Isms: Views on life in rural America

Either it’s irony or a divine sign that SPS English instructor Katie Schneider shared a blog post on social media last week about the teacher shortage. I’ve been gathering data on the topic for nearly a month, hoping to pull a story together.

I’m sharing Schneider’s post with her permission, on this Page, under the op-ed label. Schneider addresses parents in her open letter, talking about respect or the lack thereof, about technology and its effects on a child’s brain and behavior, about letting kids learn from their mistakes and fight their own battles.

And, while I agree that the topics she addresses may be driving teachers from the profession, I also believe there’s more to the story.

In a December 2023 report from the Nebraska Department of Education, 176 districts reported unfilled positions, which means fully-qualified personnel weren’t hired or positions were left vacant for the 2023-2024 school year.

“There were 908.18 unfilled positions reported,” the report states.

That’s an 18% increase from 2022. Of that 908.18 positions, 361 remained vacant. Unfortunately, there may be more unfilled or vacant positions than what’s reported by NDE. Of the 436 public and non-public districts and educational service units in the state, only 310 responded to the survey.

Based on the NDE report, the top-10 shortage areas include special education, elementary ed, language arts, career education, math, speech language pathology, science, early childhood ed, art and counseling.

In some instances, positions were filled by instructors who possess a provisional endorsement in content area or the district hired a teacher not endorsed, perhaps existing staff - properly endorsed or not - filled the job, or maybe the position never was filled.

What’s causing the shortage? Average pay, long hours, lack of respect. Sure, they all play into it. There’s also the growing number of teachers at or near retirement age. To compound the situation, there simply aren’t enough people enrolled in teacher education programs to cover shortages.

Then, there’s morale. Forty-five to 50% of educators exit the profession within the first five years. Many attribute stress and burnout as causes for leaving.

Society expects more and more from educators. They’re a classroom teacher but they’re also expected to serve as a therapist. For some students, a caring teacher serves a parent figure. Many are at school before the sun rises and don’t go home until long after the sun sets because they’re coaching an activity or working in the concession stand or being a line judge at volleyball.

And, while teachers need to be accountable for what students learn, standardized tests are the measuring stick for student learning. The preoccupation with teaching to a test has killed any semblance of teaching creativity or reaching the highest levels of cognitive learning - synthesis and evaluation. Skim, don’t dig deep.

I exited the teaching profession for two reasons: my mom was ill and I knew time was precious and I was tired of the always-changing list of demands placed on educators. The choice to leave was surprisingly easy, after 25 years of classroom experience.

I believe in education. I support our teachers. I also think the system, as a whole, needs a thorough evaluation. It takes everyone - from parents to bus drivers to the speech pathologist to students and administrators - to make a school district work. Everyone needs to be responsible for their roles, the sooner the better.