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 TEACHER
SHORTAGE: FALSE ALARM?
Introduction...
President Clinton
has warned the nation of an impending teacher shortage, saying that
we need 2.2 million teachers over the next decade. Rising enrollments
and the imminent retirement of many teachers are the cause of this
crisis, he explained, and so we must recruit more people into the
"pool" of teachers.
But virtually every President since Eisenhower has sounded the same
alarm, and somehow we have survived. Is the danger real this time,
or could this be a false alarm?
Inner cities and rural areas are having great difficulty finding
math and science teachers and often hire people without proper credentials.
New York City, for example, has about 10,000 teachers who hold only
emergency or temporary credentials. In some schools in Oakland,
California, half of the faculty is on emergency certification. |
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other schools, teachers are told they must teach subjects they haven't
been trained to teach. What is called "out of field" teaching is commonplace,
and by one estimate, 4,000,000 students are being taught by unqualified
teachers.
But a closer look reveals flaws in the system that create these problems.
Georgia law, for example, allows teachers to spend up to 40% of their
time teaching subjects they haven't studied, which in effect legislates
away the problem.
Administrators and others often operate on the assumption that teachers
are interchangeable parts, thus justifying assigning a phys ed teacher
to teach math, for example. To Richard Ingersoll, this amounts to
"administrative malpractice." He asks, " Would a hospital ask the
podiatrist to perform brain surgery?" |
Administrative incompetence also explains the apparent shortage as
well. In Oakland, for example, some math and science classes have
gone without teachers all year. The administration says it couldn't
find qualified personnel, but "False Alarm" presents two teachers
who tried to apply for jobs at Oakland but couldn't get an interview.
One qualified science teacher finally gave up and took a job elsewhere.
Six months after the start of the school year, Oakland contacted her
to see if she might be interested in a job teaching bilingual education! |
Teacher training is a weak link. Most would-be teachers receive their
training in lecture classes and go to real schools only in their last
semester, for what's called "practice teaching." Research suggests
that the best way to train teachers is to have them spend more time
in schools, working with master teachers, but, as Linda Darling-Hammond
of Stanford says, "Doing it that way, the right way, costs money."
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 The
one-hour program also takes viewers into so-called "Alternative Certification"
programs, which give older adults a non-traditional way to enter teaching.
Many traditional educators are skeptical of these programs, but school
systems are standing in line to hire their graduates. The President
and others are calling for more money for training, for programs to
attract more young people into teaching, and for smaller classes.
These supposed solutions not only may not solve the problem; they
may exacerbate the problem. After all, will smaller classes help if
teachers are not being adequately trained to begin with?
Our reporting in Georgia, Texas and California, among other places,
suggests that the coming shortage is less a problem of recruitment
than of retention. After all. 30% of new teachers leave within five
years, and 50% of those teaching in cities leave the field. In other
words, our schools are losing teachers almost as fast as they can
be recruited, which means that it might be time to "fix the leak in
the pool, instead of trying to add more water."
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Some
facts:
 Teacher
training is a money making venture for most colleges and universities.
About 30% of those who study to become teachers NEVER do.
Nearly 50% of those who enter teaching LEAVE within five years.
In many places teachers can be assigned to teach something they've
never studied.
Teachers who spend ONLY 40% (two out of five classes)
of their time teaching 'out of field' are NOT categorized as
'teaching out of field?'
American teachers spend about 60 FEWER days in school than do
their counterparts in Japan but MORE hours teaching.
President Clinton says we are facing a major national teaching
shortage and that we need 2.2 million new teachers in the next
decade.
Nearly every President since Dwight Eisenhower in the 1950's
has said virtually the same thing. |
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Original
Airdate: September, 1999
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