Abstract
The headlines don't lie. K12 schoolhouses across the United States are struggling to fill classroom teacher vacancies. The lack of licensed teachers in K12 has been trickling down from higher education for years. The work of these universities in preparing tomorrow's teachers is further exacerbated by conflicting pressures and priorities at the local and state levels. Universities that train teachers are bracketed by state departments of education raising the standards of quality for teachers, while at the same time, local legislators who are hearing the loud cries from K12 school leaders for more teachers are clearing the way for teacher candidates to bypass traditional teacher training and licensure programs. The author examined four critical issues impacting the teaching profession and presented a university's response to each identified issue.
TopBackground
Not unlike other universities in the U.S that prepare and train teachers, the author’s has experienced a steady decline in the number of teacher candidates across traditional teacher preparation programs, both at the undergraduate and graduate student levels. The reasons for the enrollment declines are complex, from the lack of respect for the profession (Heinz, 2015) to polarizing state politics that teachers must manage in their classrooms (Lopez, 2022). University faculty identified several salient critical issues that have a direct effect on program enrollments at a private university in Virginia and outline the steps they took to address the deficits. The conundrum in all this for teacher preparation faculty are the decisions of policymakers that seem to pit quality against quantity of teacher candidates. On one hand, national accreditation keeps raising the bar for teacher candidate qualifications, while on the other, local regulations that govern teacher qualifications are being rolled back to allow teacher candidates easier access to today’s classrooms without the needed training and preparation. The following summary outlines the critical issues and faculty responses in addressing declining enrollments in traditional teacher preparation programs.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Retention: First year students who continue at the school or program the following year.
Teacher Shortage: The inability to staff teaching vacancies with qualified and licensed teachers.
K12 Public Schools: Kindergarten through 12 th grade learning institutions that are funded by local, state and/or federal governments in the United States.
Legislative Changes: Refinement or other modification to the local, state and/or federal codes necessary to comply with legislation.
Recruitment: The action or process of identifying and persuading qualified individuals that they could benefit from the educational programs/services provided by the University/College and assisting them through the application and enrollment steps.
Educator Preparation Provider: The university or college unit that prepares and licenses educators, sometimes referred to as an EPP.
Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation: Organization that accredits educator preparation programs that are housed at universities and colleges across the United States.
Virginia: A state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.
Accreditation: Quality assurance through external peer review.
Teacher Licensure: Provides professional and public assurance that teachers have met state teaching standards.
Alternative Licensure: Program of study that awards a teaching license even though that teacher candidate has not completed a traditional teacher licensure program.