Transcriber: Annet Johnson Reviewer: David DeRuwe
So I want everyone to think about when you were in kindergarten through 12th grade.
Did you have a teacher that impacted you in a really positive way?
Or you were excited to go to class?
A teacher that knew their content really well
and was able to teach it to you in a way that you understood?
Maybe even went above and beyond?
If you did, then chances are you had a qualified teacher.
I had that teacher too.
Miss Riley, my second grade teacher
not only taught me math, reading, and writing,
but she taught me life lessons that impacted who I am today.
I am a teacher because of Miss Riley.
This is my 19th year as an educator.
Thirteen of those years were as a middle school teacher,
and this is my sixth year as an assistant teaching professor
in teacher education.
What I am seeing with the teacher shortage and the lack of qualified teachers,
frankly, makes me very nervous for the future of public education.
A qualified teacher is one who has successfully completed
an educator preparation program
that’s prepared them in theory, practice, and pedagogy.
A qualified teacher has also successfully passed
the content assessments for the content which they teach.
The “Teacher Shortage Report” from December 2021,
published by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education,
showed over 3,000 teaching jobs had either been left vacant
or filled with unqualified teachers.
These are the results from the educator vacancy reports
in June 2021 and March 2022,
which shows that the vacancies are highest in elementary education
and special education.
I don’t know where I would be today,
if I had an unqualified teacher in second grade.
Because teacher impact is so important for student success,
it’s necessary that we evaluate what’s going on in education right now
and turn this teacher shortage around.
When education changes,
it’s often a chain reaction to global or societal events.
In my years as an educator,
I’ve experienced the impact that current events have on education.
I’m going to share some of those with you today,
concluding with the ongoing impact on education from COVID.
Policymakers and educators need to figure out
how to frame current events in positive ways for education,
so that we can turn this around.
My first year of teaching was 2001.
And I will never forget where I was on September 11th -
at Lincoln Middle School in Peoria, Illinois,
teaching a class of eighth graders with two other teachers in the room.
One of the teachers wheeled in a TV,
and we watched the news of the Twin Towers coming down.
I will always remember that sorrowful feeling that came
while watching that moment with my students.
A big thing 9/11 taught us is patriotism and a sense of fighting for our country.
American flags were flown at half mast,
and while schools were pulling counselors to talk to kids about the events,
many administrators were figuring out new safety protocols for the schools.
I experienced this increase in safety,
as I observed more school resource officers in the buildings.
I also noticed that at faculty meetings,
we began to talk more about lockdown procedures,
even began to practice them with our students.
Unfortunately, 9/11 also caused many to discriminate
and even commit hate crimes
against Muslim, Middle Eastern, and South Asian populations.
In education though,
teachers came to realize that they had a duty to teach
about these other nationalities and revise curriculum.
This led to lessons about how to teach kids about 9/11,
along with bigger changes to the curriculum
that included topics that were left out before,
such as Muslim culture and U.S. domestic terrorism.
Prior to 9/11, these topics were not thought of as necessary
to include in the curriculum, but now they were given a voice.
In 2002, the government became more involved in education
through the “No Child Left Behind Act.”
The US felt that American students
were falling academically behind students in other countries,
and the government wanted to find a way to hold schools accountable
for students not being successful.
This led to Adequate Yearly Progress, increased funding for Title I schools.
choice of schools, and lots of testing.
All of this personally impacted me,
as I was teaching at a Title I school at the time.
We had a very lofty goal of trying to get our students
to be proficient in math and reading standards,
and it created a lot of stress for the teachers.
Some days, I felt like I was just teaching to the test,
even though I knew that was not the best learning experience for my students.
During testing week, all of the teachers, myself included, were on pins and needles,
praying that our students were trying their hardest.
In 2015, “Every Student Succeeds Act” replaced “No Child Left Behind,”
and the expectation for students to be successful was still there,
but some of the pressure on teachers was decreased.
Common Core Standards were introduced in 2009,
as a way to make standards more consistent across states.
This was the first time we really saw social media impact education.
This is a post from a parent that went viral:
It was about the homework his child was bringing home
and saying it was more difficult than the way he was taught.
He goes on to mention his Bachelor of Science degree
in electronics engineering
and how even he can’t figure out this Common Core Math.
Many parents felt this “new math” needed to go away.
As a junior high math teacher at the time,
I was constantly hearing from parents and friends,
none of whom are in the education field,
that this Common Core math was more difficult
and we needed to go back to the way things were before.
