By Selen Ozturk<\/p>\n\n\n\n
K-12 students returning to school this month face teacher shortages, pitched battles over curricula, and pandemic-era learning gaps, teachers and education officials explained at an August 18 briefing<\/a> held by Ethnic Media Services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some 233,000 thousand public school teachers left the profession between 2019 and 2021 alone, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office analysis<\/a>, while 41 out of 50 states and two territories (D.C. and the Virgin Islands) report a shortage of teachers, particularly in STEM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Tuan Nguyen, associate professor in the College of Education at Kansas State University, explained that \u201cteacher supply, retention and shortage in the United States are pieces of the same puzzle,\u201d comprising a Gordian knot of vacancy \u2014 whereby teaching positions are posted but unfilled \u2014 and underqualification \u2014 whereby states lower certification requirements to fill these positions, or have qualified teachers teach out-of-subject.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With a small team of researchers, Nguyen tracked<\/a> teacher shortage data across states and found that, nationally, \u201cThere are at least 36,500 vacant positions in the United States and that\u2019s nothing to say of underqualified teachers,\u201d which he estimates at 160,000. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Compounding this shortage are twin issues of teacher supply and retention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Tuan Nguyen, Assistant Professor in the College of Education at Kansas State University, discusses the challenges successive presidential administrations have faced in their efforts to recruit teachers, especially for STEM classes.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n On the supply point, \u201cThere has been a substantial decline in people\u2019s interest in becoming teachers,\u201d said Nguyen. He cited a 40% decline from 700,000 teacher prep program enrollees in 2009, to 400,000 in 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While this decline continues unchecked, the situation has become uniquely grim for teachers in the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and math: in 2010 there were 32,000 teachers certified to teach STEM subjects; in 2019 there were 22,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Teachers who do enter the profession, meanwhile, are also leaving sooner and in larger numbers than in previous years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before the pandemic, explained Nguyen, about 8% of U.S. teachers left the profession annually, but since then the rate has skyrocketed nationally; current figures are, for example, 22% in Alaska, 12% in Arkansas and Illinois, and 12% in North and South Carolina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Compounding the challenges confronting the nation\u2019s public schools is the increasingly intense fight over curricula, including the growing wave of book bans nationwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Shaun Harper, provost professor at the University of Southern California Rossier School of Education and the USC Marshall School of Business, pointed out that \u201c44 states have introduced bills since January 2021 that have aimed to ban critical race theory\u201d \u2013 despite the fact that CTR is not being taught in K-12 classrooms \u2013 with 18 of these states having passed such legislation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Florida governor and GOP presidential candidate Ron DeSantis signed a bill last May<\/a> banning public colleges and universities from funding DEI programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The bill \u201chas created a replicable blueprint for other states across the country,\u201d said Harper. \u201cIt\u2019s a serious threat to our democracy when we deny young people the educational opportunity to learn about America\u2019s racial past and present.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kasey Meehan, Freedom to Read program director at PEN America, said this replicable blueprint applies to the ongoing rise of book bans as well, which she called an \u201c\u2018Ed scare\u2019 campaign \u2026 interfering with students\u2019 rights; undermining the role of teachers, librarians, professors, other educators and administrators \u2026 and sowing division within our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another Florida bill<\/a>, in effect since July 2022, mandates that all classroom books be pre-approved by the Department of Education or vetted by a media specialist trained by the Department. Violating teachers risk losing their license or being charged with a felony. A Texas bill<\/a> in effect this September will require public school book vendors to pre-rate all books as \u201csexually explicit material, sexually relevant material, or no rating\u201d before distribution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meehan said 71% of books involved in book-banning efforts like these \u201care intended for young adult audiences or even younger.\u201d PEN reports that the first half of the 2022-2023 school year alone saw \u201cover 1,400 instances of individual books being banned. This equates to over 800 unique titles that are being removed from access for students in schools. This is an increase from the prior six months, and (in an upcoming September report) we expect to see increases in the next six months.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nTeacher Shortages<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Polarized Curricula, Book Bans<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Learning Gaps, Safety Fears<\/h2>\n\n\n\n