Disaster or Opportunity? In-Person Schools Reopen Amidst Severe Teacher Shortage

 

The end of summer is almost upon us and signs of school reopening are all around. Store sales on school supplies, ever-increasing hourly pay to hire school bus drivers, packed campgrounds as families take that one last summer trip. And I’m seeing article after article after news story about the “catastrophic” shortage of teachers to staff in-person classes.

 

What and where is the shortage? There is no hard data (yet), but the estimates are huge. The state of Nevada has over 3,000 unfilled teaching jobs. Illinois has over 2,000 teaching positions that are open or filled by inadequately trained people. The largest five school districts in Houston have as many as 1,000 openings for teachers. The lack of teachers is especially dire in certain fields like math or special education, and in rural schools.

 

What’s causing the teacher shortage? There are many reasons being posited. Teachers are exhausted from dealing with the Covid-induced education chaos. Some are unwilling to teach within the new state-level politically motivated constraints about what topics can be covered in the classroom. For example, Florida has recently enacted legislation prohibiting teachers from covering many aspects of our country’s racial history. And, of course, there is the fact that teaching is no longer a highly respected profession in the US and teachers generally receive very low pay.

 

What’s being done about it? Some school districts are going down to four days a week of classes for the fall, while others are increasing class size. Some jurisdictions are lowering the requirements to be a teacher, in some cases encouraging veterans and college students to step into the classroom despite having no training to do so or having school administrators serve as substitute teachers. At least one state will allow teachers with experience teaching math at private schools to teach in the public school system while gaining the requisite certification over the next few years. US President Joe Biden has recently announced initiatives to recruit additional individuals to the teaching profession. And, if they have the resources, some schools are increasing teacher pay or providing other desirable benefits (e.g., a relocation bonus for teachers willing to move to their state, a retention bonus to entire teachers to stay on the job, classroom supplies). Very few schools seem to be looking at online resources, but Tucson Arizona is filling its void of math teachers with online tutoring during the school day.

 

This situation is alternately described as “catastrophic,” “severe,” “alarming” and “a crisis.” Many education specialists are concerned that the fixes for the shortage (especially increased class size and less qualified teachers) will provide long-term and irreversible harm for the students and their learning. They are probably right. It is also possible, however, to look at the situation as an opportunity to institutionalize, improve and expand some of the online educational options piloted during the two years of the Covid pandemic.