6 thoughts on “Policy Option Brief: Solving the Teacher Shortage-Kim Ferguson”
The policy option to address the teacher shortage in this country is right on point. It brings to light what the causes of teacher shortages are, the reason why teacher shortage is critical and what should be done to fix this problem. So many of the reasons given as the excuse for the shortage seems to be more political than anything thing else. If the politics is taken out of this issue, there will be more than enough ideas, support and finances to help solve the issue. If we don’t come up with a solution fast enough the future of our country will be at stake.
Hi Kim! As a former teacher, this issue is very near and dear to me. I agree 100% that policymakers need to pay teachers more if they want to boost teacher retention and solve the teacher shortage. Higher pay for teachers is a signal to college students and employers that teaching is, indeed, a legitimate profession that requires a high level of skill and education in order to be done well. The statistic you used (teachers make 71% of other college educated professions) for teacher pay communicated the seriousness of the issue. However, I do not agree with your proposal that higher pay for teachers means that they should shoulder a heavier burden in the form of higher student-to-teacher ratios and more responsibilities at their jobs. I am fairly certain that there is evidence to support that the opposite approach (lower student-to-teacher ratios) produces better student outcomes. Further, I would argue that teachers burn-out precisely because they are expected to plan and differentiate rigorous lessons for a large number of students, while taking on responsibilities outside the scope of their work with students in a classroom.
I wonder if you could find some statistics to support the claim that teachers feel out of control, devalued, demoralized, and deskilled due to policies such as Common Core and NCLB? It is entirely possible, but I don’t think that teachers’ stress can be attributed wholly to federally imposed standards. Additionally, some statistic or reference linking teacher moral to classroom autonomy would be helpful. Also, if I were a policymaker, I would need more information demonstrating the detrimental effects of Common Core before making a decision to abolish it.
And while I agree that standardized testing is flawed, I see two potential problems with your proposal to shift focus to graduation rates and teacher-created assessments: 1) Without any kind of external standard, schools would simply pass students through to graduate even if the students did not earn it. 2) If every teacher creates their own assessment, I believe there would be an incentive for teachers to make assessments less rigorous. Your proposal to use a portfolio-assessment approach (experiments, presentations) is great! That would be harder to grade because it’s more subjective and takes more time, but I think it’s a viable policy alternative to standardized testing.
Hi Kim
I think teaching is a noble profession and teachers should be compensated more. I think one reason people go into teaching because they want to make a difference. In addition to increasing the salary, early intervention to prevent teacher shortage should be started while students were still in college is needed. This can be done at at a national or collegiate level. For example, the state or federal government could create something like the National Teaching Corp ( medical students could join the National Health Corp where the government will pay for 4 years of medical school tuition in exchange for promised of 4 years service in an under served area in primary care ) to encourage people go into teaching and not have to worry about student loans.
Regarding your other solution of eliminating the common core curriculum, and measure success by graduation rate rather than standardized testing, I see a few problem with this. I agree with Caroline that school would just pass student through under this system. Another problem that associated with this solution was that there is a big difference in competency and skill levels between students who graduated from Scarsdale High School or Bronx Science High School and those students from low income neighborhoods. Students should possess certain level of competency in other to earn a high school diploma.
Yael David
Professor Hoffman
PAF 9103
3 November 2016
Response Panel: Teacher Shortage
It is no secret that the American education system, including New York City, is not necessarily succeeding and a large part of that is due to the teacher shortage. The presently definitely made the case that this problem is sufficient in our city. Some of the arguments included poor retention of teachers especially in schools that are more challenged, a lack of respect for the teaching profession in American society, there are less people studying education, many teachers are moving out to the suburbs, dissatisfaction with increased amounts of testing, and the raising of standards for teaching and teacher preparation programs. A teacher shortage can result in larger classroom sizes and less qualified teachers as the standards cannot be set as high. Undoubtedly, this significantly impacts New York City’s education system.
