As this NYSUT article makes clear, there is already a teaching shortage in certain certification areas.
From NYSUT:
In November 2013, SED [State Education department] reported the following statewide teacher shortage areas between 2010 and 2014: bilingual education, chemistry, CTE, earth science, English language learners, Languages other than English, library and school media specialist, physics, special education, special education – bilingual, special education – science certification, and technology education. In New York City, SED identified shortage areas that include the arts, biology, chemistry, CTE, English, health education, library media specialist and mathematics.
English is a shortage area in NYC?
As conditions in the classroom continue to deteriorate, the shortage should worsen unless there is another economic upheavel.
The answer from the SED and Regents will probably be to put in more alternative certification programs to make sure classrooms are covered. Classes will be filled with less qualified teachers.
Honestly, if a young relative came to you and asked if he/she should be a teacher, what would you tell him/her?
My mom was a teacher for over 30 years and was truly supportive when I told her I decided to teach. However, I don't see myself reacting with much enthusiasm if one of my own kids told me he or she wanted to pursue a career in the classroom.
35 comments:
Already told my kids there is no way they should become teachers Misleading article though as there is no -and will never be a teacher shortage. There will always be a body In front of the classroom. A good or qualified teacher shortage yes but sine the mayor and DOE don't care about getting qualified good people then they will not be concerned in the slightest. In fact they would rather have a body up there that's not even qualified as there is a better chance they will leave so they can continue hiring cheaper salaried employees and not paying out pensions.
Keep the masses uneducated. Offer free college to make it look like everything is being done. Public high school students will be unable to finish the first semester in college. Unless they do to college what they've done to high school.
I would never tell anyone to be a teacher today. Sad thing is that many public sector jobs are going to hell as well. My best buddy is a cop and he can't wait to retire and would also never tell anyone to become a police officer. Add in the fact that many states are messing with pensions and the perfect storm is brewing now.
I agree with the comment from 9:59 AM. They will recruit from the Carribean Islands ,South America and the Phillipines to fill the shortage.
They will do what is least expensive and most anti - teacher pensions.
I would never tell anybody to enter the teaching nightmare world. My illiterate -------------- treat me like a moron. I can't wait until they are over the hill. I should only live so long.
Abigail Shure
As terrible as this is going to sound, I have several former students who were dumber than dirt, and are now teachers. How they got through any teacher program is beyond me, because they couldn't even speak in a coherent sentence in 8th grade. How do kids who were low level 2s (and a couple of level 1s!) become educators?
But then again, our ELA teacher is famous for saying "should of" and "would of", so I don't know why I am surprised. Any warm body who can read from a scripted program can now be a teacher in NYC.
Current technology coupled with burgeoning virtual reality could make the teaching profession obsolete in less than a decade. Custom offerings could be tailor fitted for every student, even those with IEPs. One teacher can teach millions of kids simultaneously live or taped from anywhere in the world. Oversea teachers will be unnecessary, as oversee minimum wage employees with limited educations will suffice - if the school buildings are kept open for computer access, food and physical education, and that would be a big if.
No such thing as a teacher shortage. Where I have been since February, the school hired 10 rookie teachers.
All BS!
agree with 1:34 no shortage my school gets resumes every day
and no vacancies
I told my daughter (now a sophomore in high school), several years ago, that should she choose to go into teaching, neither I nor her father would contribute one stinking dime to her education and room and board. I told her that while we can't stop her from making choices when she is a legal adult, we CAN refuse to write the checks, sign the loan papers, and provide food,clothing, and shelter while she does it. I repeated the same to my son, who is not in eighth grade, and will do the same for my fifth grader when he goes to middle school.
I doubt they needed much convincing, as they were witness to the emotional wreck I became as I endured three years of sexual and racial abuse at the hands of students while the administration in my building tacitly encouraged it through their inaction and tendency to ignore all incident reports and anecdotal notes I sent through email. I was beaten and hospitalized twice, had knee and back surgeries, was followed to my car, had students come into the room during prep and threaten to kill me (and the principal said that, well, since they were wearing black hoodies and ski masks at the time, there was nothing to be done and to make sure I took the time to show the young people that I love them. Three kids came to me and said, "We want to see if we can make a teacher kill themselves. We're going to make you lose your mind. We won't stop. We want to see you kill yourself." And no, this was a regular seventh grade in a district middle school. In the middle of this, my husband decided that he couldn't take being with someone who was like living with a Vietnam war vet, and we're now separated, soon to divorce after 24 years. I have chronic PTSD which shows up in some of the strangest situations. Anti depressants and anti-anxiety meds are part of my new normal.
It's too late for me to switch careers (I have fewer than 10 years left to retire if I can survive the ATR), but I'll be damned if I don't try to save everyone that I can before they take a trip into this abyss.
@Bronxt ATR - that is not happening in the next decade or even the next two decades. I don't even think in the next three decades. There maybe be hints of it here and there, but like other posters have said, there will never be a real teacher shortage in this city for a long, long time. I do believe the profession is eventually doomed and with it education and any real sense of learning, but that may take years. Everything has become so watered down - imagine where it will be in twenty years. I had one teacher observer this past year actually staring at her phone and texting while she was observing my class while I must admit an interesting lesson on censorship was talking place. She didn't even say thank you as she left. Her next visit, she did the same thing. When she was leaving. I called her back and told how disrespectful she was and how she would feel if the shoe was on the other foot. I never saw her again, and I am not saying that all observers lack that bit of common sense and respect. I had an observer a few years back wear beer advertisement shirts to class - I mean, are you serious! Just this past week, I had a student who has claimed to want to be a high school history teacher clearly avoid a lesson on how Hendrix's Woodstock National Anthem mirrored much of what was going on during the late 60's - all which included Hendrix's performance on the smart board. He just put his head down and I assure you he was fine when he entered the class. You can't make this stuff up.
