This story out of Iowa continues the trend of teachers leaving the profession in larger than usual numbers:
An uptick of Des Moines metro teachers are resigning this summer, marking a troubling end to a year of exceptional challenges for school staff.
Why it matters: Some metro districts — which have already been struggling with staff shortages — are losing up to 15% of teachers once their contracts end this school year.
Several are anticipating seeing the highest number of resignations in the last five years.
By the numbers: Des Moines Public Schools, the largest district in the state, is anticipating 293 teacher resignations this summer, its highest in the last five school years.
In total, about 11.4% of DMPS teachers (310) are resigning or retiring this summer.
This story is not an anomaly - teachers are leaving the field in large numbers in districts across the country - even in districts offering significant pay increases.
As Nashville education blogger TC Weber notes, there’s only so much people can take:
I oft talk about our failure to consider unintended consequences when developing policy, in this case, the unintended consequences inflicted are staffing issues. You can call it a “shortage”, or a “lack of people willing to do the job for the current rate of pay”, either way, schools are facing increasing staffing challenges partially due to the micromanaging of teachers. One principal told me that this has been the most difficult year for staffing in their 20-plus years of service. I know that’s an anecdotal tale, but when all anecdotes have the same thread and are credited to long-term professional educators, you might want to listen.
Most of the focus for attrition has been placed on salaries, and while wages have been chronically low for all too long, it ain’t all about money. Look at it this way, if I’m paying you $100 dollars a day to repeatedly beat you with a baseball bat, you are going to tire of it quickly. So then when you are about ready to quit, I raise the rate to $1000. You look at the money and try to convince yourself that for that kind of money you could handle getting beat with a bat all day. But, after a little while, it’ll start to sink in, you don’t want to get hit with a bat for any amount of money. That’s where we live with teachers.
A logical person would listen and try to figure out how to make the position a little more palpable. Maybe only one whack per hour, or maybe a softer bat. Something that would make people think, “Yea, I can do this.” and then allow them to do it.
No One is Coming to Replace Them
It’s also worth noting that there’s a shortage of students taking teacher prep classes in college:
A story out of Oklahoma suggests some schools of education don’t have enough students to justify holding classes.
KOCO reports:
With teacher shortages already hammering school districts, local colleges said that they don’t even have enough students who want to be teachers to keep the programs going.
Oklahoma City University is no longer turning out elementary teachers. The university was left with no choice but to suspend its early childhood and elementary education program in the spring of 2022 because of the low enrollment.
The director of teacher education at OCU has an explanation:
"More than anything, economics plays into it, right? Students don't want to take on debt into a profession that when I get a four-year degree that I'm going to have to pay loans when I barely make enough to live and that's where we are with the education profession," she said.
"The pipeline is unfortunately slowing to a trickle. We have very, very few students entering the traditional programs which is very disheartening.”
Testing Failures in Tennessee
Tennessee continues to experience challenges with its annual state test, known as TNReady but perennially not ready at all.
Here’s a recent announcement from Sumner County Schools about this year’s test scores:
Dear Parents,
Earlier this week, we were informed by the Tennessee Department of Education that the TNReady scores for third, fourth and fifth grade were incorrect for several elementary schools and were scored again by the state. The new scores were not returned before final report cards were sent home on Thursday. TNReady scores for grades 6–8 were received 3.5 school days before report cards were issued.State law requires TNReady testing to count a minimum of 15% of a student’s grade. School Board Policy 4.600 states that in the event of testing modifications by the state, such as a delay in scores being returned to the district, Sumner County Schools can waive the 15% TNReady grade. Due to this issue in testing, we will not include the TNReady score in your student’s final report card. Your student’s grade will be calculated by averaging the final grade from the first and second semester.In the fall, you will receive your child’s full TNReady scores
Similar notices were sent out in districts across the state. In fact, this has become such a familiar event that it’s not even a major news story.