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Fixing Teacher Shortage or Ignoring the Problem?

A number of studies and reports indicate there are thousands of vacant instructional positions in schools across the United States. Moreover, it is believed that well over 100,000 teaching positions are currently held by uncertified teachers or teachers who do not hold a certificate in their subject area. Do a quick search on “4-day school week” and you will find stories about how a number of school districts are weighing this option as a mechanism to help with teacher shortages. As districts consider other options like higher pay, bonuses, student loan payoffs, reduced focus on standardized testing, and countless other ideas, the question remains, will any of these efforts fix the problem?

While there is no single silver bullet to address the teacher shortage, every creative solution offered seems to exclude decades of research about why people leave their jobs. The leader is the #1 cause of turnover and employee dissatisfaction. The leader is also responsible for the #2, #3, #4, and #5 causes of employee turnover and dissatisfaction. Let’s analyze this in terms of the relationship between a principal and his/her teachers:

1) Employees leave jobs because the leader fails to clearly articulate expectations, does not provide adequate training, or does not provide the tools/equipment needed to do the job. From the teacher’s perspective, standards change every year, leading to a lack of clarity on the true expectations. New curricula or technologies are imposed on teachers with limited or no training. Depending on the survey you review, the average teacher spends over $500/yr on their own classroom; even the government recognizes this reality, as teachers are eligible for a $250 tax credit for classroom expenditures.  If we honestly assess our school districts and school systems, can we say that principals are providing the training, tools, and equipment needed to do the job?

2) Employees leave jobs because the leader places people in the wrong position resulting in a poor job fit. Ask a teacher who is working with an uncertified or untrained teacher how they feel about it.  For years, many teachers have felt that their profession was underpaid and unappreciated.  Now, as the shortage of teachers grows, teachers not only feel underpaid and unappreciated but also have a sense that their formal education has been commoditized.  It is not uncommon to see education waivers or a 3-year window for applicants with a non-educational degree to get obtain both the education and certifications needed to be a teacher.   However, in those 3 years, that “teacher” is afforded nearly the same status as formally trained teachers who more than satisfy all of the regulatory requirements to be certified.  Even with easing the rules, how many times are teachers asked to teach something outside of their expertise or education? How many school support positions are filled by people who actually make the teacher’s job harder rather than easier?

3) Employees leave jobs because the leader fails to hold others accountable to standards and expectations. Nearly every teacher can name at least one co-worker (if not many more) who is widely known to be a poor teacher, but seems to never be held accountable by the principal or school administration (and in some cases is given “easier” assignments, seemingly as some sort of “reward”). The teacher shortage worsens this leadership flaw, as principals hold onto poor teachers as they fear the inability to find a replacement.  In our current economic climate, this issue is not unique to education.  Every industry, to varying degrees, is facing the challenge of balancing employee discipline/accountability with the stark reality that there is not a line of applicants waiting to fill the job.  However, the outcome of not actively managing every member of a team to the standards of performance is that your better-performing teachers will depart while those who love an environment of limited accountability will stay.

4) Because the leader fails to establish consequences for poor or underperformance, the other employees feel they are underpaid and/or underappreciated, thus they seek other opportunities. It is no secret that school systems, both public and private, work off of payscales or pay bands. In such a system, teachers with the same education and experience receive the same or similar level of compensation, regardless of actual job performance. As such, when a teacher sees a peer who is underperforming but earning the same pay, it leaves that teacher with the feeling of being underpaid or underappreciated for his/her contributions. One way to resolve the feeling of being underpaid is to seek a higher level of pay elsewhere.  Unfortunately for schools, higher pay is widely available and oftentimes without sacrificing some of the “perks” of the teaching profession.  As wages have increased across all industries, it is not difficult to find a position outside of the teaching profession paying more, sometimes with the added benefit of work-hour flexibility or working from home.

5) Employees leave because the leader fails to connect their work efforts to the mission and purpose of the organization. Rarely will you find a teacher who is not intrinsically connected to his/her students, helping them grow and succeed. Educators tend to be self-driven to connect with the mission of helping students. What happens, though, when the principal fails to stand up to rude or verbally abusive parents? What do teachers think when a new policy, curriculum, or procedure is introduced without their input and seemingly without consideration for the impact it will have on students? How do teachers feel when they send their principal an email about an important matter and it does not get a response?  In these scenarios, teachers begin to question whether their principal and school administration are equally committed to the mission and purpose of the organization.  They begin to question whether “the system” is truly about providing quality education to children or if it is just a societal machine that we know is necessary, so we maintain the machine without adequately focusing on the true purpose or goal.

As the tight labor market impacts so many industries, education is not immune from the impacts of its leaders. We cannot address the teacher shortage without addressing the leadership abilities of school administrators and principals.  In a review of multiple graduate-level educational leadership programs, we found as little as 10% of the coursework was dedicated to the leadership of people.  Without a greater emphasis on the most important part of any organization (i.e. the people), how do expect a different result in the retention of excellent teachers?  After all, how many hours of in-service training are dedicated to developing leadership competencies?    If we do not constantly improve the leadership skills of our school leaders, are we ever going to fully address the teacher shortage?

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