Sunday, January 4, 2015

Teacher Shortage

I have been pushing for #oklaed to have a one issue legislative session.  I believe the only issue we should be discussing until  fixed is #teachershortage.  Recently looking at SDE documents I noticed #oklaed employed almost 60k teachers in 2008 and a little more than 52k in 2014.  Mathematically it looks like we should have almost 8K Teachers looking for a job but we started 2015 over 1000 teachers short.  We are setting records for alt certs and emergency certifications every year. Why is my issue so much more important than yours?  What is your issue?

Testing; In a recent survey conducted by our State Superintendent elect, testing was the first issue she needs to address.  How many teachers have left our profession because they feel students are over tested.  If teachers are indicticating in a survey that testing is the #1 issue how can we fix teacher shortage without correcting our testing problems.

Teacher Pay: Ask the governor or any legislator how are we going to fix teacher shortage and most will mention teacher pay.  So instead of starting with teacher pay start your discussion with teacher shortage.

Teacher Evaluations: Does anyone think VAMS, SLOs, SOOs, are any other acronym are good for teacher recruitment and retention.  Without fixing our evaluation system we will continue to struggle with recruitment and retention.

Teacher's Retirement: Just the threat to change scares current teachers.  If they change the system it will have a negative effect in the present climate.  I hate to be against an idea until I know what the idea is but change  today when teachers have zero trust for those proposing the change will not help teacher retention and recruitment.

School Funding: Have you looked at Texas, Arkansas, or Kansas school buildings lately.  Recruiting teachers based on facilities if a non starter for #oklaed. When you are 49th in school funding teachers find another state to work.

RSA, A-F,  and other REFORMS are all legislative burdens that have landed in the middle of teachers desks and hamper teacher recruitment and retention.

There are other issues that will come up during the legislative session but we need to get our A game together and fix #teachershortage.  During the 2015 session when talking #oklaed before you pick a side ask yourself will it help or hurt teacher recruitment and retention.

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I fully agree with you! Teacher shortage is a major problem. Morale is low in many places because we place more and more demands on educators. We ask teachers to continuously provide better results with fewer resources. Teachers need support. Teachers need affirmation. Thank you for being a voice for change on these issues!

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