Para Pleads For Teacher Shortage Rx

Anna Marvin wants to continue her teaching career in New Haven after getting her elementary education degree from Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU).

But before she graduates, she’d like to see the city’s school district up its game when it comes to teacher retention and recruitment.

Marvin voiced those hopes and concerns during the public comment section of Monday’s latest Board of Education meeting, which was held online via Zoom. 

She is currently a full time paraprofessional for New Haven Public Schools (NHPS), and had her first encounter with the city school district last year as part of a ​“field experience” at Lincoln Bassett School as part of her studies at SCSU.

“I immediately adored the students and staff and I ended up working at the same school as a tutor and para this year,” she said. According to a NHPS personnel report from last September, Marvin was hired last fall as a first grade assistant teacher at Lincoln Bassett at the start of the school year. 

Marvin focused her public testimony at Monday’s meeting on her concerns around the national teacher shortage. She asked to know more about the urgency with which the district she hopes to continue working in is tackling that issue of hiring new teachers and keeping existing educators on staff.

“Looking at the New Haven Public Schools Applitrack page there are over 170 open positions for teachers and other staff,” Marvin said. 

“As an education student, I can attest that young adults are wary to go into teaching. Several people who are in my freshmen courses as education majors have changed majors. Many students have told me that they would love to teach and love working with youth,” she said. ​“That is not the problem. Young people want to be teachers but they’re concerned about low pay, lack of respect, lack of resources, and the teacher shortage, which will make their jobs harder.” 

Marvin cited several national statistics during her testimony. 

“This is a nationwide trend,” she said. ​“The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) recorded a 35 percent drop in enrollment in traditional teacher prep programs between the 2008 – 2009 and 2018 ‑2019 year. This data is yet to reflect current numbers which in the wake of Covid I suspect to be even worse.” 

Marvin reported that data from the National Center for Education Statistics concluded that 69 percent of K‑12 schools ​“reported they did not have enough teachers applying for positions” during the 2022 – 2023 school year. 

“This school district along with others nationwide need to come up with a plan to not only attract new teachers, but retain current ones,” she said. 

According to the National Education Association, Marvin added, ​“80 percent of teachers say that teacher burnout is a major problem,” ​“55 percent are ready to leave teaching sooner than they planned,” and ​“80 percent indicate that the additional work that they take on because of the teacher shortage is a major problem.” 

“Our students deserve better. Our teachers and staff deserve better,” she continued. ​“The blame for this issue does not fall on teachers and staff. Teachers are not leaving because they do not care about their students. Teachers are leaving as the cost of living rises and they must do more with less becoming burnt out.” 

She concluded that, as a future teacher, ​“I face the future with excitement but also worry that those in a position to address this problem will not do so. I want to know what the New Haven Public Schools and the state of Connecticut is going to do about this because we are not on the verge of a crisis. We are in a crisis now.” 

Later in the Monday meeting, NHPS Supt. Iline Tracey briefly spoke about the district’s most recent personnel report listing five planned retirements of district administrators. She also addressed broader concerns regarding teacher shortages. 

“There is a staff shortage, not just among teachers, but across the spectrum of the work in the district. Staff is working very hard to tell friends, to recruit, to do whatever they need to do to entice staff to come to work in New Haven,” she said. 

“We’re hoping that when the new contract tips in for next year, we will have more staff because the contract is a much better contract for teachers,” she said. ​“We continue the bleeding even though we also have a bonus coming in for staff [in] January.” She said that New Haven is not alone in its challenges to hire and retain staff. She has heard similar concerns from other superintendents of other school districts. ​“People are leaving for various reasons. Some of them are not even leaving to go into teaching. They’re leaving to go into other things.”

“Whatever is happening across the spectrum of teaching, we just have to make sure that we do our best in recruiting as much as we can,” Tracey continued. ​“That’s all we can do. As I say to my staff, I can’t create teachers. I can’t create security. I can’t create paraprofessionals. But we will try as much as we can with salary and benefits that we have now. We are going to negotiation with the paras to make sure there is at least a livable wage for everybody involved.” Tracey also said she has authorized her staff to travel outside of New Haven to recruit. 

Joyner: "We're Going To Have To Rethink Schools"

Later in Monday’s meeting, Board of Education Secretary Ed Joyner, who once directed Sacred Heart’s teacher prep program, also addressed the concerns about the national teacher shortage. The discussion was not on Monday’s agenda but lasted for about 20 minutes. 

“It’s a challenge with human capital. Period,” Joyner said.

“We’re gonna have to make some bold changes at the state and federal level if we’re going to attract people to the profession of teaching,” he added. ​“And we’re going to have to do some very strong things about the conduct of outlier students in schools. Because some people [are] literally afraid to work in schools.” 

Joyner reflected on a recent school shooting that occurred in an elementary school in Virginia where a 6‑year-old allegedly shot a teacher.

“My niece’s school in Newport News, Virginia, a six-year-old kid shot a teacher. There are no sacred places left in this country,” he said. ​“And this is not just a problem for the board or our superintendent. It’s a problem for the entire nation.” 

He made a plea to state and federal leaders to do ​“whatever it takes to make the [school] environment safe and orderly. Whatever it takes to create conditions where teachers can teach in peace and students can learn in peace.” 

“It’s going to take a political solution,” he concluded. ​“I think we’re going to have to rethink schools. We cannot allow violent people to be in our schools. We have to help them but we can’t do it. It is the worst I’ve ever seen it in my 75 years of living on this earth.” 

Goldson: We Need Better Data

Fellow Board of Education member Darnell Goldson also weighed in on the teacher shortage during Monday’s meeting. 

Goldson requested to get data from the district about what educators say in staff exit interviews about why they’re leaving New Haven. 

“I still don’t have any evidence in front of me that shows what he’s [Joyner] saying is the overarching reason teachers are leaving. It may be true but I don’t know and I don’t know because that data is not being provided to us by this superintendent and this administration,” Goldson said. 

Goldson has raised similar concerns during past meetings and has suggested having a third-party company help the district collect anonymous optional exit interviews and surveys with staff who leave. ​“So that they are protected from possible perceived retaliation,” he said. 

He added Monday that this would relieve the district’s small Human Resources department of that task and let them focus instead on crafting more retention and recruitment initiatives.

“We haven’t gotten good, clean information on discipline in our schools and we haven’t gotten any information as to why our teachers are leaving, especially those in the middle of the school year,” he said.

“I hope that this board will eventually make the bold move and ask this administration to start providing that data to us. That is our job to interpret that data and make decisions based on that data, their job is to provide the data,” he said. ​“We keep hearing over and over again, these anecdotes that everybody’s having problems, everybody’s losing teachers, maybe that’s true, maybe its not, but what I do know is that I’m on the Board of Education in the City of New Haven and I can’t tell you why these 11 teachers are leaving.” 

Board Vice President Matt Wilcox said he’s willing to do an annual look at data that the district does have around teacher departures and its exit interviews, as well as data from the teachers union. 

Director of Human Resources Lisa Flegler clarified for the board that exit interview surveys are given to all departing employees, but cannot be mandated. ​“Unfortunately sometimes we get information back, sometimes we do not. We certainly are open and willing to share what we have collected,” Flegler said. 

She concluded that the district is looking into offering one-on-one meetings outside the office to combat concerns with administrative retaliation. 

Tracey called on the board and public to send along suggestions for possible solutions for the district to her and her executive team.