There is a growing teacher retention and attrition crisis in rural Mississippi. Several factors are believed to be contributing to this increasingly bad situation. The lack of teacher preparedness, through teacher education programs, is thought to be the most important aspect of increasing teacher retention and decreasing attrition in rural Mississippi. Lack of management skills such as organization and time management, a non-supportive work environment such as lack of mentors and professional developments, and accountability factor such as high stakes testing and No Child Left Behind are also believed to be contributing factors to teacher retention and attrition respectfully (Troen & Boles, 2003).
In the next decade, we will need to hire 2.2 million new teachers, and nobody knows where we are going to find them (Troen & Boles, 2003). Currently teachers are being recruited from a pool of under qualified candidates that are underprepared. These candidates are then thrust into a situation with no mentoring support or incentives for success. This may be one of the reasons why half of the new teacher population quit after the first five years of teaching. When teaching becomes a real profession, more academically able people will be drawn into it, colleges will be forced to improve the quality of their education, and better prepared teachers will enter the classroom and improve the profession (Troen & Boles, 2003). Until this happens, the quality of teachers will continue to decline and our children will continue to be left behind.
The supply of teachers has usually been in excess to the demand. This time is long gone. Statisticians predicted the teacher shortage and researchers well before the shortage actually occurre...
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Tye, B. B., & O'Brian, L. (2002, September). Why are experienced teachers leaving the profession?
Marsh, C. (2010). Becoming a teacher: Knowledge, skills and issues. 5th Ed. Frenchs Forest, NSW: Pearson.
166-173). Linda Darling-Hammond (2000) discusses how teacher education has changed and how it has affected our education system (p. 166). The author also notes how even the most intelligent people found it hard to prosper in the field without the right skills and preparation (Darling-Hammond, 2000, p. 166-173). In the article, she presents how post baccalaureate programs are carefully structured, versus alternative routes which can be no more than backup employment options. Darling-Hammond (2000) also addresses how it becomes difficult for aspiring teachers to learn both subject matter and pedagogy (p.
It is a well-known fact that students entering higher education increasingly lack the academic skills necessary to succeed in their collegiate endeavors. It goes without saying that this is largely due to the widespread substandard education provided by legions of mediocre teachers—teachers who deliver shoddy instruction due to their own innately inferior academic abilities. At least, these facts are what Notre Dame Professor of Philosophy Gary Gutting would have readers of The Chronicle of Higher Education believe in his article “Why College Is Not a Commodity.” Although he makes many points that, if true, would be damning of the elementary and secondary teaching professions, Gutting stops short of proving his arguments logically or empirically. He claims today’s budding K-12 teachers often come from the bottom of the heap academically, directly leading to poor teaching—yet he provides no research to back up this connection. Furthermore, Gutting attempts to provide a solution to this so-called travesty by recommending that teaching be “professionalized,” ignoring the already-present professional practices and standards present. Gutting’s critiques, though thought-provoking, ultimately are logically and statistically unsatisfying in both their explanations of the state of teacher qualifications and in their calls to action.
Marsh, C.J. (2010). Becoming a teacher: Knowledge, skills and issues. Frenchs Forest, Sydney, NSW: Pearson Australia
"Issue Brief." Teacher Attrition: A Costly Loss to the Nation and to the States (2005): 6. Web. 27 Sep 2009. .
According to data gathered by the National Center for Education Statistics in 2015, there are about 50.1 million public school students and 3.1 million teachers in the United States. When the number of teachers is not enough to meet the demand for teaching, the student/teacher ratio will raise. To the recruiting more effectively, we need to improve the training programs and the teachers ' rights. Moreover, we also have to enhance the quality of working environment together with the academic freedom for the teaching profession. In the early 19th century, the National Education Association introduced tenure. Before tenure, teachers could be fired for personal, religious, race, political reasons, or the
Researchers approaching the study of teacher retention using a cost-benefit theoretical framework from the field of economics believe teachers make choices to stay in their current positions, migrate to new positions in different schools either within or across districts, or leave the profession altogether by weighing opportunity costs. These researchers envision teachers comparing the costs, both overt (salary and benefits) and hidden (working conditions, family ties to the community, etc.), with the benefits of staying in their current positions (Grissom, 2010). When costs outweigh benefits, teachers choose to migrate to new positions or leave the profession.
Teacher tenure creates complacency among teachers who do not fear losing their jobs. Once a teacher becomes certified after a certain amount of years in a school system, he or she becomes satisfied with the way they teach and act towards their students. Nixon, Packard, and Douvanis stated that some teachers have more of the ability to help care for and see students’ succeed than others might, “as some do not have any incentives to perform better than others” (Philips 2). This point also relates to the fact that “when teachers become tenured most try to only get by with the bare minimum of teaching and do not prepare in depth lessons because they believe tenure gives them a heightened sense of job security” (Philips). Furthermore, allowing teachers to bec...
With the low expectations of teachers, students are limited in their ability to learn. As discussed before, it is difficult to predict how well a teacher will do at their job before they begin working. This creates doubt when hiring anyone, and employers may not know if who they are hiring is the right choice. If teachers are judged by not only the basic requirements met, but also their interpersonal skills and how well they are able to teach in a positive manner, there will hopefully be less mediocre teachers hired. In the same way, both an advanced teacher and an average teacher are paid the same wages, which creates a flaw in education. Even more, there should not be average teachers in the workforce if all teachers are paid the same. Though this harms the advanced teachers, who deserve more than they earn, it also harms the students, as they are taught at a lower level by the inadequate teachers. Gladwell mentions these flaws in his article, but he also explains the traits good teachers should have, which brings a strive forward in this issue. Because of this, it is clear America must be more selective and strict when hiring
“Fairfax County Virginia had to beg two retired teachers to come back.” Baltimore had 700 new teachers but still needed 100 more. “NYC had such a hard time finding math and science teachers that it recruited 23 of them from Austria.” (Pipho, page 181) “We're robbing our children of the very people who can help ensure they enter adulthood well prepared for college and the workplace.” (Kennedy, paragraph 4) 43% of Germany’s teachers are aging or could retire.
Dillon, J., Maguire, M. (2007) Becoming a Teacher: Issues in Secondary Teaching. Third edition. England: McGraw-Hill.
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.
Marsh, C. (2008). Becoming a Teacher. (4th ed.). French Forest: Pearson Education. Retrieved from: http://lms.curtin.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_2_1&url=%2fwebapps%2fblackboard%2fexecute%2flauncher%3ftype%3dCourse%26id%3d_62128_1%26url%3d.
Mir, S. (2011), Education woes: Shortage of teachers a threat to public schools, Tribune, 3 April.
Marsh, C. J. (2010). Becoming a teacher: Knowledge, skills and issues (5th ed.). Frenchs Forrest, New South Wales: Pearson Australia.