Demand remains for help in classrooms

IN demanding that lawmakers approve pay raises this spring for Oklahoma public school teachers, the head of the Oklahoma City chapter of the American Federation of Teachers noted that onefourth of the district’s teachers had left the previous year.

“And that’s a result of low pay,” Ed Allen said. “They’re either leaving the profession or leaving our state to get a better job.”

Yet the latest figures from the state Department of Education regarding emergency certified teachers underscore the fact that better pay, while certainly important, is hardly the lone factor in keeping professional teachers in the classroom.

The state Board of Education approved 853 emergency teaching certificates last week. That’s the most in a single month and brings to 1,238 the total thus far for the 2018-19 school year. Last year, the board approved a record 1,975 emergency certificates.

The certificates are granted to teachers who don’t have a certified state teaching license. They’re allowed to teach for two years. Oklahoma has seen a steady increase in the number of such certificates granted — in 2011-12, only 32 were needed.

In April, the Legislature approved pay raises averaging $6,100 per teacher. That left many education officials optimistic that certified teachers — many of whom, in a comprehensive survey, cited low pay as a significant factor in their leaving — would return to Oklahoma classrooms and thus reduce the need for emergency certifications. This hasn’t happened.

Our sense is that other factors noted in that survey, such as challenges with classroom management, continue to present considerable hurdles that better pay alone can’t overcome.

Just last month, the Tulsa World reported on staff members’ concerns that a lack of support from Tulsa Public Schools administration hurt their ability to teach students and retain talented teachers. Only one-third of teaching staff surveyed said they would recommend that a friend or family member work in the district.

An official with TPS, which perhaps due to the pay raise has seen fewer teachers leave the district this year, downplayed some of the figures in the survey. But some of the frustrations revealed in it are common, particularly in large urban districts.

In Oklahoma City, for example, district teachers have noted that changes in discipline policy have made it more difficult to maintain control of their classrooms.

In an anonymous survey last fall conducted by the AFT, between 75 and 80 percent of those teachers who responded said they had students who either didn’t comply with classroom rules or refused to complete work. Roughly 70 percent said they endured “disruptive outbursts” that hinder learning.

One teacher with nearly 40 years’ experience in the district replied that the 2017-18 school year was the most trying. “Every day I am still working on discipline,” the teacher wrote. “These students are the most defiant, disrespectful and disruptive ones I have ever had.” How much would someone need to earn to make those daily challenges worthwhile?

The raises provided to Oklahoma’s teachers were certainly long overdue. But myriad concerns unrelated to salary must be addressed to reduce the continuing need for non-professional teachers in the classroom.