues are. As you said in your book Diane, how can we expect teachers to teach kids to think for themselves if teachers are not allowed to think for themselves. I’m staying as long as I have my current principal. After that… who knows?