Many times they referenced that social media post
from the parent who struggled with the homework.
In education though,
teachers realized that Common Core was about rethinking the standards
and giving students a variety of ways to learn the content.
Textbooks used became focused on applying learning
and understanding why things worked a certain way,
rather than focusing on memorization,
which helped to increase rigor in the curriculum.
Current K-12 students will not be able to answer
where they were on September 11th, 2001,
but they will know where they were in March 2020.
This was one of the fastest changes to happen in education.
Many students were sent home in March
and told that they would be back two weeks later,
but didn’t come back the rest of the school year.
Teachers who were not trained in online learning
were expected to put the rest of the curriculum for the year online,
and this led to different learning experiences from district to district,
depending on how comfortable teachers were with technology
or how easily they had access to technology.
Teachers have gotten better at using technology in the last two years
because of the quick move to virtual,
but the digital divide is still very real in education.
Many rural schools in Missouri have students and teachers
that lack Internet bandwidth at their homes,
making it difficult to participate in Zoom or access online assignments.
When students were sent home in 2020,
many principals expected their teachers to just review what had already been taught
and not go further with the curriculum,
because not all students had equal access to assignments and classroom resources.
Some districts stopped grading schoolwork altogether
and instead gave students credit for attempting assignments.
The idea of not accepting late work became a thing of the past,
and students were allowed to complete assignments with more flexibility.
There are some clear parallels
between the educational reactions to the current events I mentioned earlier
and the recent reactions with COVID.
For example, with 9/11 we saw an increase in safety protocols
and more emergency preparedness training for staff.
With COVID, we also saw an increase in safety protocols,
although these were more focused on the health of students and teachers.
But students had new protocols for how they went out to recess.
Many students began to eat breakfast and lunch inside of their classrooms
instead of the cafeteria
in order to cut down on interactions with other students.
Teachers were provided more resources on how to keep their classrooms clean.
With “No Child Left Behind,” we saw an increase in government funding.
We saw that same increase in government funding with COVID.
One example is the free breakfast and lunches
that came to the schools during that time.
As I mentioned earlier,
Common Core got a pretty bad reputation right away
because of a social media post from a parent.
Social media is something that’s impacting education more and more lately.
One thing I noticed with COVID,
teachers are getting more of a voice on social media than they had before,
with teachers all over Instagram sharing their thoughts and ideas
on what is happening in education right now.
Who better to make change than the people involved in the system?
So it’s really important
that we trust what the teachers in the classroom are saying.
One parallel that I could not find though
was an increase in educational expectations.
In the past, with current events impacting education,
they've led us to evaluate our standards and increase rigor in the curriculum.
With COVID, we saw a pause in learning among many,
and that unfinished learning has led students to fall academically behind.
We need to find a way to get these students back on track,
and having qualified teachers in the classroom
is a really good place to start.
So how do we get the qualified teachers back in the K-12 buildings?
Well ... the teachers that are staying in the classroom are doing so
because they're passionate about teaching children.
And as parents and onlookers,
we need to listen to them and help in whatever ways we can.
Many teachers feel overworked and unappreciated.
Due to staff shortages,
many times they’re asked to fill in other places during their prep periods.
Some districts have tried to address this,
but real consideration needs to be made for teacher wellness.
Allowing teachers to take mental health days
or providing mentors in the schools are some ways to help.
In Missouri, over 100 districts have moved to four-day workweeks,
in part to recruit teachers.
Another reason why there’s a decrease in qualified teachers
is because many are looking for higher-paying jobs.
Everyone knows that teachers are not in their chosen profession
because of the pay,
but because of the teacher shortage,
many districts are looking at pay and increasing salaries.
Missouri recently voted to increase teacher pay,
as we were the lowest in the country, but we still have a long way to go.
Student loan forgiveness for teachers,
housing allowances for teachers that work in rural areas
are some ways to help financially.
Public education is hurting right now and it needs the support of you.
Listen to the teachers that are still in the classroom
and figure out ways to support them,
whether that be writing to your congressman
about increasing teacher pay,
or volunteering at local schools,
so that they don’t have to use their prep period to fill in other places.
Hopefully we can learn
from educational reactions to current events in the past
and overcome what this global pandemic has done to our public schools,
and most importantly, bring back qualified teachers into the classrooms.
Thank you.
(Applause)