I did credit recovery a few summers ago. 34 students all different subjects log in and take on line classes, including gym! Every building is supposed to have a tech person and once the infrastructure is set up the taxpayers will save a ton of money. Problem is many occupations will disappear because of new technology and income inequality will grow. It is the most serious danger facing this country.
That's one of the worst things I've ever read concerning the way teachers are treated. It's horrible and you will survive it.
@1:34
Just because there are still people looking for teaching jobs, does not mean they are "good" people.
Anonymous 315
In DOE 2017 what is your definition of a good teacher?
I've seen people who can barely read but who are 'neighborhood guys' have more respect and control from kids and admins than I do. A white guy from the suburbs who says please thank you and good morning.
The doe rewards incompetence and frowns upon morals
The kids treat guys from the neighborhood worse than White teachers. I'm a guy from the neighborhood but no one thinks of me as White, even myself.
Teaching is a fantastic profession and very, very rewarding, IF THAT is what you are actually doing day in and day out. If what you're doing is shoveling shit, that isn't teaching, that is sewer work.
I have encouraged my own children to go into the profession but NOT NYC. There are so many districts in so many states where it is a professional environment and you are treated with respect.
No one is held prisoner if they are working in a cesspool. Go to the suburbs or get a license in another state, but for heavens sake do not risk your health. If we know anything we know that the DOE dosn't give a rats ass about us.
I am truly sorry to hear this. I would never counsel anyone to become a teacher because teachers will be replaced by a computer. Additionally, I think that middle and high school will be replaced by online schools where youngsters will take classes somewhere different from a school building. Now, all these terrible things that happened to you, are they not considered criminal activities? If you go to a restaurant and assault the waiter, won't you get arrested? How can a teacher get beaten up, land in the hospital and nothing happens to the student?? There is something serious wrong with our society if this occurs. We even persecute people who assault taxi drivers with 25 years.
I am truly sorry to hear this. I would never counsel anyone to become a teacher because teachers will be replaced by a computer. Additionally, I think that middle and high school will be replaced by online schools where youngsters will take classes somewhere different from a school building. Now, all these terrible things that happened to you, are they not considered criminal activities? If you go to a restaurant and assault the waiter, won't you get arrested? How can a teacher get beaten up, land in the hospital and nothing happens to the student?? There is something serious wrong with our society if this occurs. We even persecute people who assault taxi drivers with 25 years.
I was hired by the BOE (Now the DOE) back in 1996. There was a teachers "shortage" then. There used to be posters on the NYC subways advertising for teaching jobs and the DOE was sending recruiters to different countries to get warm bodies in front of classrooms. I was just a 23 year old out of state newbie at the time but I had a masters degree in teaching and one year of experience in the suberbs. The DOE literally interviewed me and tossed a piece of pater in front of me with 20 open teaching spots and said "Which one would you like". I swear to god this is true and it will be happening again soon due to the new teacher shortage.
Chaz and I have both written how it is open season against teachers but the season never closes. These comments are scary but I have very little doubt that they are all true.
But at least in the nineties we had some backing in the classroom. Now, many teachers are on our own 6:42.
One more thing: in the 90s and 80s when there were teacher shortages, it was caused mostly because of low pay. By the 2000s, the entry level pay had improved in NYC but teaching conditions are awful now and there is no, I mean truly zero, support for teachers from too many administrators.
This system is about economics. In a way, I see why the doe hates teachers. There would be zero difference in results if a guy making 100 k teaches in a shit box or someone who can barely read. It's all babysitting.
I've told my kids that they go to college for teaching I will not contribute a dime to it.
Let someone who has no clue waste their college education.
Every year this city hires 10,000 new teachers so this whole 'teacher shortage' is pure crap
on line schools - cheaper to give kids computers.
imagine all the yummy real estate tied up in our school buildings.
Online learning? Ummm how is that gonna work in your average South Bronx elementary school? Kinder-3rd grade kids are going to sit in front of a computer all day? What army or police force will supervise this sh*t show? Best of luck with that.
There will be teacher shortage - right after all the retro is paid up.
Don't laugh
The PD my school had stated kids should be given more independent online learning to do on their own.
What a waste of 80 minutes. And the APs act like this is solid
Isaac Asimov wrote about "computerized teachers" in 1951-
http://visual-memory.co.uk/daniel/funtheyhad.html
With Fariña and Mulgrew in charge they have made everything worse.
We wrote about that Isaac Asimov short story here back on Aug 11, 2012.
6:35
Yes, you can try to report these things as criminal activities, but the precinct near the school was aware of the issues in the building (there were other situations like mine at various times in the building, and still are) and whenever I went to the precinct to report, the Sergeant at the desk kicked it back to school safety. He insisted that it was a "school matter" and refused to take a statement from me. Another officer offered to take the statement once and when the Sergeant saw this he reprimanded him saying, "She's been told what to do. Don't speak to her, don't take anything from her. She needs to deal with this through the school." When I insisted in filing a report, he said, "You want to fill out a report, that's fine. Fill out a report but I'm telling you its just gonna get put in a drawer because no one is getting involved in a school matter."
I did file a human rights case and it did settle, but I still wish I had the money up front to take the whole thing to court.
They should get rid of those ATR field supervisors which are a waste of money and resources.
Field supervisors are causing disruptions, and many lawsuits are going to be filed.
Life in Limbo, 9:49,
you have the right for the police to take your complaint or report. If they refuse, they go up the chain of command. It's just like the DOE. Just as the school must answer to the superintendent, the precinct has to answer to higher ups.
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