It’s no fun being between a rock and a hard place, but that’s the spot Kansas public schools are in today. It’s an unfortunate circumstance begging for action by the Legislature and Kansas State Board of Education.
The two major problems facing schools currently are: 1) teacher shortages and 2) low student achievement. Both have plagued Kansas schools for at least 20 years.
Kansas student achievement on the most recent National Assessment of Student Progress reading and math exams declined again—a situation that can’t improve without schools fully staffed with well-prepared teachers.
The rock/hard-place dilemma is that in the past, the answer to increasing the teacher workforce was to relax the rules for qualifying teachers.
Following precedent, Kansas started down the traditional road again last year by creating an emergency substitute teacher license. Instead of requiring a minimum of 60 hours earned college credit, substitute teacher qualifications are now holding a high school diploma and being at least age 18.
To speed national workforce development, the U.S. Department of Labor is offering funding for apprenticeship programs in a range of occupations including teacher preparation.
These apprentice programs pair accelerated on-line post-secondary education with on-site training. The programs are proving effective for technical careers, and so far, 16 states will receive teacher education funding. KSDE is looking into this as well as creating its own teacher apprentice program.
The best programs place teacher candidates who have completed 60 hours college general education into public schools with 15 to 20 hours paid work per week as paraprofessionals, who assist a teacher, usually with small group activities.
Teacher candidates complete requirements for the bachelor’s degree that include practice teaching experiences in multiple classroom levels with in-person teacher candidate evaluation by credentialed supervisors.
The least effective apprenticeship programs allow 18 year-olds to work as paraprofessionals as little as five hours per week or become full-time classroom teachers with little college-level preparation. The apprenticeship can occur in a single classroom for the full four years of college study which may be shortened through accelerated, eight-week, all on-line courses. The apprentices’ classroom teaching may be with small-groups only, in one grade only with candidate teaching evaluation reduced to student-produced, 15-minute videos observed by on-line reviewers.
COVID taught us that “all online, all the time” is not the best way for students to learn and it follows, also not the best for teacher candidates. Pre-service teachers also need experience through research based, faculty-led roundtables to learn the wide-range of student needs, develop problem solving abilities and practice communication skills—all difficult to accomplish in an exclusively online, one class in one school environment.
If properly organized, paid apprenticeship for teacher candidates can reduce their college costs, give pre-service teachers valuable hands-on experience and speed-up preparation without abbreviated, fully online courses or candidate’s teaching skills evaluated remotely.
Kansans might also consider that in 2023, the median teacher starting salary in Kansas is $40,699 while the average starting salary for college graduates nationally is $58,860.
Kansas ranked 36 nationally in public school salaries in 2021.
The median yearly income of one earner in Kansas is $51,957.
The state projects a $3.2 billion cash surplus by June 2024 and nearly $1 billion more in the rainy day fund.
Raising teacher salaries may be the fastest and most effective way to solve the teacher shortage.
Sharon Hartin Iorio is the dean emerita of the Wichita State University College of Education.
Sources used in this report: KSDE standard & Emergency Substitute License Requirements; KSDE Board Meeting June 13, 2023; Apprentice.gov>Education; Emporia State University February 5, 2020, report and news release. U. S. Trustee Program/Dept of Justice: Kansas; Google Search: Kansas budget surplus; Ed Week June 21, 2023.