As a thought partner to our clients, we hear the many challenges in labor shortages and their impact on our youth. The labor shortages in education and instruction are preventing some students from learning.

Two years ago, the pandemic caused a domino effect of failures on our nation’s infrastructure design, systems, industry, supply chain, and connection to our quality of life. It simply crippled our economy, housing affordability, and the education system.

Educators and Academics

We hear from grantees of late how difficult it is to find qualified instructors for schools, colleges, certificate, and degree programs. Our HBCU partner, the University of the Virgin Islands, also expressed challenges with staffing at the college. Several community colleges that HIP coaches to grantees are overwhelmed with staffing shortages and meeting salary expectations.

One of our staffers, Ali Simon, is a former high school Spanish teacher and Speech and Debate coach. She left teaching a few years ago, before the pandemic, due to strict work constraints and inflexibility in work schedules. Being a military spouse, it became untenable to hold her teaching job and grow her family.

HIP asked Ali what made her want to be a teacher. “I had a Spanish teacher that inspired me to go into teaching. Mr. Annad was a great teacher and influenced my decision to study Spanish once I was in college. Years later, I realized as a teacher, you really develop what I call the “Teacher Brain.” Teachers do a lot more than what people think teachers do. They wear many hats at their school, and if the teacher is also the primary caregiver of their own children, it can become too much to do both well.”

“In the classroom, teachers are social workers, nurses, and all these extra jobs that they are not trained to do, but they love their job and, do it without question.”

To voice the challenges and find possible solutions, Ali and her co-host JoDee Scissors, another former teacher, came together to discuss this hot topic in a podcast called, The Great Teacher Resignation; you can listen to it here.

Sadly, it’s been a trend, even before the pandemic. According to EDweek.org, “…about 8 percent of teachers leave the profession every year, federal data have long shown. Younger teachers, and those early in their careers are among the most likely to leave teaching. And while trends in turnover do vary regionally, special education, science, and math teachers tend to be at high risk for turnover. Seventy percent of the public-school teachers who moved to other schools between 2011–12 and 2012–13 did so voluntarily, and the most common reasons included personal life factors (23 percent) and school factors (23 percent); less common reasons included assignment and classroom factors (5 percent), salary and other job benefits (4 percent), and student performance factors (1 percent).”

A Solution? Teacher Apprenticeship

Solutions will not happen overnight. Teachers need to earn credentials and graduate with degrees, but there is a way to start a pathway of support positions for teachers to succeed and sustain their position in the classroom.

On July 13, 2022, the New America staff will offer a webinar, The What and Why of Educator Apprenticeship for Youth and Adults. New America and leading apprenticeship practitioners will explore the growing momentum behind educator apprenticeships and highlight promising practices from established apprenticeship programs serving adult and youth learners. Teacher Apprenticeship: What Is It and Why Now?

Teacher Apprenticeship: What Is It and Why Now?

For additional insight on teacher apprenticeships, read how the state of Tennessee developed its own Registered Teacher Occupation Apprenticeship here.