The ranks of future teachers down 30%; classes led mainly by white women | Education
Louisiana’s teaching staff suffers from a variety of ailments, including a 30% drop in the ranks of prospective teachers, an overabundance of educators working outside their area of ​​expertise, and a dire need for more racial diversity, according to a report. of State released Wednesday morning. .
The results were presented at a rare joint meeting of the State Council for Primary and Secondary Education and the State Council of Regents.
This was done by leaders of the 17-member Task Force on Teacher Recruitment, Recovery and Retention, which is conducting a two-year study authorized by the Legislature earlier this year to address a growing shortage of teachers. teachers who, according to school heads, make it difficult to ensure that class spaces are filled.
Louisiana’s teacher shortage is worsening with increasing retirements, the number of new teachers plummeting and superintendents increasingly struggling to fill classroom jobs.
The report was released ahead of the initial update on the issue due to the legislature on January 14.
The study indicates that the number of registrants for teacher preparation programs fell from 17,898 teacher candidates in 2011-12 to 12,597 in 2020-2021, a decrease of 30%.
The list of these finishing programs has declined by 15% over the same period, from 3,231 to 2,743.
Saint-Bernard Parish Superintendent Doris Voitier, a BESE member and half-century educator, said it was the first year she couldn’t start the school year with enough teachers.
“Alternative certification programs are popping up all over the place because this natural pipeline that we had is not productive enough,†said Voitier.
Nearly one in four teachers is not certified or works outside their field, so math and science classes suffer the most.
According to the task force, 21% of public school math courses fall into this category and 24% of science courses.
The panel said that a goal for both BESE and the board is more diversity in the classroom.
The report states that 73% of teachers in Louisiana are white and 23.5% are black.
While African Americans make up about half of Louisiana’s public school students, only 5% of teachers are black men.
White women make up 60% of the teacher ranks and black men only 5%, he says.
One of the task force’s recommendations is that regents and the state’s Department of Education “develop strategies to create a pipeline for teachers of color in educator preparation programs.”
“We talked about the need for teachers of color in elementary, middle and high schools,†said Susannah Craig, deputy commissioner of the Board of Regents and a member of the task force.
Craig said all of the state’s historically black colleges and universities, called HBCUs, except Dillard University, have teacher preparation programs.
Belinda Davis, a member of BESE, who lives in Baton Rouge, said the number of teachers changing careers is significant.
“We have unstaffed classrooms because teachers have left the profession,†Davis said.
Em Cooper, deputy assistant superintendent of educators at the state Department of Education, said exploring ways to bring retired teachers back to schools was one of the task force’s short-term goals. .
The task force said it plans to hold “listening sessions” with teachers in 2022 to discuss opportunities and barriers to educator retention.
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He also plans to team up with the Board of Regents to study the impact of teacher entrance exams and the chances of implementing a statewide compensation plan.
The state had 43,931 teachers in 2020, according to the report.
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