Thursday, December 8, 2016
The national teacher shortage is a myth. Here’s what’s really happening.
Title: The national teacher shortage is a myth. Here’s what’s really happening.
Source: Walsh, Kate. (2016). The National Teacher Shortage is a myth. Here's what's really happening. The Washington Post.
Url: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-national-teacher-shortage-is-a-myth-heres-whats-really-happening/2016/12/02/58fac7d0-b4e5-11e6-a677-b608fbb3aaf6_story.html?utm_term=.8f2e24a56107
Key points: The writer for this article brings a different perspective to the existing teacher shortage. They share that teacher programs graduate twice as many teachers than needed. 175-300k students graduate from teaching programs every year, but only 60-170k get hired and of that only 30% are new teachers with no experience. The author makes the argument that teacher prep programs don't tell students about the areas of need for teachers. There is a high amount of students who study to become elementary teachers, but the real need is in Sped, math and ELL. Educating students on areas of need or imposing limits on the number specific teaching areas could help fix the program.
Intended audience: Future teachers
Relevance: As future teachers, it is always good to get a variety of different view points to help guide us. This article took a different spin on the teacher shortage. I agree that it might be good to help guide future students into teaching programs of areas that are in need, That way teachers can be setup for success after they graduate. We've been brought into this cohort by our district to become special education teachers, so there is obviously a need, but a need in more areas of education than others. That is why these cohorts that are connected to school districts are valuable, because they can guide students into areas of need and have a job ready for them.
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Nate,
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting article. I never once thought about the amount of teachers that were actually graduating from universities that were not getting a job and the reasons behind it. I agree with your statement that perhaps educating those people who are persuing teaching about the real areas of need in the profession would cut back on what feels like much wasted time and energy for all parties involved. I found a lot of new information within the article, the most disturbing is the information about how many new teachers are not given a job due to not having enough experience yet...makes me very thankful for our program and the need we are all going to fill.