Opinion: How To Solve The Teacher Shortage

Absolutely, yes, thank you, and I could not agree more.

EdTPA is serving an insidious gatekeeping function, keeping motivated and qualified folks out of classrooms.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/277975133_What_About_Bilingualism_A_Critical_Reflection_on_the_edTPA_With_Teachers_of_Emergent_Bilinguals

https://kappanonline.org/the-unintended-consequences-of-edtpa/

https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/researchers-stop-using-edtpa-scores-in-teacher-certification-decisions/2019/12

Great idea! I wonder what the salary would be for someone to run the Community Teacher Preparation Program. Sadly it will turn into another money sink for a do- nothing administrator that was shuffled out of a school for not doing a good job.

And while we are at it let us make all the professions easier to gain entry. No more bar exams for future lawyers. No more board certification for doctors. That is just too difficult and tedious a process.
Sometimes you need to put in some very uncomfortable effort to get what you want. The answer is not in eliminating the mountain but in finding a way to climb it.

@LennyMoore24 You can't say it any better. Thank you, things worth getting don't come easy. What about the people who have debt hanging over their heads after getting the proper education and certifications. Improve our schools, and we will gain teachers that are proud to work in New Haven again. There was a day when our schools were respected. With the societal challenges that we are facing and no solutions to boot, who would want to work in the schools in New Haven? New Haven's answer is always to throw more money into the problem, and maybe it will disappear. (spend, spend, spend) Unfortunately, we know how that works out.

I left my teacher training program at Southern because I couldn’t afford to support myself and attend college with the mandatory educator double major course load resulting in 5-6 years or more years of full time education to meet all the required classes and credits. I had met many other students who had attended SCSU for 7-8 years to get their undergrad degree because of finances or lack of available classes to meet their credits, or that coordinated with their jobs schedules or childcare schedules. I had won tuition assistance through a state program, but never received the money even though I checked back with the financial aid office every week to see if the funds had come in yet for my award, but each week I was turned away, and then I was told that the program had run out of funds so I was not getting any money. My car needed expensive repairs and I couldn’t get to my full time job and my full time school without it and also afford my books, supplies and pay the rest of my bills. I had to choose to work and live rather than remain in school for the number of years it would take to get my degree. I was looking at low pay and massive student debt while I pursued a masters degree in six years, at the same time having to find supplemental jobs for summers, weekends and after school hours in addition to class prep time and homework correcting time and other teacher obligations outside of school hours. But the real clincher for me was the lack of respect that parents and the public have for the underpaid K-12 school teachers who pay for school supplies out of their own pockets, who are expected to be miracle workers to fix the issues that their students bring from home, and in substandard school conditions, and yet are begrudged every cent that the taxpayers spend on the schools. We need to respect and support our future and current teachers.

Both edTPA and schools of education should be gotten rid of — neither really prepares people to teach and neither is very effective at weeding out people who are not qualified to teach (in fact, those least qualified to teach often pass with flying colors and then go on to become public school administrators and professors of education.)
Yes, edTPA is cumbersome and poorly designed, but the real problem is that it sets the bar too low . . . which in some ways it must because if it didn’t the teacher shortage would be even worse.
If you want more teachers, make the job more attractive to people (money and better support for teachers will do that).
If you want better teachers, make the job more attractive to capable people (more money, better discipline in schools, and much, much better administrators — people who have taught for more than a few years, who were hired by their colleagues, not through nepotism or cronyism, who are more interested in improving their schools than hiding their incompetence, who can recognize real talent and will support those teachers over the capricious whims of foolish parents.)
Or better yet — focus your energy and money and time on creating better communities and healthier homes. Kids from strong communities and functioning families generally learn well in any environment, no matter who their teacher is. The most damaging variable in our calculations of human failure is never the school — schools simply mirror the politics, prejudices, passions, imperfections, and ignorance of the larger society.

Connecticut has one of the strictest requirements for teacher certification in the nation, and it is a huge problem. In a shortage area, such as science, there are 5 different subject certifications for middle/high school teachers, and the number of science credits required is nearly double what it was 20 years ago, and it is almost impossible for someone to get more than one science certification, or be a generalist without the equivalent of a masters degree in science. The reality is that we need teachers that yes, understand science and its workings, but more importantly, understand how students learn, can relate to our students, and have the communication skills needed. I would rather have a teacher that likes 12/13 year olds over a teacher that has 45 credits in college chemistry any day. That is the only way we can lift our students and prepare them for their future.
(By the way, NHPS has nearly a dozen science teacher openings for next year, feel free to reach out! :)
-Richard Therrien
-NHPS K12 Science Supervisor

It's a good thing doctors don't go around crying about how much medical school costs.
Heather is right--- it is the misery in the schools with awful students, incompetent managment, and a hostile public that is driving teachers away and keeping folks out. Everyone knows that is the answer. This snowflake just wants her tuition paid for, as our socialist mentality has accustomed her to. ANything in life must be worked for. If you don 't want to do it; don 't . Maybe we lose good teachers but maybe not , if this is the stamina they bring to their job.

