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Re What Happened To All The Teachers?
From: "Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>
Date: Sat, 26 Aug 2017 17:22:02 -0400
Begin forwarded message: From: Michael Robertson <mr () michaelrobertson com> Subject: Re: [IP] Re What Happened To All The Teachers? Date: August 25, 2017 at 4:19:16 PM EDT To: David Farber <dave () farber net> Cc: ip <ip () listbox com> To determine if we have a teacher shortage one can look at the student to teacher ratio In 1970s student to teacher ratio was around 20. In 1980s student to teacher ratio was around 18. In 1990s student to teacher ratio was around 17. In 2000s student to teacher ratio was around 16. In 2010s student to teacher radio in in the 15s. The data suggests that not only do we not have a shortage but perhaps there is a surplus because while the number of teachers is growing the test scores are not. One might wonder why such articles would be promulgated. For sure there could be localized shortages, but I'd suggest the bigger driver is clever marketing and PR by school unions. Constantly banging the drum with "there's not enough teachers" and "teachers are underpaid" creates fertile ground for ever expanding school budgets. You will notice that the articles making these proclamations will have no or only selective data or unprovable future predictions (always dire). I encourage people to look at the underlying data not anecodes. The above data is at: https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d14/tables/dt14_208.20.asp?current=yes <https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d14/tables/dt14_208.20.asp?current=yes> The above data is for govt run schools but private schools have shown a similar improvement in student to teacher ratio and are in the high 12 students per teacher level. I happen to live in CA and we're constantly told there are teacher shortages but our state is following the same national trend suggesting this is not an issue. Teaching jobs are quite desirable because there's only 9 months a year of work and the pension, job security and benefits is far superior to private enterprise. -- MR 858-344-6911 <tel:(858)%20344-6911> On Fri, Aug 25, 2017 at 10:46 AM, Dave Farber <farber () gmail com <mailto:farber () gmail com>> wrote: Begin forwarded message:From: Chuck McManis <chuck.mcmanis () gmail com <mailto:chuck.mcmanis () gmail com>> Date: August 25, 2017 at 1:25:08 PM EDT To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net <mailto:dave () farber net>> Subject: Re: [IP] What Happened To All The Teachers? For IP if you wish, I note, sardonically, that no school that has offered $100K a year salary for an elementary or middle school teaching position has ever failed to fill it. There are interesting economic parallels to any market where there are external forces preventing the market from responding to changes in demand. When I engaged with the Sunnvale public school district, where they asserted that I would need a "court order" to see the 'actuals' in their budgets (what they really spent and on what), we eventually switched to home schooling for the k-8 years and let the kids decide if they wanted to go to high school or community college after that for their 9-12 years. The lack of transparency on expenses allows mismanagement to persist. In Sunnyvale, the school board, the various school administrators, the state, and the teachers Union are all operating at cross purposes. They know it, they accept it as "just the way things are" and it creates really serious impediments to schools and their mission. --Chuck On Fri, Aug 25, 2017 at 9:18 AM, Dave Farber <farber () gmail com <mailto:farber () gmail com>> wrote: Begin forwarded message:From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com <mailto:dewayne () warpspeed com>> Date: August 25, 2017 at 11:25:02 AM EDT To: Multiple recipients of Dewayne-Net <dewayne-net () warpspeed com <mailto:dewayne-net () warpspeed com>> Subject: [Dewayne-Net] What Happened To All The Teachers? Reply-To: dewayne-net () warpspeed com <mailto:dewayne-net () warpspeed com> What Happened To All The Teachers? By Jeff Bryant Aug 24 2017 <https://ourfuture.org/20170824/what-happened-to-all-the-teachers <https://ourfuture.org/20170824/what-happened-to-all-the-teachers>> A recent headline from CNN that declares “schools throughout the country are grappling with teacher shortages” may seem like a rerun to anyone who’s been paying attention to news about public schools over recent years. “A perennial issue,” an article in Education Week calls it, and points out most states have had chronic teacher shortages “for years, if not decades,” particularly in staffing positions in special education, math, science, and foreign-language instruction. But this year’s reports of teacher shortages seem different. Indeed, mounting evidence should convince anyone who cares that providing students a guaranteed access to highly qualified teachers, no matter where they live – an ideal that’s never been a well-kept promise to begin with – is weakening even further. CNN reporter Caitlin Ostroff cites evidence of teacher shortages in school districts as diverse as rural Maryland and New York City, but the evidence is even more widespread. State officials in Colorado are estimating a shortfall of 3,000 teachers statewide this school year. In Detroit, a shortage of teachers means classrooms are overcrowded and students won’t have music, art, and gym. Looming teacher shortages in New Orleans are forcing the city to think of new and creative ways to hire more than 900 teachers annually, until 2020. Rural school districts have it particularly tough. In a Minnesota small town school district that has struggled with teacher shortages for years, the superintendent tells a local reporter about advertising an opening for a fifth-grade teaching position and getting “zero applicants. None.” A recent news story on teacher shortages in rural Texas schools finds, “Some districts without any takers for open jobs have resorted to livestreaming instruction from other schools or having educators teach more than one grade.” To make up for the teacher drought, government officials in many places are resorting to drastic measures that can’t be good for the quality of instruction in our schools. Indiana schools are using substitutes as a solution for its five-year dearth of first-year teachers entering the system. In Oklahoma, school districts experiencing years of teacher shortages are resorting to “novice” hires with little to no K-12 teaching experience. An investigation by an Arizona news outlet finds that chronic teacher shortages in that state have led to districts hiring unqualified, inexperienced staff – as many as 22 percent of teachers may now lack qualifications. An Arizona school district cited in the above Education Week article is filling in the gaps with parents, much like they’d call for chaperones for a field trip. Utah’s State Board of Education has responded to growing teacher shortages by letting schools hire teachers with zero teaching experience and no training. Causes for these widespread shortages vary. Education Week reporter Madeline Will links Oklahoma’s teacher shortfall to the fact the state has “the lowest average teacher pay in the country.” Teacher pay is a serious problem for sure. Ostroff quotes from a study that finds, “Salaries for U.S. secondary school teachers have largely remained the same over the past two decades.” Stagnant wages are particularly detrimental to recruiting math and science teachers because potential employees with these skills can often find higher paying work. Retaining current teachers is a problem too. Another study Ostroff references notes, “eight percent of teachers leave teaching each year, with two-thirds quitting before retirement.” That study, published last year by the Learning Policy Institute, provides the most robust analysis to date of what’s causing teacher shortages in many places. Among the factors analyzed include teacher working conditions, compensation, turnover, preparation and certification, and the attractiveness of the positions that are available. [snip] Dewayne-Net RSS Feed: http://dewaynenet.wordpress.com/feed/ <http://dewaynenet.wordpress.com/feed/> Twitter: https://twitter.com/wa8dzp <https://twitter.com/wa8dzp>Archives <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now> <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/25077172-72473cf8> | Modify <https://www.listbox.com/member/?&> Your Subscription | Unsubscribe Now <https://www.listbox.com/unsubscribe/?&&post_id=20170825134639:56EFF778-89BD-11E7-8BA3-DBDDC42D983E> <http://www.listbox.com/>
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