The presenter suggested three options to remedy this issue: raise teacher pay, provide more support to teachers at the beginning of their career, and eliminating mandated standardized testing and in turn lower standards. Higher salaries would of course attract more people to the teaching profession who may be currently unwilling to pursue teaching at its current low salaries. More support, such as mentorships, for teachers at the beginning of the career, could prevent teachers from leaving within the first few years of a job (many teachers leave within the first 3-5 years). Many teachers are opposed to mandated standardized testing, especially since more recently it has been used as a measure for teacher success. Eliminating a component of the education system which teachers are largely dissatisfied with may retain more teachers. Additionally, people who may have been unqualified with high standards for teaching programs and jobs may pursue the career if the standards were set lower.
The first two options suggested by the presenter seem to be very viable option. I wholeheartedly agree that one of the biggest issues in recruiting teachers is the lack of respect that teachers receive in American society. In order to make teaching a respectable profession, it must be competitive. A competitive job has competitive pay. Therefore, raising teachers’ salaries will attract more people to the profession and therefore also raise the standards of our teachers. With higher standards and a larger pool to choose from, the quality of education will surely rise. Additionally, teaching can be a very intimidating profession as it is very individual. A teacher is expected to teach alone in a classroom without a team or any peers to work with for the majority of the day. An increase in mentorship programs would not only improve the quality of the mentees, but potentially also motivate them in the position. I believe it would also inspire the mentors with fresh and modern perspectives.
However, I strongly disagree with the third suggestion. First of all, lowering the standards for teachers will surely not help the education system. On the contrary, teachers who are not qualified to teach will enter our classrooms. While adjustments can be made to the way standardized tests are used to evaluate teachers, their elimination will not allow the government to keep track of schools that are failing their students.
Another option which was not suggested by the presenter is governmental subsidies for teacher preparation programs and Master’s degrees in Education. This may incentivize individuals to pursue the teaching profession. It is also a way for the government to invest in a public service which it provides. In other words, public education, provided by the government, should also be invested in by the government.
In conclusion, the teacher shortage in New York City public schools is clearly a serious issue for our youth’s education. Solutions that can be implemented in order to remedy this issue include increasing teacher salaries, providing mentorship programs for new teachers, and providing governmental subsidies for teacher preparation and Masters programs. Lowering the standards for teachers or eliminating standardized tests may bring in more people, but they would cause more harm to the education system than good.
The presentation did a good job of illustrating the importance of the teacher shortage issue. We agree 100% that policymakers need to pay teachers more if they want to boost teacher retention and solve the teacher shortage. Higher pay for teachers is a signal to college students and employers that teaching is, indeed, a legitimate profession that requires a high level of skill and education in order to be done well. The statistic you used (teachers make 71% of other college educated professions) for teacher pay communicated the seriousness of the issue. We would be interested in a statistic to illustrate what percentage of teachers leave the city to teach in the suburbs for the benefits of higher pay, more autonomy, and smaller class sizes. Teachers burn-out because they are expected to plan and differentiate rigorous lessons for a large number of students, while taking on responsibilities outside the scope of their work with students in a classroom. Therefore, we recommend that NYC’s Department of Education, in addition to paying teachers higher salaries, hire more support staff to help alleviate the stress and workload that causes teachers to burnout.
Two policy options not mentioned, but that could help address the teacher shortage are: student loan forgiveness incentive programs and recruiting teachers from international university settings. First, any person who teaches for at least 5 years should have their student loans forgiven or significantly reduced. Second, since there is a shortage of teachers in NYC, the Department of Education should recruit people from international universities to come teach.
We agree that standardized testing is flawed, however there are two potential problems with the proposal to shift focus to graduation rates and teacher-created assessments: 1) Without any kind of external standard, schools would simply pass students through to graduate even if the students did not earn it. 2) If every teacher creates their own assessment, we believe there would be an incentive for teachers to make assessments less rigorous. We support the proposal to use a portfolio-assessment approach for all students: using experiments, presentations, long-term writing samples, as well as standardized tests to track students’ progress. This approach would be harder to grade because it’s more subjective and takes more time, but we think it’s a viable policy alternative to standardized testing.
Great job!
