Dive Brief:
- The Utah State Board of Education unanimously approved a measure allowing schools to hire teachers with no prior training or experience to combat an extreme teacher shortage, and other states are taking note.
- The editorial board of The Daily Sentinel in Colorado highlights the sharp fall in the number of students enrolled in and graduating from education programs in the state, as well as the fact that 40% of new teachers leave the profession within five years, saying that a potential reliance on unlicensed, untrained teachers is not where they want to end up.
- The editorial board calls for more state funding to pay teachers competitive salaries — like schools do in Wyoming — and in the absence of that, community support to give schools the resources they need.
Dive Insight:
Utah’s situation is striking. Yet charter schools have long welcomed teachers without credentials as long as they have subject-matter expertise. Understandably, teachers who came up through education programs have bristled at the idea that subject-area knowledge is enough to teach. In fact, the New Jersey Center for Teaching and Learning has settled on a physics teacher training model that is based on a belief that teaching is hard and physics is easy. The NJCTL takes current teachers, trains them in physics, and sends them back to schools to expand opportunities for students.
But the teacher shortage is a very real problem schools across the country are facing. There is reduced interest in the teaching field and high turnover among early career teachers. One reason is, of course, pay. A recent study found a growing pay gap between teachers and similarly educated workers. Morale is also low among the profession, especially when teachers are not included in school decision-making. While administrators may not be able to pay teachers more, they can certainly impact morale.