State loses 30K teachers in 6 years

A new report released by the state shows 30,000 Oklahoma teachers have left the profession in the past six years. “The loss of 30,000 educators over the past six years is staggering — and proof that our schools must have the resources to support a growing number of students with an increasing number of needs,” state schools Superintendent Joy Hofmeister said in a news release issued Tuesday about the report. “Steep budget cuts over the last decade have made the teaching profession in Oklahoma less attractive, resulting in a severe teacher shortage crisis and negative consequences for our schoolchildren,” she said. The 2018 Oklahoma Educator Supply & Demand Report indicates that the percentage of Oklahoma educators leaving the profession has increased over the past six years, representing more than 5,000 per year or a total of approximately 30,000. The exodus represents an average of 10 percent of Oklahoma's teacher workforce, in comparison to a national attrition rate of 7.7 percent, the state Department of Education said in a news release. However, the figure does not include new teacher hires, which has ranged from 7.8 percent to 10.2 percent between 2012-13 and 2017-18, according to the report. The 124-page report “seeks to explain the state's persistent teacher shortage while

offering recommendations on how to stem the crisis. State law requires that the report is updated every three years,” the department said. The report includes multiple indicators of teacher shortage, including teacher-pupil ratios, supply-side trends and the number of emergency-certified teachers approved by the State Board of Education. “So far in the 2018-19 school year, the latter figure is 2,915 — an alltime high and a massive increase over the 32 emergency certifications approved in 2012,” the department said. Emergency certifications are used when a school district has been unsuccessful in its attempts to fill a vacancy with a certified teacher. “We must continue to examine a variety of strategies to encourage teachers to stay in the classroom and recruit new teachers to a field that is unparalleled in its potential to impact young lives,” Hofmeister said. “Saying I told you so. That means nothing,” said Shawna Mott-Wright, Tulsa Classroom Teacher's Association vice president. “What this does to teachers and … support professionals impacts our communities. Who do you think that hurts the most? It's the kids. “It's heartbreaking,” she said. “Sometimes I feel like screaming at the top of my lungs, `Help us. Help our kids.'” While the report acknowledges that teacher compensation is a key factor in recruitment and retention, it also cites an October 2017 survey of Oklahoma teachers who hold active teaching certificates but are no longer in the classroom. About a third of survey respondents said an increase in pay alone would motivate a return to the classroom, while two-thirds would require something beyond compensation. “When asked to evaluate whether the quality of the work environment for teachers had improved or deteriorated between their first and last year in the classroom, 80 percent said it had deteriorated, with nearly half of respondents indicating it had deteriorated a great deal,” the department said. “While last year's teacher pay raise was a significant step in the right direction, it was not a cure-all to the state's continuing teacher shortage,” Hofmeister said. “Many educators are facing increased workloads and unmanageable class sizes. Restoring appropriate funding and respect to the profession will improve the work environment for teachers and represent the next best step forward to begin to reverse the state's chronic supply and demand issues,” she said. “We must act immediately to turn around the severe underfunding of our public schools because it will take decades for us to recover,” Tulsa Superintendent Deborah Gist said in a statement. “Our state leaders made an important first step last spring with a historic reinvestment in our teachers, but the goal of paying our teachers professionally and competitively has not yet been met. In addition, we must also reinvest the millions of dollars cut from our classrooms.” “There is no reason a 1998 high school graduate should have more than a 2019 high school graduate,” Mott-Wright said, citing the year she graduated. “We're doing miracles every day, but we're not Jesus. We need help. We need resources.”