With enrollment declining, Oklahoma City University is phasing out its early childhood and elementary teacher preparation programs. Only three students remain in the combined programs.

While the decision to close the programs was made quietly in 2020, before COVID-19, the news only recently became widely known. In addition to local media coverage, this has raised questions about the health of teacher education programs elsewhere, especially as Oklahoma and other states face a possible wave of retirements and resignations of teachers this year.

“It’s the biggest concern of all,” said Heather Sparks, director of teacher training at OCU. “We know we’re going to continue to need teachers, and yet we’re not doing a good enough job, collectively, of getting people into the pipeline.”

Sparks, who graduated from OCU’s education program about 30 years ago and only recently returned there to teach, said the early childhood and primary teacher training courses mattered. historically 10 to 12 students. But about 10 years ago, enrollment began to “dribble,” Sparks said, prompting the university to finally deem the two programs unviable.

Nationally, total enrollment in teacher education programs fell by more than a third between 2010 and 2017, even as overall undergraduate enrollment increased over the same period. , according to a 2019 analysis by American Progress. Oklahoma performed worst in the state-by-state portion of the analysis, with an 80% drop in enrollment.

COVID-19 is likely to make things worse in some places. According to a recent survey by the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, 20% of institutions indicated that the pandemic had caused an 11% or more drop in new undergraduate enrollment. For graduate enrolment, 13% of institutions reported significant declines due to COVID-19.

Jacqueline Rodriguez, vice president for research, policy and advocacy at the association, said the pandemic-related drop in enrollment could threaten smaller programs in particular, because they need a critical mass of support. students to operate. And “if these programs start closing, we’re going to have a real problem with the workforce,” she added.

OCU’s pre-secondary education programs aren’t the only education programs to be eliminated in recent years. The University of South Florida shocked students, faculty members and community partners in 2020 when it said it was closing all of its undergraduate education programs due to a significant drop in enrollment , coupled with system-wide university budget cuts. The university reversed course after backlash, including from local school districts hiring many of the program’s teachers. Around the same time, the University of California, Davis backed out of a plan to suspend its teacher education program due to a similar outcry.

Rodriguez said what she gleaned from these reversals was that the planned closures were “short-sighted decisions that did not include stakeholders.”

“Missing the Boat”

The OCU hasn’t seen that kind of opposition to its decision to shut down two of its programs, likely because it’s a small, private institution, not a mainstream one. OCU’s other education programs, in art, music, and other high school disciplines, also remain in effect and, in some cases, are expanding. But Sparks said it’s relatively unsurprising to see a struggling program right now, “based on how teachers are treated in the community and on social media, and just the salary level and ‘benefits… All the things that go into making a job enjoyable and a career for someone, you know? We’re just missing the boat.

The minimum starting salary in Oklahoma for teachers with a bachelor’s degree and no experience is $36,601. For someone with a master’s degree, 25 years of experience, and national board certification, that figure is around $53,000.

Beyond relatively low pay, many teachers have unwittingly found themselves embroiled in culture wars and subjected to vaguely outlined laws against teaching so-called divisive concepts, critical race theory, or both. . Already this year, an Oklahoma bill prohibiting the use of public funds to teach “social-emotional learning” has already been introduced.

All of this is on top of COVID-19-related struggles, such as remote learning, reopening and hiding of debates, and lingering concerns about exposure in the classroom.

Sparks said she hopes to one day reopen what is closing at OCU by generating enough buzz around the remaining programs to attract new students to revised early childhood and elementary programs. What remains clear, she said, is that “there are people who remain passionate about becoming teachers.”

However, reviving enrollment in the general teacher education program will require a “collective effort”, she said. And, as of now, “the issue hasn’t really come to light in a way that everyone feels like it’s a hair on fire situation. And I’m afraid it takes expect the month of August, with thousands of [teaching] vacancies, for that to happen. I hope not. But who knows?”

Rodriguez said his association follows many programs that have found innovative ways to attract new students to the profession. But across the United States, she said, “it’s not about recruiting at this point, it’s about convincing the public that this is a profession and that, in As professionals, educators have autonomy”.