Yarissa Rodriguez (Edison): United States faces teacher shortage.

There is a U.S. teacher shortage as baby boomers retire and the No Child Left Behind law raises standards for new teachers. There are some really terrific talented people getting into teaching, the issue is that there are not enough to cover the shortage. School systems across the country report a growing scarcity of qualified recruits. Three-quarters of the more than 3 million public school teachers are women, a figure that has changed a little during the last 40 years. But during this time, women have become more educated, have more career choices and better salaries than in the past. The growing demand for new teachers is due largely to two trends. The K-12 student enrollments are expected to grow substantially in the years to come. As this happens, large number of teachers who were hired during teh baby boom enrollment years will be reaching retirement age. Also, a big problem is the increased dissatisfaction with the teachin profession and this has been caused by poor school conditions, lack of administration support and low salaries overall for the profession.

Many school systems, are already experiencing difficulities in filling teacher vacancies, and these shortages are particularly acute in urban and rural schools in the fields of bilingual education, special education, and in the subject areas of math and science. In addition, the growth racial/ethnic imbalance between the student population and the teaching force suggests that the shortage of teachers of color also exists. While students of color make up a little more than one-third of the total enrollments, teachers of color make up a little over 10 percent of the teaching force.

Teacher shortages are problematic because they present a serious threat to the quality of education that children receive in schools. When the supply of teachers is scarce, school systems cannot be selective in their hiring. When faced with large numbers of teacher vacancies, districts often resort to undesirable practices, such as assigning teachers to classes in fields for which they are not prepared to teach, or hiring teachers who lack teh appropriate teacher certification. Some policies aim to control the older, experienced teachers which are creating incentives to keep these teachers in schools beyond their retirement age. This is not good for the teachers or the students. Teachers that are not happy or are overworked are not a good asset to the school system or the students which they teach.

So how is this fair? Teachers work everyday in and out and still are being asked to work over retirement to fill the shortage. It could be that if teachers were actually valued in this country this shortage would possibly not exist. Unfortnately, teachers spend more time with children than some busy parents do at times. They not only teach, but are role models and influence so many students lives. How many times do hear stories of a Mrs. Smith a great 5th grade teacher that always knew exactly what to say to make your day just that much better or a Mr. Jones, a 3rd grade teacher who knew exactly how to explain the solution of whatever problem you could not find. We have all sometime in our lives been influenced by a teacher, or been taught a new task. We as a society can not wonder why there is a shortage of teachers, when we value professional sports and moviemaking more than a profession that involves are interaction with our children on a daily basis.

This entry was posted on 19. April 2009 at 22:57 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.