One can assume this is most of our major cities. We need to address this problem for sure.

The Yale Urban Teachers Program was funded by Yale, who have a $42 billion endowment. They stopped offering it when they started funding New Haven Promise. It's great they did that for our city, but it is in no way sustainable for the school district to fund this program. A lot of money went into it to make it so great. We were not even able to get our entire budget approved by the alders this year,

Teachers are a much maligned group of professionals. Many people believe that because they went to school, they know what's best for schools. Decreasing the requirements to become a certified teacher wouldn't help our already weak public perception. This is especially important because when we speak up to students, parents, administrators, our community, our concerns and opinions carry less weight. We lose the power to advocate for our students and our working conditions with authority.

I had to take the Praxis II for math. It was really hard and I had to take it twice to pass. Afterward, I knew that I had proven that I knew my content area to a high degree. If I had a colleague who didn't have to take whatever the equivalent is now, or who was allowed a lower score, I admit that I would think less of them. I'd wonder if they were really qualified to teach high school mathematics.

Don't mess with our requirements. I'm proud that I live and work in a state with some of the most stringent requirements in the nations. I can go almost anywhere in the country and teach without going through any loops.

Teaching is a profession, not a job. It's a profession because it requires rigorous study, high stakes tests, and adherence to ethical standards. That's why law, medicine, nursing, and many other types of employment are professions, rather than jobs. Keep educational professional.

Teachers are essentially volunteers...paid just enough to cover the cost of living. Most make about $60k or @ $1800/mo. take home. The cheapest, and very basic one bedroom apartment I saw listed just now was $1,000. Transportation, food, student loan payments and a master's degree requirement will easily consume the remaining $800.
I'm not a teacher but I volunteered at a school for a few years, and that was all I could manage. I won't even try to describe the trials teachers go through on a daily basis. Go, spend some time at a failing school and see for yourself.
Our systems and values are perverted. We reward those on a self interested mission of personal fortune as if they do everything without an entire society supporting their endeavors while criticizing those that put community and service to others above themselves for asking only to be treated fairly. (could probably use a teacher to correct that run on sentence)
I don't think the City of New Haven has the resources to to correct all of the problems it faces. The resources to do so leave the city every day for towns that put up signs forbidding nonresident use of "public" spaces.
We need to forgive payments of student loan debt for as long as someone remains a teacher. Change like that will never happen until voters demand it in the only way that matters. Stop voting for one of the two sides of the same coin. How many times must it be proven that our "leaders" DO NOT serve "the people". Shake things up, vote third party. Only then will they start paying attention to the will of the people. If ignored, as history has show us many times, inequality will continue to grow until peaceful change is no longer possible.

CityYankee2- the term snowflake is a highly offensive and antagonistic term.
I don’t want everything paid for in full, but the tuition and other college related costs and the extended time required to become a CT teacher is cost and time prohibitive for people from lower income families.
Costs at the community colleges and state colleges has risen to the point of almost impossible for a low income student when you consider that they have a double major undergrad degree and a six year limit to achieve a required master’s degree, and low pay for the earlier half of a non-administrative teachers careers.
When I attended Southern in the early 1990’s, it was significantly less expensive than it is now, and yet was very difficult for me to afford on my own, with very little help from my parent, who had three kids going to college at almost the same time.
When my mother attended Wesleyan in the late 1970’s-early 1980’s, she was assisted by the Carter administration college assistance program, which enabled her to get a bachelors and masters degree and get off welfare and work a mostly living wage job for the rest of her life, and raise her 3 children. But under the Reagan administration this program was ended, because people like you didn’t believe in the government helping people to get the education they needed to improve their situation.
By reducing the costs of lower income college students so it is possible for them to graduate with less debt, in a reasonable amount of time, you create more teachers and reduce poverty, and raising the teachers pay, you attract more diverse people to become and stay as teachers. Providing tuition assistance and debt reduction for lower income students reduces the need for future government assistance, and is far cheaper for the government in the long run.

"Pretty soon I will be a certified teacher and it’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made"

You haven't started yet, so time will tell if you are happy with that decision. Time will also tell how long you remain a public school teacher/in the district.

Good luck! (Sincerely)