CEA-Advisor_February-March-2023-issue_no-ballot_web

REBUILDING

4 CEA ADVISOR FEBRUARY – MARCH 2023

CONNECTICUT’S TEACHER SHORTAGE: WHAT, WHERE, WHY, AND HOW TO FIX IT

By mid-November, nearly three months into the school year, New London Public Schools had 74 unfilled positions. Bridgeport, Danbury, and other districts continue to face similar shortages. And while the challenge could be seen as an urban problem, the reality is that rural and suburban districts across Connecticut, from Greenwich and Fairfield to Plainfield and Killingly, have been scrambling, and often failing, to fill school vacancies. More educators are leaving jobs they once loved—in the middle of the school year—and fewer college students and professionals from other disciplines are looking to take their place. Burgeoning demands, diminishing supports, pay that hasn’t kept pace with other professions, and an erosion of respect are among a host of issues driving new and experienced educators into other careers, pushing some into early retirement, and discouraging a growing number of talented candidates from entering the profession at all. A 2022 report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office acknowledged, “Negative perception of the teaching profession and perceived lack of support for current teachers are among key recruitment and retention challenges.” Growing challenges, diminishing returns Entry into the field of education has long been driven by the prospect of intrinsic rewards: the joy of making a difference in the life of a student. Unfortunately, the rewards are dwindling as educators feel devalued and disregarded and students exhibit deepening disengagement. Significant drivers are standardized testing and the erosion of teacher autonomy. “Experienced teachers have retired in the last couple of years because of the increase in state and local mandates placed on educators, many of which have taken the joy out of teaching and learning,” confronting additional work-related issues, including more responsibilities due to staffing shortages and political attacks and harassment for everything from mask-wearing to discussing or teaching curriculum concepts related to race, gender, and bias. Dysregulated, disruptive, and violent student behaviors related to trauma or mental health challenges have risen steeply as well. In the 2021-2022 school year, nearly six out of Plainfield Education Association President Janet Piezzo explains. Since the pandemic, teachers are also dissatisfied with the many difficult daily conditions they face • Nearly all teachers say stress and burnout are serious concerns • Three in four are more likely to leave teaching earlier than previously planned Nationally, teachers earn less than other college graduates, an imbalance often referred to as the teacher wage penalty. In 2021, the earning gap between teachers and non-teacher college graduates grew to 33 percent. (In Connecticut, where unions and support for educators are both stronger than in many parts of the country, that wage penalty is closer to 17 percent.) From 2016 to 2021, the total number of Connecticut college graduates who completed teacher preparation programs declined by 16%, from 2,132 to 1,788. The cost of becoming a teacher is another factor. Tuition at Central Connecticut State University for the 2022-2023 year is $12,026 per year, not including meals, housing, and other fees. Additionally, student teachers are unpaid for their time as embedded interns, and they are prohibited every ten school leaders said a major concern was an increase in student disciplinary issues, and more than one in four teachers identify student behavior as their top source of job-related stress. An October 2022 CEA survey of Connecticut teachers paints a troubling picture: • Nearly three in four teachers are

by their programs from working anywhere for pay during their semester-long assignment. Testing fees also place an added burden on prospective educators, many of whom will graduate with significant student debt and starting salaries lower than those of their similarly educated peers. To add to the problem, chronic underfunding of schools has long forced teachers to dip into their own pockets to purchase basic classroom supplies, to the tune of hundreds or thousands of dollars a year. “We are given a limit of two reams of paper per month,” says Bridgeport Education Association President Ana Batista, a bilingual teacher.

“Everything else is out of pocket. If you need extra resources or want to make your classroom more attractive, that’s all your own money.” Too much “Our district is doing the best they can to hire qualified people,” Batista says, “but we’ve had to

TEACHERS LEAVING THE PROFESSION

collapse classes because of a lack of teachers and find settings to accommodate larger classes—up to 29 students, or up to 24 in kindergarten, with no paraeducators. Art and music teachers get pulled in to cover, losing their own prep time. Substitute paras might be shared between two or three classrooms, and they are hard to recruit and retain. By October of this school year, one Bridgeport teacher was on her 15th substitute paraeducator. If you are sick or your own child is sick, you worry about your students—the anxiety involved in knowing they will be split up among other teachers and split up from each other.” “Over the past decade of continued underfunding and continued high growth in enrollment, we face severe understaffing, high class sizes, and insurmountable caseloads for our counselors, school psychologists, social workers, and speech-language pathologists,” says Danbury Education Association President Erin Daly, an elementary school teacher. “Special education teachers lack adequate staff support to help meet the needs of their students due to the severe shortage of tutors and paraprofessionals. Teachers’ workload is unrealistic, and we are continuously missing prep time to cover other classes.” Batista adds, “There are constant new initiatives without any responsibilities taken away, and the professional development teachers want and need is frequently not offered to us. The strain on early career educators is particularly acute. It’s a tremendous workload in those first years while many new teachers are juggling weekend lesson plans, graduate school, administrative paperwork, and constant emails from parents, students, and administrators.” Batista believes veteran teachers should receive stipends and release time to mentor new teachers, including younger teachers and career changers. “We need to support them,” she says. “I’ve talked to teachers who are falling apart.” Too little Aside from workload, working conditions are often a problem. “Over half of our schools still lack air conditioning, and there are heating issues as well,” says Batista, who adds that some Bridgeport schools lack parking lots or adequate street parking. CEA is seeking legislative fixes to improve working conditions, including a bill to establish minimum and maximum temperatures in schools. “There is very little to entice new teachers to work here,” Daly agrees. “Danbury’s school buildings are in disrepair, without working bathrooms and sinks, without mold-free classroom spaces, without heating and cooling systems that work properly. Those who do decide to take a job here often leave after a short period of time for a surrounding district offering not just higher pay but fairer, safer working conditions. As a result, we’re in a constant state of hiring, with dozens upon dozens of unfilled positions. We have not been fully staffed in several years.”

More than six in ten educational degree holders regret completing an education degree.

Teachers 30%

16% Engineers

19% Nurses & Lawyers

30% of teachers leave within five years of starting their careers, compared to 16% of engineers and 19% of nurses and lawyers.

TEACHER PREP PROGRAM DECLINE

41% Connecticut’s teacher preparation programs (traditional four-year and Alternate Route to Certification) declined by 41% from 2010 to 2018.