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Urban Teacher Shortages Most Severe in Areas Critical to Raising Performance
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 Demand
Highest in Mathematics, Science, and Special Ed., Data Shows Teacher
Shortages Force Urban School Districts to Use Diverse Recruitment
Strategies to Fill Classrooms.
Washington, D.C. - January 19, 1999 - The nation's largest urban
school districts are faced with severe teacher shortages in critical
subject areas that are projected to continue through the next five
years. And with serious cracks in the "teacher pipeline,"
exactly where districts will find faculty to meet these escalating
demands is anyone's guess, according to a report released today
by Recruiting New Teachers (RNT), the Council of Great City Schools,
and the Council of the Great City Colleges of Education.
The shortages are most pervasive in mathematics and science, areas
where U.S. graduates lag far behind their international peers. Virtually
all of the nation's largest urban school districts responding to
a national survey reported immediate needs for mathematics (95 percent),
science (98 percent), and special education teachers (98 percent).
Shortages in these areas are followed closely by shortages in bilingual
education (73 percent), English as a second language (68 percent),
and educational technology (68 percent), according to the report,
The Urban Teacher Challenge.
The report, which surveys 40 of the (then) 54 school districts
in the Council of the Great City Schools, finds that while the fields
experiencing shortages have remained the same, urban districts seem
to be experiencing a higher demand for teachers in these fields
than was reported in 1996. Collectively, the districts surveyed
are home to over 5.5 million students - more than 10 percent of
the nation's public school enrollment - and over 325,000 teachers.
The report also highlights the urgent need for more minority teachers
in urban districts surveyed, where students of color make up approximately
69 percent of total student enrollment, but only 36 percent of the
teaching force. Nearly three quarters of responding districts reported
an immediate need for teachers of color (72.5 percent), which is
especially troubling considering that 70 percent of districts already
use special recruitment efforts to attract prospective minority
teachers and 95 percent are recruiting at historically black and/or
Hispanic colleges.
"Students in underserved schools are doubly disadvantaged
when they don't have teachers qualified to teach challenging subjects,"
according to David Haselkorn, president of Recruiting New Teachers,
Inc. "Unfortunately the teaching shortage in urban schools
has grown even worse over the last three years. As teachers retire
and children of the baby boomers enroll, urban schools are scrambling
to find teachers. We desperately need more people willing to teach
mathematics, science, and special education in the nation's cities."
See Figure 1 below.
"The nation must make a concerted effort to attract more and
more highly qualified teachers to urban classrooms if we are to
provide opportunity for the one fourth of our students who attend
urban schools," says Michael Casserly, executive director of
the Council ofthe Great City Schools.
Addressing the Problems: What Urban School Districts Are Doing
The nation's largest school districts have pioneered the use of
special recruitment efforts aimed at luring qualified candidates
to the classroom. Districts are also working harder on retaining
and developing the teachers they do have.
* Nearly two thirds of urban school districts surveyed now offer
induction and support programs (67.5 percent) to keep talented new
teachers in the classroom.
* Nearly as many offer alternative routes to teacher certification
(65 percent) to bring professionals with backgrounds in shortage
subject areas into the classroom.
* Meanwhile, almost as many districts offer on-the-spot contracts
to hire teachers without the waiting or red tape that in the past
often resulted in teachers not taking jobs in urban schools.
* Virtually all urban districts (95 percent) are recruiting at
historically black/Hispanic colleges to address minority teacher
shortages.
* Districts also are offering financial incentives for teaching
in high-need subject areas.
In an attempt to counter the shortages, urban districts also are
moving to bolster teaching ranks in shortage areas with a range
of stopgap measures, often including the hiring of noncertified
teachers. More than four out of five (82.5 percent) districts now
allow noncredentialed individuals to teach. Sixty percent allow
teachers to work under emergency permits, and 60 percent also use
long-term substitutes. Certification waivers and internship programs
and permits are now used in 37.5 and 35 percent of districts, respectively.
What Urban Colleges of Education Are Doing
The Urban Teacher Challenge also reveals serious problems with
the supply of teachers coming from the nation's colleges of education
- the primary source for qualified teaching candidates. Despite
the extreme shortages in specific subject areas, teacher education
students continue to be most interested in fields already well supplied
with teachers. A separate study of 45 of the (then) 54 members of
the Council of Great City Colleges of Education found that students
at more than half had low interest in becoming mathematics and foreign
language teachers (55.6 and 53.3 percent), and students at almost
half (44 percent) had low interest in pursuing science.
Instead, the strongest interest was reported in the already well-staffed
areas of elementary education/multi-subject (86.7 percent), social
studies/history (68.9 percent), early childhood (62.2 percent).
"Because urban school districts have had to confront the most
significant teacher shortages, they also are on the forefront of
developing new strategies and enlisting colleges and universities
to help provide necessary support and training for unlicensed teachers,"
according to Casserly.
For their part, urban colleges of education have taken action to
realign their supply with the growing demand in certain fields by
employing a wide range of incentives aimed at attracting candidates
to high-need areas. Currently, 84 percent of schools have special
placement programs or other incentives to interest their graduates
in urban teaching positions, and nearly three fourths (73.3 percent)
place curricular emphasis on teaching in urban schools. Other incentives
to attract candidates to high-need teaching areas include career
counseling (64.4 percent), assistance for licensure exams (56.6
percent), and special financial aid programs (26.7 percent).
"This study documents the urgent need to direct more teacher
education students into urban areas," said Phil Rusche, dean
of the School of Education, University of California, Northridge,
and Chair of the Great City Colleges of Education. "Colleges
are already pioneering programs and incentives to encourage prospective
teachers to teach in urban and high-need areas. Now the time has
come to scale up these programs in a comprehensive way."
Colleges of education are targeting nontraditional students of
color by offering alternative routes to certification, including
apprenticeship/internship programs, part-time programs, evening
programs, off-campus programs, and summer programs. Four out of
five institutions (82.2 percent) offer financial aid, nearly three
out of five (57.8 percent) tuition assistance, and about two out
of five provide stipends (40 percent) and loan forgiveness (37.8
percent). Meanwhile, nearly nine in ten (87 percent) are actively
recruiting ethnic and racial minorities (with over half offering
special incentives or support). Four out of five (80 percent) are
recruiting students from bilingual/bicultural backgrounds (with
42 percent offering special services and incentives for these groups).
This report was prepared by Recruiting New Teachers (RNT), the
Council of the Great City Schools, and the Council of the Great
City Colleges of Education, who work together as the Urban Teacher
Collaborative, with support from the Carnegie Corporation of New
York and the Ford Foundation.
http://www.recruitingteachers.org/channels/clearinghouse/audience/media/1g17_media_pressurbanteachershortage.htm
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