You almost get it–almost–as to why teachers are leaving the profession and why there are many vacancies to be filled.
Before we begin, let’s deal with the number of teacher vacancies that the school district announced in Tuesday’s board meeting: 258, which is far less than what they have been experiencing at the start of a new school year. The mood was celebratory, even gleeful, that this was the best position they have been in years.
But there’s a reason for that. In Spring budget meetings, when the district projects enrollment for the fall and adjusts the number of teaching positions at each school, the district projected a 20% reduction in enrollment due to the new universal voucher law.
Frankly, I think that’s overly pessimistic, but based on that projection, the district eliminated a lot of teacher positions for the year about to begin. It’s known as surplus. Because of attrition due to retirement, movement to other districts, and relocation out of state, many positions were open where the teachers displaced by surplus could be put.
Thus, the only reason the vacancy number is low is because the district eliminated positions. What happens if students don’t leave in the numbers anticipated?
The district has to restore positions. Don’t be surprised if that 258 number is closer to 750 once the 10-day count is done and September arrives.
You and your panel wouldn’t know this unless you ask the hard questions. Don’t take anything the district says at face value. They will tell you the half of the story they want you to know. You have to get after the other 50%.
Now for why there are vacancies. Not only are teachers leaving the profession, but young people are making the choice not to be teachers and to enter other careers.
Yes, pay is an issue. The citizens of Duval County passed a referendum for an additional one mil of taxation (0.1% of appraised property value) that will mostly be used to supplement salaries. However, the new school year beginning August 14 is the first time this additional pay will show up in paychecks. The additional mil began with last year’s property taxes, the county has been collecting it, but not until this month will the money begin flowing to teachers.
Nevertheless, (my opinion) the pay situation is brighter than it has been in years. People will argue whether it’s enough given what other persons with college degrees earn, but frankly, it’s a 10 to 12% boost for most teachers and that’s a lot. I expect to see a lot less Facebook posts from teachers wondering how they will pay their rent.
It’s more than compensation. Yes, school safety is a concern. However, if the principal is doing it right, the drills are not traumatic for students and teachers. We practice sheltering in place: cover the windows, turn the lights out, squeeze into the hard corner, and get on the floor. Drills are announced clearly, “Code Red. Code Red. Code Red. DRILL.” Everyone knows there’s no actual threat on campus; it’s only practice.
The daily occurrences of school violence is discouraging, though. To work in a school means to wonder if on any given day, it will happen to me. The probability is extremely low, but it’s not zero.
The impact on vacancies is analogous to the U.S. military, which is facing unprecedented recruitment challenges. They are not meeting their goals. Why? Unemployment is at historic lows, real wages (adjusted for inflation) are rising, and high school graduates find that their predecessors may have seen the military as their only worthwhile option for employment, but they have a choice. Also, the ongoing wars of the last 20 years and the prospect of death make the military less attractive as well.
Young people have more options. It’s not only that teachers are leaving the profession; it’s that too few young adults are choosing to enter.
It’s more than compensation and safety. Yes, it’s the fear not only of losing a job, a certificate and a career that would trash a significant investment of time and resources, but also a fear of being charged with a crime for showing a Disney movie in the classroom or reading a book to young children.
The maddening thing is the vagueness of it all and the standard that no child can feel uncomfortable, which leaves teachers vulnerable to the attack of one angry parent even if 30 or 100 parents defend the teacher.
All these things are contributing to the teacher shortage. You and your panel did an admirable job in covering them in your short segment after y’all spent 30 minutes discussing the Trump indictment.
But you’re missing what is even more fundamental. I suppose that is because you talk as journalists who have children in school, have a spouse or a friend as a teacher, and you consider that enough. You’re not getting the inside story, the real story, because you are satisfied with that.
It’s the lack of respect. That is what is truly driving teachers away. It is a culture, a state, a school system, and a district administration that believe that professionally trained teachers do not know what they are doing. Every minute of their day has to be managed, controlled, and directed.
It’s sad what is taking place in Duval County. No one talks about it because they are not in a school everyday walking around seeing what is going on. I was. Children spend all day on screens, doing online curriculums and online assessments. The district has abandoned print textbooks in favor of online versions. That is why every secondary student has to be issued a district laptop. Without it, they have no means of accessing the mandated curriculum for learning.
The district monitors the minutes spent on these programs and will contact a school’s administration if they decide the classrooms are short of the required minutes. How many administrators, feeling their own pressure for performance, will take the heat? Administrators have no job protections. They can be reassigned at a whim and their annual contracts can be non-renewed.
Who’s going to kick back? Another manifestation of disrespect is the weekly inspections that district personnel occasionally join in the classroom. We don’t trust teachers to do their jobs; administrators must continually visit classrooms to be sure. They are required to document the lesson and check off a list as to how well the teacher complied with demands.
They have a tablet for it. The program tracks the amount of time the administrators spent in the classroom to make sure it meets the district minimum requirement. Apparently, the district doesn’t trust school-based administrators either.
Then there is the required daily posting on the whiteboard. Teachers must, according to an agreement between DTU and the district, post three things: the date, the learning objective, and the essential question that guides the day’s learning activities.
But wait! The district doesn’t always respect the agreements it makes with the union, either. Under the former superintendent, there was an additional requirement to write out the standard in full every day. Many of Florida’s education standards are broad and can cover up to six different learning concepts. Teachers were not allowed to leave out the unnecessary words given the focus of the lesson on a particular concept.
The reason given? If teachers aren’t forced to write out the standard in full, they won’t align their instruction to the standard. They won’t do their job in other words.
How insulting! Teachers spend time in required professional development about how to write lesson plans, but when they examine the district curriculum guides, they find everything is determined to the last detail. The curriculum guide is the lesson plan. And yet, they still have to do a copy-and-paste job into the required daily lesson template.
Teachers, like employees everywhere, resent having their time wasted. In the end, all that really matters are the test scores. It will take a separate essay to take apart the assumption many people make, including those on your panel, that test scores are the same as student learning.
But here’s a spoiler alert. Test scores most strongly correlate to zip code. That’s right, students don’t need to actually take the tests for teachers and others to know how they will turn out.
The importance of zip code is that America is segregated into housing patterns based upon household wealth. The richer the people in the zip code, the higher the school’s test scores will be.
You have to dig deeper and ask the hard questions to find this out.
Lastly, your panel correctly noted that teachers are often motivated by their love of children. But they have children, too. It is asking too much of teachers to demand that they sacrifice their children to serve the needs of everyone else’s.
Why should teachers have to not help their children with homework because they took a stack of papers home to grade? Why should teachers miss their children’s school plays, ball games, and other activities because they have to sponsor those activities for other people’s children? When are they allowed to take care of their own needs?
These are the factors your panel missed this morning. Until these issues are acknowledged and addressed, expect the shortage to continue.
As I opened this letter, I will close. You almost get it. Almost.
–Grumpy Old Teacher