Jul. 18—Pennsylvania needs more teachers, and state officials have come up with a plan they hope will help.
Like many other states across the U.S., Pennsylvania has been facing a growing teacher shortage over the last few years. Fewer and fewer people have been entering the field, and more and more people in the profession are leaving.
That has left school districts struggling to find enough qualified candidates to fill open positions. Berks County and others in the region have not been immune to the problem, with local school leaders reporting an increasing challenge in being able to find qualified candidates to lead classrooms.
State education officials on Monday unveiled a plan they hope will turn the tide and help refill the shrinking pool of teachers.
The strategic planned titled "The Foundation of Our Economy: Pennsylvania Educator Workforce Strategy" outlines 50 steps to be taken over the next three years to address the shortage.
"Educators are the cornerstone of our communities and serve as the gateway to our collective future; without them, our workforce and economy cannot survive," acting education Secretary Eric Hagarty said during a press conference announcing the release of the plan. "Like other states across the nation, we have been grappling with an educator workforce shortage that would have severe and long-lasting implications for generations to come.
"However, Pennsylvania is acting now to reverse course, and this plan will help guide us as we recruit and retain teachers, school leaders, early childhood professionals, school librarians, and other vital personnel at all levels, from pre-kindergarten to high school, in all corners of the commonwealth."
A need for action
Pennsylvania's teacher shortage is a problem that has been simmering for years, but is now reaching a boiling point.
That is in part due to the chaos the COVID-19 pandemic has caused in the education world, as well as growing politically charged attacks that have, in some cases, turned school board meetings into shouting matches. Working in education has, quite simply, become more challenging.
As a result, fewer college students are pursuing careers in education.
According to state officials, a decade ago about 20,000 new teachers entered the workforce in Pennsylvania each year. Last year, the number was just 6,000.
At the same time, the rate of teachers leaving for another profession has accelerated.
That has left schools at risk of not being able to find enough teachers to properly staff classrooms. And the repercussions of that could be severe.
"Pennsylvania's educator shortage is the biggest threat facing not only our educational system but our future prosperity as a commonwealth," Laura Boyce, Pennsylvania executive director of Teach Plus, a national teacher development organization, said during Monday's press conference. "If schools are engines of educational and economic opportunity, then educators are the conductors who keep the train moving forward."
Realizing that something needed to be done, the state Department of Education conducted extensive feedback sessions with vested partners in education from across the state. Those sessions were the basis for the action plan released Monday.
The plan
The state's new action plan contains five focus areas for addressing the teacher shortage:
—Meeting staffing needs in rural, suburban and urban school districts.
—Building a diverse workforce that represents the students being served.
—Operating a rigorous, streamlined and customer-service oriented certification process.
—Ensuring high-quality preparation experiences for aspiring educators.
—Ensuring educators have access to high-quality and relevant professional growth and leadership development opportunities.
Each of the focus areas contain several goals and actions steps to be taken over the next three years to meet those goals.
Staffing
Attracting and retaining more educators is an urgent need for Pennsylvania, the action plan says.
Among the goals set in the plan are having 21,600 college students enrolled in teacher preparation programs by August 2025 and seeing a significant decrease in vacancy rates at schools across the state by that time.
A total of 13 action items are included in this section of the plan. Some of them include:
—Amending the Public School Code to eliminate the basic skills assessment and other barriers that are currently requirements to enter teacher preparation programs.
—Working with colleges and universities to set and monitor admissions targets for teacher preparation programs.
—Making permanent changes to how permits to work as a substitute teacher are issued.
—Expanding teacher preparation programs options.
—Establishing a team at the Department of Education that focuses on developing and implementing recruitment systems.
Diversity
While more than 93% of teachers in Pennsylvania teachers are white, while only about 64% of students are.
"(The Department of Education) must make concerted efforts to ensure that students have access to an educator workforce that represents the incredible diversity and rich histories, traditions and life experiences across the commonwealth," the plan states.
The plan sets goals that include having 25% of educators entering the profession by August 2025 be people of color; increasing access to mentoring and support programs for teachers of color; and increasing the retention rate for teachers of color to 90%.
The nine action items detailed in this section include:
—Supporting school districts' efforts to create incentive programs aimed at recruiting teachers of color.
—Supporting existing and help to develop new "Grow Your Own" programs where school districts aim to create pathways to careers in the district for their own students.
—Partnering with nonprofit organizations to develop recruitment, training and mentoring programs for middle and high school students with diverse backgrounds that encourage careers in education.
Certification
The plans seeks to make it easier for people interested in becoming an educator to earn their certification in Pennsylvania.
The goals the plan sets in this sections include lowering the average time it takes to process applications to 15 days; having 80% or more of applicants rate the application process as "highly efficient" or "efficient" by August 2025; and decreasing the number of formal complaints related to the state-controlled aspects of the certification process.
The plan has seven action items in this section which include:
—Modernizing the Teacher Information Management System used to submit and review certification applications.
—Reviewing existing policies, practices and procedures to eliminate bottlenecks and inefficiencies.
—Establishing guiding principals and service expectations for customer service.
Preparation experiences
The plan aims to make sure that people who are pursuing a career in education receive high-quality training.
Goals have been set in this regard that include having at least 75% of educators say by August 2025 that their teacher preparation program left them "strongly prepared" or "adequately prepared" to teach a diverse student population and having at least 75% of school administrators say they would hire a newly hired teacher again.
The plan contains 10 action items in this section which include:
—Expanding the number of educator preparation programs.
—Removing existing governmental barriers to entering educator preparation programs.
—Codifying improvements to high-quality educator preparation programs through state laws, regulations or policy guidance.
—Developing standards and guidance on instruction through cooperation between educator preparation programs and school districts.
Professional growth and leadership development
The plan goes beyond just finding ways to increase the number of teachers, also taking a look at how to ensure educators have the support they need to be effective.
It sets goals by August 2025 of having 75% or more of educators report they have "extraordinary" or "sufficient" access to relevant and high-quality professional development and having at least 75% of educators complete a professional learning experience in a professional growth area.
The 11 action items in this section of the plan include:
—Enhancing the Department of Education's database of professional development providers and offerings.
—Soliciting feedback on how to improve existing training opportunities, what training should be discontinued and ideas for new training opportunities.
—Establishing a statewide network of expert training providers in areas of need.
