Meeting the Need for Inclusive Educators Online

The purpose of this chapter is to detail how online courses and programs influence teacher education for both preservice and inservice inclusive educators. Specifically, this chapter will examine how online courses and programs that are focused on inclusive special education and dual certification in general and special education have the potential to address teacher shortages in special education, expand teacher competence, and provide pathways for career development. Teacher education programs have the opportunity and the civic responsibility to create courses and programs in inclusive education that are accessible, relevant to the career development needs of both preservice and inservice teachers, and promote meaningful and just education for all students in inclusive schools and classrooms.

The Role of Language Ideologies in the Self-Efficacy of Pre-Service Bilingual Education Teachers

This chapter examines how language inequities within education are associated with perceptions of Spanish language self-efficacy in pre-service bilingual education teachers. The chapter delves into how language ideologies play a role in shaping disparities amongst bilingual education programs. The teacher shortages which exist within the field of bilingual education have assisted in the increased demands placed on bilingual pre- and in-service teachers. The programs created to instruct bilingual teachers have had to modify their design in order to meet the needs of future teachers. The needs are determined by the perceptions of each bilingual. Additionally, each bilingual chooses what skills are needed in order to use Spanish as a medium of instruction and, in some cases, to teach Spanish as a foreign language. Using a grounded theory, this study analyzed the cycle of language ideologies, self-efficacy, and language inequities. The results show that language ideologies have impacted the bilinguals' self-efficacy. Finally, it was determined that language inequality has played a key role in shaping language ideologies.

The Myth and Reality of Teacher Shortage in India: An Investigation Using 2019-20 Data

This paper examines the widespread perception in India that the country has an acute teacher shortage of about one million teachers in public elementary schools, a view repeated in India’s National Education Policy 2020. Using official DISE data, we show that teacher vacancies cannot be equated with teacher shortages: while the number of teacher vacancies (in teacher-deficit schools) is 766,487, the number of teacher surpluses (in surplus-teacher schools) is 520,141, giving a net deficit of only 246,346 teachers in the country. Secondly, removing estimated fake student numbers from enrolment data greatly reduces the required number of teachers and raises the number of surplus teachers, converting the net deficit of 246,346 teachers into an estimated net surplus of 98,371 teachers. Thirdly, if we both remove estimated fake enrolment and also make a hypothetical change to the teacher allocation rule to adjust for the phenomenon of emptying public schools (which has slashed the national median size of public schools to a mere 63 students, and rendered many schools ‘tiny’), the estimated net teacher surplus rises to 239,800 teachers. Fourthly, we show that if government does fresh recruitment to fill the supposed approximately one-million vacancies as promised in National Education Policy 2020, the already modest national mean pupil-teacher-ratio of 25.1 would fall to 19.9, at a permanently increased fiscal cost of nearly Rupees 637 billion (USD 8.7 billion) per year in 2019-20 prices, which is higher than the individual GDPs of 50 countries that year. The paper highlights the major efficiencies that can result from evidence-based policy on minimum viable school-size, teacher allocation norms, permissible maximum pupil teacher ratios, and teacher deployment.

Backtalk: Harnessing the power of career changers to address teacher shortages

School administrators across the country have been facing a worsening teacher shortage. Programs that attempt to fill gaps by promoting teaching among current high school students are helpful but cannot fill vacancies as quickly as is needed. Alan Mather of Golden Apple describes how their Accelerators program has begun inviting career changers and current college seniors who aren’t on an education track into their 15-month residency and licensure program. The program attracts professionals who are interested in teaching but lack the time or money for traditional preparation programs and puts them on a quicker path to teaching jobs in schools with high needs.

“If I Ever Leave, I Have a List of People That Are Going With Me:” Principals’ Understandings of and Responses to Place Influences on Teacher Staffing in West Virginia

Purpose: Schools across the predominately rural state of West Virginia are experiencing widespread teacher shortages, though recruitment and retention difficulties are unevenly distributed across place. Using spatial in/justice as our framework, we explore how principals define place, how place influences principal perceptions of teacher recruitment and retention, and how principals respond to these staffing challenges given their leadership experiences, relationship to school community, and understandings of place affordances and disadvantages. Research Methods/Approach This research utilized interviews with eight principals across six school districts in West Virginia over a four-month time frame. We inductively coded interview transcripts in iterative cycles using our research framework as a guide for emic and etic codes. Findings: We find principals’ understanding of place influences on staffing to be specific to the unique attributes of each community and the placement of their leadership experiences – as community returners, seasoned though not originally from the community, and new-to-place. Their understandings of spatial in/justice as it relates to teacher staffing shape ideas of place affordances and disadvantages and recruitment and retention practices. These findings complexify the teacher staffing picture across geographically diverse rural places and the responses available to leaders given their leadership experience and relationship to place. Implications for Research and Practice The place-specific influences on teacher staffing problematize statewide policy mechanisms for ameliorating teacher shortages. The findings also suggest the need for further in-depth qualitative research within districts and across states, with an emphasis on racially diverse rural places.

The editor’s note: A better start for teachers

Long-standing teacher shortages have only gotten worse during the COVID-19 pandemic, says Rafael Heller. As more teachers leave the profession, the teacher workforce is getting younger and greener. To stop the churn, school systems need to address the specific needs of their new teachers. Some are also beginning to pursue grow-your-own strategies that encourage current students, paraeducators, and other staff who are already invested in the community to become teachers.

The grow-your-own approach to teacher preparation: A conversation with Amaya Garcia

Amaya Garcia of New America talks with Kappan about grow-your-own programs, in which school districts partner with teacher preparation programs to recruit and prepare community members, often current students or school staff, to teach in local schools. A recent 50-state scan shows that there is a great deal of variety in how these programs are designed and implemented, and data on the effectiveness of these programs to address teacher shortages is still emerging. Garcia discusses some specific programs that appear especially promising.

Waking Rip Van Winkle: A proposal to redesign the education workforce

The education model in which a single teacher instructs a single classroom of students has been remarkably persistent, but teacher shortages, low morale, and poor teacher retention are signs that it’s not working well for teachers. Ray Reutzel and Parker Fawson describe how Utah’s Center for the School of the Future is seeking to redesign the teacher workforce to improve outcomes for both teachers and students without increasing costs. Their integrated workforce model brings students together in a pod led by a master teacher, classroom teachers, teacher interns, aides, and tutors. Students receive more individualized support, and prospective teachers have more opportunities to practice their skills before receiving a license and becoming a lead teacher. The model also includes pathways for paraprofessionals to complete education coursework while they continue to earn an income.

The Costs of Emergency Certification: A Solution or Dilemma for School Leaders?

When there are teacher shortages, emergency certification allows individuals with a bachelor’s degree to enter the profession without having undergone formal education training or preservice preparation. Despite its widespread use in the United States, emergency certification is a poorly understood human resource process. Little is known about how principals perceive and assign meaning to the credential, how they engage with emergency credentialed teachers during the hiring phase, and, in turn, how they incorporate these teachers into the school environment after hire. This study draws on credential theory and uses qualitative methods to investigate school leaders’ perceptions of emergency-certified teachers in Oklahoma. Findings from this study shed new light on the use of emergency credentialing by highlighting school leaders’ mixed feelings about the policy and the challenges and limitations of providing necessary support systems for emergency-certified teachers. By illuminating the costs of emergency certification, findings offer implications for policy and practice.