Despite the work of teachers laying the foundation for careers beyond secondary school, The Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) says there are not enough well-prepared educators in the pipeline to teach.
SREB represents and works with 16 states to improve public education at every level. In their latest report, "Teacher Career Pathways and Advancement Options" they emphasize the urgency to make the teaching profession more attractive through accessible and high-quality teacher pathways.
“Over the last decade in the South, in our 16 States, we've had a 23% drop in completions from ed prep programs–that includes traditional and alternative programs,” said Megan Boren, SREB Project Manager and report co-author. “The incoming generation seems less inclined to go into teaching.”
However, there is an increase in older career changers coming into the teaching profession through alternative routes. According to the report, this twofold issue can be solved through consistent pathways across the board.
Dr. Stephen Pruitt
"These pathways need to provide quality routes with rigorous standards, no matter which way you're coming in, no matter what background that you have,” said Boren in an interview with Diverse.
Career pathways, as defined by SREB in the report, require six key elements: alignment, data analysis, college and career readiness, stackable credentials, systems of guidance and support and continuing education and career advancement.
Dr. Stephen Pruitt, President of SREB, said this is not just an education issue, but a major economic and workforce issue.
“Arguably, we're going to eventually see an impact on leadership in schools, because if we aren't creating enough teachers, we're also not going to be creating enough administrators,” said Pruitt in an interview with Diverse. “If we don't do a better job of recognizing the really key component that teachers are to our workforce and our economy, we won't have the people prepared to be in the jobs of the 21st century.”
According to Boren, to attract the younger generation to teach, the pathways should be designed so that students are not wasting credits, money or time.
“Teaching should be exposed to students earlier on, preferably in high school where they're allowed to start taking courses early,” says Boren.
This exposure can look like, “tutoring kids, experiencing what teaching can be like, the joys of teaching, the ability to get into college with some credits already toward that degree, [and] apprenticeship pathways where that degree can actually end up being free to them and they can get paid for the job,” she said.
On the other end of the spectrum, current classroom teachers are feeling less and less supported, many of whom have no interest in climbing the ranks to become administrators, according to the SREB report.
“We have to figure out not only how to attract folks into teaching and prepare them well, but we have to figure out how to keep them in teaching,” says Boren. “What we're learning is there is a cadre of teachers who want to be able to stay in the classroom and work with their students, but they do not want the same job with, you know, a 1-step salary increase per year for 30 years. They want to be able to advance.”
The report refers to this as teacher advancement options, providing educators with leadership responsibilities and the ability to stay in the classroom. According to Boren, these teacher leadership roles are a win-win situation for everyone while helping to retain and grow talent.
“That gives them the ability to grow their own skills, to be leaders, to take on more responsibility, [and] it benefits the school,” she said. “We see a lot of research that in schools where they are moving toward models like this, student learning is increasing. Retention of teachers is increasing. Leadership is able to do far more things for the school because they have this instructional leadership team built in with these teacher leaders.”
Pruitt, a former teacher, said there’s a societal component impacting teachers feeling undervalued and underpaid.
“It comes down to that one word of support,” Boren said. “Teachers leave in droves because they do not feel supported. The top two reasons are they do not feel supported by their leadership, or they do not feel supported by their colleagues, and then close behind it is we do not feel supported by the parents.”
Teacher advancement and career pathways are among the list of ways to recruit, retain, and support teachers.
“That is something we really have to focus in on to provide those kinds of supports,” said Boren. “In the buildings, and kind of comprehensively, globally, for that profession.”
