Arizona continues to face educational challenges on two fronts: a lack of resources to hire new teachers and the inability to keep teachers in the classroom.
George Hynd, dean of the Mary Lou Fulton College of Education, said education is traditionally a stable profession, but now may not be the ideal economic climate for graduates to go straight into the workforce.
“I think it’s a great time for those [with educational backgrounds] to think seriously about continuing their education at the graduate level,” Hynd said. “It’s very clear there will likely be fewer jobs for them this year.”
But Tom Horne, superintendent for the Arizona Department of Education, said he believes being a teacher offers more job security right now than other types of careers.
“Companies expand and contract with much more volatility than schools,” Horne said.
Hynd also said he doesn’t see any end in sight for a demand in quality teachers.
“The need for teachers is not diminishing,” Hynd said. “The population of children is stable and continues to grow at a relatively stable rate. All of those children need education. Teaching is a very stable occupation.”
Representatives from the Tempe Elementary School District and the Tempe Union High School District said the districts are only hiring on an as-needed basis, aside from substitute teachers.
Heather Rempp, an early childhood education senior, said she believes education is a secure career.
“Some jobs you’re not always going to need, but schools are something that are always going to be important,” she said.
Despite some teachers’ dedication, Horne said teachers often leave the profession because of low pay and a lack of support when it comes to discipline issues.
“I’ve been advocating for about 30 years for better pay for teachers,” said Horne, who has worked within the public school system at a variety of levels throughout his career.
Lee Goldstein-Holcomb, a former art, math and sixth grade teacher who has been with the Paradise Valley Unified School District since 1987, agreed with Horne. She said she also believes stress and an overly strenuous workload contribute to the loss of teachers.
“It’s an everyday occurrence where teachers give up their lunch to tutor children,” she said. “You go in early, you stay late, you do whatever it takes to make the kid successful.”
To get new teachers into the classroom faster, Horne said Arizona has developed programs that can significantly reduce the time it takes to go from college graduate to educator.
“We have alternate pathways to get teachers who have good subject-matter knowledge [into the classroom],” Horne said. “We give them a six-week crash course in the summer on how to be a teacher,” he said.
Horne said teachers who elect to get into education this way must still complete their master’s programs. He said the program has been especially beneficial because it reduces the time it takes for an individual to teach in a school by about two years.
Hynd, on the other hand, said these programs may be beneficial, but he wants to see high-quality research that documents the retention rate of teachers who come into the profession through alternate channels.
“A general concern is how long [teachers] stay in the profession,” he said.
Information about the effectiveness of teachers who come from nontraditional versus traditional programs is scarce, Hynd added.
“It would be great if we could keep those that graduate [from educational programs] in the classroom,” he said.
Reach the reporter at benjamin.weitzenkorn@asu.edu.
