Education Week - August 22, 2018 - 6

With Declining Enrollment, Teacher Colleges Recalibrate
'No, we have enough candidates,' "
she said.
Instead, she said, one solution
could be for accreditation groups
to tell teacher-prep programs that
they must produce enough candidates in certain fields to meet the
needs of the profession.
And school districts have more
authority than they might realize,
she said.
"If you're not willing to place 100
elementary student-teachers because you don't need to hire them,
the university will have no choice
but to become more strategic and
more selective about how to fill
those spots," Walsh said. "It's so
straightforward ... and it would

The report notes that there is a
mismatch between the majors that
students choose and the personnel
needs of school districts.
While there isn't a national
teacher shortage, there are some
perennial shortage areas, including
special education, high school math
and science, foreign language, and
bilingual education.
However, the most popular major
for aspiring teachers is elementary
education. That field accounts for 21
percent of undergraduate education
majors among all teacher-prep-program completers-whereas special
education majors make up 9 percent. Just 4 percent of completers
majored in English as a second
language, and 2 percent majored in
bilingual, multilingual, and multicultural education.
Better aligning districts' needs
and colleges' outputs could solve
teacher shortages, said Kate Walsh,
the president of the National Council on Teacher Quality, a Washington-based research group that has
at times clashed with colleges of
education.
"As much as it makes sense for us
to look to higher ed to respond, ...
it's not in their self-interest to tell
students who want to be a teacher,

WHAT ARE THE MOST
POPULAR MAJORS FOR
ASPIRING TEACHERS?
Elementary education is the most
popular undergraduate major of
students who complete teacherpreparation programs. Few aspiring
teachers major in common shortage
areas, like secondary math and
science.
SOURCE: 2016 Title II Collection, U.S. Department
of Education, compiled by AACTE

6 | EDUCATION WEEK | August 22, 2018 | www.edweek.org

NUMBER OF BACHELOR'S AND MASTER'S
DEGREES IN EDUCATION CONFERRED,
1970-71 TO 2014-15
The number of both bachelor's and master's degrees awarded
has declined in recent years, despite an overall increase in
master's degrees awarded in the 1970-71 school year.

Master's Degree

Too Many Elementary Teachers?

solve supply and demand in a couple years if districts stood up and
asserted [their needs]."
For their part, higher education
officials say they try to inform candidates about the realities of the
profession before they choose a
major.
"When students declare their
area of interest, their adviser talks
to them about anticipated openings, shortages, hireability, and
helps students make informed decisions-but we don't push them
away from their area of passion,"
said Nicole Thompson, the co-director of the division of teacher preparation at Arizona State University's
teacher college.

Bachelor's Degree

Colleges of education are in a
Catch-22: They're needed more than
ever to produce well-trained teachers as school districts struggle to
fill certain positions. But fewer and
fewer people are enrolling in their
programs.
That's one of the findings in a
comprehensive report of the state of
teacher preparation by the American
Association of Colleges for Teacher
Education, released last week for the
organization's 70th anniversary. The
report examines the steps colleges
of education have taken to revamp
themselves in light of increasing
challenges for the teaching profession.
Between the 2007-08 and 2015-16
academic years, there was a 23 percent decline in the number of people
completing teacher-preparation programs. The largest decline-32 percent-has been at alternative programs (for people who already have
a bachelor's degree) that are housed
in colleges or universities. But all
types of programs have seen drops.
The number of bachelor's degrees
conferred in education declined by
15 percent between 2005-06 and
2014-15. Across all other major
fields, the number of bachelor's degrees conferred increased over that
period.
There are a number of possible explanations for the decline of interest
in teaching programs. According to
a survey by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, as noted in the report, deans of
colleges of education said the No. 1
reason for the enrollment drop was
the perception of teaching as an undesirable career.
That perception is likely based
on complaints about a lack of professional autonomy and low wages,
the deans said. In a remarkable sign
of discontent, teachers walked out
of their classrooms in a half-dozen
states this spring, frustrated with
low pay, crumbling classrooms, and
years of cuts to school funding.
Almost half of college graduates
who become teachers leave the profession within a few years, the report
notes.
To address these challenges, colleges of education are repositioning
themselves, the report says.
First, they're changing their curricula to better prepare candidates,
most of whom are white, to teach a
diverse student population. There
is more of a focus on multicultural
education, the report says, and more
colleges are developing partnerships
with school districts that serve lowincome and minority students, so
that teacher candidates can gain
experience in those settings.
Renée Middleton, the dean of Ohio
University's college of education, and
a past chair of the AACTE's board
of directors, said the school has developed a "community focus" when
preparing its teachers. For example,
the region is facing an opioid crisis,
so the college is making sure teacher
candidates are prepared to deal with
the effects in the classroom. Candidates are also trained in trauma-

informed instruction, she said.
"Teacher education is not an
island unto itself," Middleton
said. "It takes all of us to deal with
challenges."
Teacher-prep programs are also
beginning to shift away from standardized exams for candidates, and
toward performance-based assessments-which evaluate multiple
measures of teaching, including student teaching, the report says.
Critics of standardized exams
have said they fail to measure effective teaching skills, and that nonwhite candidates tend to pass them
at lower rates. The report notes that
by 2019, at least 21 states will use
performance assessments as an option or requirement for initial licensure.
Also, colleges are placing a stronger emphasis on student teaching
and developing closer partnerships
with school districts, the report says.

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By Madeline Will

Bachelor's Degree

Master's Degree

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics

Still, she added, "the shortage
[in Arizona] is fairly significant, so
whoever we produce pretty much
gets hired."
And Ohio University's Middleton said advisers do warn aspiring elementary teachers that they
might have to move to another city
or even another state to get a job.
But there's only so much colleges of
education can do, she said.
"We're giving [students] the data,"
Middleton said. "It's still their decision to major in it."

Colleges Must 'Be More Creative'
In states with persistent teacher
shortages, like Oklahoma, Arizona,
and Utah, policymakers have eased
some of the requirements for becoming a teacher-at times bypassing colleges of education.
For example, the Oklahoma state
board of education approved a record-setting 1,975 emergency certifications last school year. These
certifications allow people without a
teaching certificate to teach for one
year, or allow a certified teacher to
teach a new subject before getting
recertified. And the board is on
track to approve even more emergency certifications this year.
"It puts some pressure on this college to be more creative," said Gregg
Garn, the dean of the University of
Oklahoma's college of education.
"How do we articulate the importance of really good preparation ...
to be an extraordinary teacher?"
In addition to doubling down on
teaching pedagogy and making sure
student teachers are supported in
the field, Garn said the college is
trying to "take an innovative look"
at how to retain teachers.
Part of that, he said, is setting
them up for financial success. Oklahoma teachers, who walked out of
their classrooms this spring in protest of low wages, are among the
lowest paid in the nation. Teacher
preparation can't change that, Garn
said, but the college has unveiled
debt-forgiveness and financialliteracy initiatives to help teachers
manage their money.
"I want great professionals to
come out of this [college], but I also
want people to have a really good
life," Garn said.

Other Majors 5%
Elementary Education 21%
Noneducation Majors 19%

Health Education 1%
General Education 3%

Special Education 9%

Secondary Education 7%
Reading Education 1%
Math Education 3%
Art Education 1%
English/Language Arts 3%
Science Education 2%
Music Education 2%
Physical Education 2%
Social Studies Education 3%
English as a Second Language 4%
Curriculum and Instruction 1%
Early-Childhood Education 8%
Multilingual & Multicultural Education 2%Middle School Education 3%

http://www.edweek.org

Education Week - August 22, 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Education Week - August 22, 2018