Sorry, that previous comment is from Caroline Snell, Hao Lam, and Tamara Poghosyan.
The policy option to address the teacher shortage in this country is right on point. It brings to light what the causes of teacher shortages are, the reason why teacher shortage is critical and what should be done to fix this problem. So many of the reasons given as the excuse for the shortage seems to be more political than anything thing else. If the politics is taken out of this issue, there will be more than enough ideas, support and finances to help solve the issue. If we don’t come up with a solution fast enough the future of our country will be at stake.
Hi Kim! As a former teacher, this issue is very near and dear to me. I agree 100% that policymakers need to pay teachers more if they want to boost teacher retention and solve the teacher shortage. Higher pay for teachers is a signal to college students and employers that teaching is, indeed, a legitimate profession that requires a high level of skill and education in order to be done well. The statistic you used (teachers make 71% of other college educated professions) for teacher pay communicated the seriousness of the issue. However, I do not agree with your proposal that higher pay for teachers means that they should shoulder a heavier burden in the form of higher student-to-teacher ratios and more responsibilities at their jobs. I am fairly certain that there is evidence to support that the opposite approach (lower student-to-teacher ratios) produces better student outcomes. Further, I would argue that teachers burn-out precisely because they are expected to plan and differentiate rigorous lessons for a large number of students, while taking on responsibilities outside the scope of their work with students in a classroom.
I wonder if you could find some statistics to support the claim that teachers feel out of control, devalued, demoralized, and deskilled due to policies such as Common Core and NCLB? It is entirely possible, but I don’t think that teachers’ stress can be attributed wholly to federally imposed standards. Additionally, some statistic or reference linking teacher moral to classroom autonomy would be helpful. Also, if I were a policymaker, I would need more information demonstrating the detrimental effects of Common Core before making a decision to abolish it.
And while I agree that standardized testing is flawed, I see two potential problems with your proposal to shift focus to graduation rates and teacher-created assessments: 1) Without any kind of external standard, schools would simply pass students through to graduate even if the students did not earn it. 2) If every teacher creates their own assessment, I believe there would be an incentive for teachers to make assessments less rigorous. Your proposal to use a portfolio-assessment approach (experiments, presentations) is great! That would be harder to grade because it’s more subjective and takes more time, but I think it’s a viable policy alternative to standardized testing.
Hi Kim
I think teaching is a noble profession and teachers should be compensated more. I think one reason people go into teaching because they want to make a difference. In addition to increasing the salary, early intervention to prevent teacher shortage should be started while students were still in college is needed. This can be done at at a national or collegiate level. For example, the state or federal government could create something like the National Teaching Corp ( medical students could join the National Health Corp where the government will pay for 4 years of medical school tuition in exchange for promised of 4 years service in an under served area in primary care ) to encourage people go into teaching and not have to worry about student loans.
Regarding your other solution of eliminating the common core curriculum, and measure success by graduation rate rather than standardized testing, I see a few problem with this. I agree with Caroline that school would just pass student through under this system. Another problem that associated with this solution was that there is a big difference in competency and skill levels between students who graduated from Scarsdale High School or Bronx Science High School and those students from low income neighborhoods. Students should possess certain level of competency in other to earn a high school diploma.
Yael David
Professor Hoffman
PAF 9103
3 November 2016
Response Panel: Teacher Shortage
It is no secret that the American education system, including New York City, is not necessarily succeeding and a large part of that is due to the teacher shortage. The presently definitely made the case that this problem is sufficient in our city. Some of the arguments included poor retention of teachers especially in schools that are more challenged, a lack of respect for the teaching profession in American society, there are less people studying education, many teachers are moving out to the suburbs, dissatisfaction with increased amounts of testing, and the raising of standards for teaching and teacher preparation programs. A teacher shortage can result in larger classroom sizes and less qualified teachers as the standards cannot be set as high. Undoubtedly, this significantly impacts New York City’s education system.
