By Angelica Bottaro
Students need teachers. Educators provide the necessary guidance and knowledge to help the next generation of graduates prepare for their futures. Without teachers on the frontlines embracing the art of mind-molding and opening, students get the short end of the stick when it comes to their education.
While not having enough teachers to help propel students to the next level may sound like a worst-case and make-believe scenario, it’s not. According to the National Education Association, the education sector experienced a net loss of over half a million teachers in the last year alone. And now, schools in the United States are facing even more losses—roughly 300,000 teachers, to be exact.
With the shortage crisis looming, parents may ask themselves what will happen to their children. Can we address the issue before it becomes much worse?
In this article, we will discuss:
- Latest on the teacher shortage
- Actionable, community-based solutions that address the teacher shortage
- How to get started with a Grow Your Own program
Latest On The Teacher Shortage
While the teacher shortage crisis began its decline a long time ago, the COVID-19 pandemic didn’t help. Many educators have had enough between political pressure, banned books, and laws catering to old worldviews. Even the physical working conditions, such as overheated classrooms and a lack of mask mandates in certain states, are causing teachers to see the forest for the trees.
According to a union poll by the NEA, over half of all participating educators wanted to leave their original career path to find something else where they were less overworked, underpaid, and undervalued. It’s become a recipe for disaster in the education sector because how do teachers remain in that situation when their former peers are experiencing the complete opposite in other professions?
The consequences of the shortage are also being felt by people who have come to the United States for the sole purpose of teaching in America. After getting the appropriate Visas and making their way to a teaching job in the country, immigrants have found that the promise of American education is not as shiny and bright as the brochure had promised.
However, these international educators are keeping the camel’s back from breaking and more needs to be done locally for the shortage to be fully addressed.
Teacher Shortages Affect Student Performance
When schools don’t have an adequate number of qualified educators to teach students in their districts, they fall short in different ways. Some schools must adapt to the changing conditions by shortening the school week by a day, while others may have to bring in people who cannot educate students in a profound and meaningful way.
The learning capabilities of many students will suffer because of these shortages, especially after the turmoil during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many kids just entering the school system were confined to at-home learning via laptop, which meant missing out on learning critical skills required to succeed in a classroom setting.
Now that in-class studies have returned, it’s even more challenging to integrate these students because classroom sizes are increasingly larger than they should be, allowing those struggling to fall between the cracks.
Actionable, Community-Based Solutions For A Healthy Educator Workforce
Every problem comes with a solution, and the teacher shortage crisis can benefit significantly from the Grow Your Own Program. The program, which creates partnerships between educator programs, schools, and the community, is designed to bridge the gap of teacherless schools by calling on community members to step up and join the education sector. The recruitment isn’t aggressive but rather a helpful initiative that clears all the debris from a path toward teaching for those who are genuinely passionate about the calling.
Students flourish when classrooms have the appropriate number of qualified educators who are happy to take on the challenge of shaping young minds. But it’s more than that. The entire community benefits from well-educated and passionate individuals. They go on to improve local societies.
Get Started With a Grow Your Own Program
With the Grow Your Own Program in place, educational organizations are stepping in to do their part for the future teachers of America. One such program offered by Klassroom is the Teacher Certification Program (TCP). The course program provides prospective teachers with the unique chance to prepare for educating students in their respective communities by partnering with school districts in areas across the country. That aids in making the Grow Your Own Program viable.
TCP grants community members easy access to teacher certification to seamlessly switch from their current profession to teaching. It isn’t simply offering anyone a teaching job: it’s preparing people who are ready and willing to take on the role in the face of a shortage crisis so they are qualified to do so.
Offer High Quality, Flexible Teacher Certification To Local Aspiring Educators In Your District. (Klassroom Can Help.)
Partnerships with school districts are necessary to ensure that people interested in Klassroom’s Teacher Certification program can adequately complete it. Each district must sign up for the program with its chosen number of candidates in a cohort. That keeps the program open for those who will benefit most in the communities requiring a specific number of new educators. When the sign-up is complete, the district can reach out to community members, including parents, para-educators, non-certified school staff, or students.
By offering a clear path to a teaching career through Klassroom’s Teacher Certification, more community members will see it as an opportunity for a unique and meaningful career change. Once prospective applicants are interested, they can complete the program and placement within a school in their community.
In under a year, those teachers are certified and ready to provide much-needed education to the many students that have yet to receive proper education because of pandemic-related issues, resource issues, and the teacher shortage crisis.
Final Thoughts
With Klassroom doing its part to help communities and school districts find their way out of a teaching shortage crisis, many other educational programs may follow suit. It’s not about being the first or the best. It’s about helping students by offering school districts the help they need to provide qualified and passionate teachers and educators the resources they need to help students reach their full potential.