By Faith McFarland
Arizona is one of several states suffering through a shortage of qualified and certified teachers. In the “Educator Retention And Recruitment Report” written by a special task force created by the Arizona Department of Education and released in January 2016, teacher salary is listed as a major factor in this dearth of classroom teachers.
The report lists a comparison of salaries for those professions that require the same amount of education as teachers. The only professions that pay less than teachers are those in social services.
While critics complain that teachers have it good with short school days and lots of vacation time, I challenge anyone to spend a week in a classroom plus the evening and weekend hours spent in planning lessons and evaluating student progress. Only through this experience will anyone come to truly appreciate the work that teachers do. Then we have to throw in the additional time spent in a second job when the teacher cannot make ends meet for all financial obligations.
The January report shows that the tangible backing for teachers is essential. However, it also shows that the intangible support is just as crucial to teacher retention.
To begin, teachers need to be recruited into the profession. The allure for most students in teacher training programs is twofold: to make a difference in society and to receive assistance with student loans. During the two plus decades I worked as a high school counselor I would ask juniors and seniors about their career choices, just a quick survey by raising hands. When I asked who wanted to become a teacher I would get one or none hands raised in an average class of 25 students. Those who were interested in teaching were often children from families with one or more teachers.
Teacher retention has its tangible and intangible aspects as well. Some of my colleagues were the classic examples of teachers who enrolled in a college of education with financial aid from government student loans. After five years most were eligible for loan forgiveness by virtue of teaching full time in a school with low-income students. These were the ones who left to move on to a more lucrative career, especially if they taught math or science.
The ADE report showed that the intangibles of support and respect are essential for teachers to remain in the profession. These efforts must be done both internally in the school and school district as well as externally in our society at large.
Within the school and district the ADE recommends a variety of approaches to enhance teacher support. Superintendent Diane Douglas has laid out specifics in her plan, “AZ Kids Can’t Afford to Wait!” in October, 2015. The proposal includes leadership training for administrators and teachers along with new teacher mentoring.
Beyond the reach of the ADE is the need for external efforts to reframe and reinvent the role and status of education in our society and overall American culture. In a sense the teacher shortage is a symptom of a long-term trend towards a deliberate dumbing down of America.
Ray Williams in his article in Psychology Today in July, 2014 said, “There is a growing and disturbing trend of anti-intellectual elitism in American culture. It’s the dismissal of science, the arts, and humanities and their replacement by entertainment, self-righteousness, ignorance, and deliberate gullibility.”
As a case in point, students who demonstrated academic excellent in the high school where I worked were often put down and called names solely because of being exceptional. Within the school climate and culture students who excelled in athletics were honored more than those on the honor roll.
In her classic tome on this dumbing down effort Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt outlines this trend. While first published in 1999 it is now updated and available for free at http://deliberatedumbingdown.com.
Over the last ten years or so teachers have found that they cannot just teach. Mandates from the federal and state governments required that teachers limit their curriculum and teaching methods to those prescribed by someone outside of the classroom. These mandates also demand that teachers spend hours documenting student progress in their classes. Yet with all this data collection the overall achievement has not improved compared to other developed countries.
Asian countries, for example, honor and value education. Children are tested early to that they can get into the best kindergarten classes. Families take pride in their children’s academic achievement that translates into deep respect for educators. We don’t see this in America.
Competitions for Teacher of the Year and similar efforts to recognize good teaching are not enough. Respect and acknowledgement of the teaching profession needs to be elevated to the same level as it is for athletes and entertainers.
Our popular culture is driven greatly by entertainment. Perhaps entertainment is the pathway to status raising for teachers and education. Product placement in movies and TV shows could be adapted for this purpose. Why not show parents involved in their children’s schools and schoolwork.
Maybe the characters can be portrayed as smart in school at the same time they are involved in the story plot as it is thus showing academic achievement as the norm, not the exception.
How about these ideas for edutainment:
… a reality show about the lives of teachers and the challenges they face in school and in life?
… video games that require users to apply the tenets of math and science?
… social media messaging that identifies and praises successes in the classroom, no matter how small?
… bringing back the game shows where contestants compete on items of academic and intellectual importance?
… writing pop songs that sing the glorifies of learning and teaching?
… regular news reporting about teachers and schools that are making an impact in the community?
… viral videos that show the beauty, complexity and value of teaching and education?
As with all cultural revolutions it must start with the grassroots. That means you. What can you do today to help raise the value and appreciation for teachers so that they want to stay in the profession.