The presenter suggested three options to remedy this issue: raise teacher pay, provide more support to teachers at the beginning of their career, and eliminating mandated standardized testing and in turn lower standards. Higher salaries would of course attract more people to the teaching profession who may be currently unwilling to pursue teaching at its current low salaries. More support, such as mentorships, for teachers at the beginning of the career, could prevent teachers from leaving within the first few years of a job (many teachers leave within the first 3-5 years). Many teachers are opposed to mandated standardized testing, especially since more recently it has been used as a measure for teacher success. Eliminating a component of the education system which teachers are largely dissatisfied with may retain more teachers. Additionally, people who may have been unqualified with high standards for teaching programs and jobs may pursue the career if the standards were set lower.
The first two options suggested by the presenter seem to be very viable option. I wholeheartedly agree that one of the biggest issues in recruiting teachers is the lack of respect that teachers receive in American society. In order to make teaching a respectable profession, it must be competitive. A competitive job has competitive pay. Therefore, raising teachers’ salaries will attract more people to the profession and therefore also raise the standards of our teachers. With higher standards and a larger pool to choose from, the quality of education will surely rise. Additionally, teaching can be a very intimidating profession as it is very individual. A teacher is expected to teach alone in a classroom without a team or any peers to work with for the majority of the day. An increase in mentorship programs would not only improve the quality of the mentees, but potentially also motivate them in the position. I believe it would also inspire the mentors with fresh and modern perspectives.
However, I strongly disagree with the third suggestion. First of all, lowering the standards for teachers will surely not help the education system. On the contrary, teachers who are not qualified to teach will enter our classrooms. While adjustments can be made to the way standardized tests are used to evaluate teachers, their elimination will not allow the government to keep track of schools that are failing their students.
Another option which was not suggested by the presenter is governmental subsidies for teacher preparation programs and Master’s degrees in Education. This may incentivize individuals to pursue the teaching profession. It is also a way for the government to invest in a public service which it provides. In other words, public education, provided by the government, should also be invested in by the government.
In conclusion, the teacher shortage in New York City public schools is clearly a serious issue for our youth’s education. Solutions that can be implemented in order to remedy this issue include increasing teacher salaries, providing mentorship programs for new teachers, and providing governmental subsidies for teacher preparation and Masters programs. Lowering the standards for teachers or eliminating standardized tests may bring in more people, but they would cause more harm to the education system than good.
The presentation did a good job of illustrating the importance of the teacher shortage issue. We agree 100% that policymakers need to pay teachers more if they want to boost teacher retention and solve the teacher shortage. Higher pay for teachers is a signal to college students and employers that teaching is, indeed, a legitimate profession that requires a high level of skill and education in order to be done well. The statistic you used (teachers make 71% of other college educated professions) for teacher pay communicated the seriousness of the issue. We would be interested in a statistic to illustrate what percentage of teachers leave the city to teach in the suburbs for the benefits of higher pay, more autonomy, and smaller class sizes. Teachers burn-out because they are expected to plan and differentiate rigorous lessons for a large number of students, while taking on responsibilities outside the scope of their work with students in a classroom. Therefore, we recommend that NYC’s Department of Education, in addition to paying teachers higher salaries, hire more support staff to help alleviate the stress and workload that causes teachers to burnout.
Two policy options not mentioned, but that could help address the teacher shortage are: student loan forgiveness incentive programs and recruiting teachers from international university settings. First, any person who teaches for at least 5 years should have their student loans forgiven or significantly reduced. Second, since there is a shortage of teachers in NYC, the Department of Education should recruit people from international universities to come teach.
We agree that standardized testing is flawed, however there are two potential problems with the proposal to shift focus to graduation rates and teacher-created assessments: 1) Without any kind of external standard, schools would simply pass students through to graduate even if the students did not earn it. 2) If every teacher creates their own assessment, we believe there would be an incentive for teachers to make assessments less rigorous. We support the proposal to use a portfolio-assessment approach for all students: using experiments, presentations, long-term writing samples, as well as standardized tests to track students’ progress. This approach would be harder to grade because it’s more subjective and takes more time, but we think it’s a viable policy alternative to standardized testing.
Great job!
Sorry, that previous comment is from Caroline Snell, Hao Lam, and Tamara Poghosyan.