Washington, D.C. — The United States is struggling with a national teacher shortage, and governors across the country are trying to ram through legislation that creates shortcuts for getting teachers into the classroom. A new article from the Center for American Progress examines how these shortcuts are harming students’ learning, weakening the profession, and failing to address the root causes of the national shortage.
Since February 2020, 300,000 teachers and staff have left the U.S. teaching profession. The COVID-19 pandemic only further exacerbated the teacher shortage crisis, as the decades of systemic issues facing teaching—such as low pay, a lack of benefits, and poor working conditions—worsened. Governors are attempting to pass Band-Aid fixes to the teacher shortage—which actually further impair the quality of education—rather than investing in policies that will address the sources of these issues.
“To build a sustainable teacher workforce, the United States can’t cut corners. Policymakers must focus on ensuring that aspiring teachers have the opportunity for hands-on training so that they are prepared from day one in the classroom. Truly addressing teacher shortages head-on will require pairing high-quality training with redressing the decades long underinvestment and poor working conditions that have affected the teacher workforce,” says Roby Chatterji, associate director of K-12 Education Policy at CAP.
Read the article: “Teacher Preparation Shortcuts Won’t Solve the Teacher Shortage” by Loren Welles
For more information or to speak with an expert, please contact Sarah Nadeau at [email protected].