About That Teacher Shortage

Abstract

AN ARTICLE by Barbara Benham Tye and Lisa O'Brien in September Kappan was characterized by editors as being about the teacher Many articles and commentaries have discussed a current or looming teacher shortage brought on by confluence of growing student numbers, aging teachers, and teachers fleeing high-stakes testing. According to Linda Darling-Hammond in Solving Dilemmas of Teacher Supply, Demand, and Standards (National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, 2000), various factors have created the largest growth in demand for teachers in America's history. In fact, there does not appear to be a systemwide teacher shortage. A paper by National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) economist William Hussar, titled Predicting Need for Newly Hired Teachers in United States to 2008-2009, does in fact posit that some two million teachers will be needed during this period. This figure has led to a perception of shortage because many observers, including National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, have interpreted newly hired as first-time hires. In fact, Hussar explicitly mentions that new hires include people returning to teaching after some period of absence, and his paper assumes that supply will meet demand. A recent study by Richard Ingersoll of University of Pennsylvania apparently accepts existence of a shortage but posits a different principal reason for its existence: preretirement teacher turnover. Ingersoll writes in fall 2001 issue of American Educational Research Journal that research has concentrated on teachers who leave field altogether and has largely overlooked those who move to different schools and different districts. Using three different cycles of Schools and Staffing Survey, Ingersoll concludes that largest source of turnover is teachers who leave for another school or leave profession entirely, not those who retire. Ingersoll finds overall teacher turnover somewhat higher than that for all employees: 13.2% annually for teachers versus 11% for all jobs. Public school teachers do not leave as frequently as private school teachers do: 12.4% of public school teachers leave versus 18.9% for those in private schools. Small private schools are particularly vulnerable, with an annual turnover rate of 22.8%. Within public schools, teachers exit low-poverty schools at a rate of 10.5% a year, while they leave high-poverty schools at a rate of 15.2%. Urban schools lose a higher percentage of teachers (14%) than suburban schools (13%), while rural schools have lowest turnover rate (11.2%). Not all losses to a given school are losses to profession, however. For all schools, only 6% of teachers leave profession, while 7.2% move to a different school or district. Of those who leave, 27% retire, while 45% report personal reasons for leaving. Twelve percent leave because of a school staffing action, and 24% leave to find another occupation. (The numbers do not add to 100% for a variety of reasons.) Among teachers who left because they were dissatisfied, 45% said poor salary was an issue. Thirty-eight percent cited low student motivation, while 30% mentioned student discipline, and another 30% mentioned inadequate administrative support. Low student motivation drove most teachers from large urban schools (50%), while poor salary was a close second (46%). Poor salary was cited by about three-fourths of those who moved from small private schools to other schools or who left profession. For all teachers who moved from one school to another, poor salary and inadequate administrative support were principal causes. Ingersoll concludes that programs to recruit more teachers are not likely to solve problems districts have in finding teachers. Rather than increase quantity of teacher supply, an alternative solution to school staffing problems is to decrease demand by decreasing turnover, he writes. …