INTRODUCTION
In schools across the country there is a growing student population and a shrinking teacher population. In low-income areas around the United States there are some teacher who are not qualified to teach, yet do so anyway. Students in some areas are not receiving the proper education that they deserve. In response the United States government has taken certain actions but they are not enough. My main reason for wanting to become a teacher is because I think children deserve a thorough education and I want to give it to them. This research will explore what the issue is, teacher recruitment, retention and attrition.
This research includes where the need for more qualified teachers are in the United States. This research will point out which areas need teachers the most and which need them the least. Another topic that is to brought to light is what the government is attempting to do to fix the problem, and if it has had any effect. What were also researched were current methods used to recruit teachers along with retention methods as well. Lastly, what is focused on is teacher attrition. This research will show why teachers choose to leave a school or the profession altogether. It is hypothesized that teacher recruitment, retention and attrition are all affected by salary.
LITERATURE REVIEW
PROBLEM
Every couple of years, the Department of Education produces a list of teacher shortage areas in every state for the next four years. Every state needs teachers every year. However, certain areas need them more than others. States such as Arizona and New York have their lists divided in geographic areas because these states have a higher need for teachers. High poverty inner city schools and rural schools suffer becau...
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The author states in “A New Deal for Teachers” that in America, especially in poorer school districts, teacher quality is lacking. In urban districts, out of the new teachers hired in the next three years, about half of them will quit (usually the quality ones). The recruitment of better teachers is, as the author says, the biggest problem in our education system. He states that he’s been told by urban teachers that many of their colleagues are incompetent. Contributing to this is that state requirements are very low, which allows poor quality teachers into schools. Miller explains that smart and competent people who want to be teachers, are getting more and more difficult to find. This is true mainly because there are fields of work that those
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There are many other areas around the United States where urban schools suffer from lack of funding. In many of America...
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Effective teachers are inadequately rewarded in the United States. School districts, such as those in California, are just starting to implement merit pay. According to a study conducted by the National Center of Performance Incentives (NCPI), only about 500 school districts out of the 14,000 districts in the US implement merit pay for teachers. These numbers do not include private schools. Unfortunately, teachers, parents, and students hurt because many schools, private and public, base teacher pay on seniority and degrees rather than achievement and performance. Under such a system, novice teachers, are laid off during budget shortages. Moreover, with the current “single salary schedule” system, teachers are inadequately paid, especially when compared to other professions. Because the single salary schedule creates many issues, a solution needs to be proposed. Merit pay, a system based on performance, solves such issues. With this system, teacher performance outweighs teacher seniority. As a result, quality teachers will be rewarded adequately in terms of money and recognition. Outstanding teachers will no longer face unreasonable layoffs and will finally be paid more than their ineffective peers.
Some locations in the United States are trying to improve their education by adding quality teachers. A major reason why there is an achievement gap in education is because there exist a gap in teachers as well. Research has shown that teacher quality counts. Some states are seeking ways to keep quality teachers and ways to attract them. In New York City, the schools will not hire teachers that are not certified. Also, New York and California are adding some sort of incentive in public schools, to attract quality teaching to minority schools. Sometimes school add annual bonus up to $10,000 for qualify teacher to work in public school, with low achieving schools. Also, many state provide some sort of tuition assistance for teacher, but of all of the states only seven target the candidates to commit to the lower achieving schools (Olsen, 2003).
In a society where kids must go to school up to the collegiate level, teaching is an impactful career choice. Teachers help contour the minds of future leaders of the world. Furthermore, teachers play a crucial role in guiding students to the knowledge, skills, and abilities they need to succeed in life, and teachers lead students to make informed decisions on any topic the meet in the future. As a teacher, a person must relinquish their knowledge onto students. Finally, they must prepare their students for all the obstacles they will face later in life.
However, the salary problem only means we lose the valuable and superior teachers we have now for the lower quality teachers. This dilemma leads to another main reason these salaries should change for the better. Salaries of teachers are making and breaking who leaves teaching jobs, and the school systems in Tennessee are losing more and more valuable teachers because of it. Based on an article called “We Are Losing More and More Good Teachers,” the Tennessee Education Research Alliance says in the article, “...top teachers are losing interest in the job because of low pay.” The departure of good teachers is causing schools to become worse and worse.
Preschool teachers are becoming more and more sought after. The Bureau of Labor Statistics sees the need for Preschool teachers increasing by 25 percent by 2020, which is a faster increase than normal. It is widely accepted that early childhood education is important for a child’s intellectual and social development. As a result, there has been increasing demand for preschool programs, which is expected to create demand for preschool teachers. (Preschool Teachers, 2012) With the increase of needing more preschool teachers there will be more jobs opening in this field. Special education teachers, and elementary school teachers are not as sought after, though there is always a need for more teachers in these areas. The need for special education and elementary school teachers is only projected to increase by 17 percent according the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The enrollment rate for schools is increasing, as is the need for teachers who understand disabilities. These jobs will increase in all 3 fields by 2020, preschool jobs look to increase by 113,600 jobs (Preschool Teachers, 2012), whereas special education jobs will increase by 77,400 (Special Education Teachers, 2012) and elementary school jobs will increase the most by creating 281,500 jobs. (Kindergarten and Elementary School Teachers,...
There are many ways to compile data on a teacher and determine that person’s performance. Teacher performance can be based upon classroom observation, a teacher’s continuing development and education, and students’ standardized testing scores. The controversy centers around using student test scores to determine the performance of a teacher and thus her pay. Scott Andes, a research analyst at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation voices the merits of performance based pay with his article “Getting Serious with Education: Why Can We Measure Students but Not Teachers?” High School English teachers, Jordan Kohanim and Ashley Ulrich vehemently state why there is no merit with performance based pay with their article, “No Merit to Merit Pay Arguments.” In each article both sides debate how performance based or merit pay will affect students, teachers, schools, and com...
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Around the nation, hundreds of schools are facing the common major issue of teacher shortages. The alarmingly low amount of teachers in the U.S. creates the debate of whether or not students are receiving a quality education. “‘It’s a crisis’ says Bill McDiarmed, dean of the University of North Carolina School of Education. ‘I don’t know who will be teaching kids in the future’” (DeNisco 1). Oklahoma has a plethora of teacher shortage areas, which could be part of the reason why Oklahoma is ranked 48th in National Education (Robson 1). Shortage areas in the sooner state range a large variety of subjects for the 2015-16 school year alone, including, but not limited to: art, elementary education, foreign language, math, music, physical education/health, science, social studies, and special education (Clement 125). Why do educators participate in early termination? How does the lack of teachers affect education quality? What is Oklahoma doing to recruit and replace empty positions? If Oklahoma does not fix its teacher shortage soon, education in the sooner state will continue to spiral downward into failure. This analysis of Oklahoma teacher shortages will evaluate the reasons teachers quit, the effect of their absence, and the various ways their positions are attempted to be filled.
President George Bush’s “No Child Left Behind Act” fails to focus on the recruitment and diversity within the profession. He sets a goal for the year 2005 for every classroom to have a quality teacher but no goal for retaining these teachers. The improvement of the profession requires a national step-by-step effort. The purpose of this paper was to gather and explore information on the teaching profession and with it explore the shortage within in order to educate and strike up reform. It is clear, that reform will require a lot of time and money. The end product however, will show success within the profession thereby equaling success in the classroom. Success comes when present in the classrooms are caring and committed teachers, all with the goal of education and diversity is among them. .