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Shortage of Teachers in the United States and the United Kingdom
Education can improve people in all walks of life everywhere in the world. Education gives individuals a sense of direction and purpose for life giving most people hope for a brighter future. A country’s development is directly proportional to the level of education its leaders and citizens have. Furthermore, educated individuals are able to understand their fundamental human rights, duties and responsibilities to the society (Lickona, 2009).
Teachers provide valuable and significant roles for society by teaching knowledge and skills to students. They do this when children are at the most impressionable time in their lives. Therefore, teachers can be a major inspiration and encouragement to students’ academic life by accepting and showing compassion to students to make learning enjoyable (Smyth & Wrigley, 2013).
Because teachers are so vital for educating our young people, of course parents and governments want the most effective teachers teaching their young people. What happens when there are not enough teachers, effective or ineffective to fill classrooms?
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Institute for Statistics (UIS) estimates for a maximum pupil-to-teacher ratio of 40:1, 24.2 million primary teachers are needed by 2030 and 21 million of those will simply replace teachers that will be leaving the workforce. An additional 3.4 million are needed to for new schools and growth in school-age population. At the secondary level where the ratio is 25 students per teacher there is a need for 44.4 million teachers and 27.6 million of those will be replacing teachers leaving the workforce. There is a need for an additional 16.6 million teachers (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organizations Institute for Statistics, http://tellmaps.com/uis/teachers/#!/tellmap/-1209350075).
Despite, the very vital function that teachers have in the society some of the developed countries like the United States and the United Kingdom still face an acute shortage of teachers to fill all the classrooms in their countries.
HOW LARGE IS THE TEACHER SHORTAGE PROBLEM IN THE US? Comment by Microsoft Office User: Write a paragraph on how large is the teacher shortage problem in the United States?
HOW LARGE IS THE TEACHER SHORTAGE PROBLEM IN THE UK? Comment by Microsoft Office User: Write a paragraph on how large is the teacher shortage problem in the United Kingdom?
However, the little compensation does not imply that teaching does not have its merits to the teachers. The basic advantages that teachers have include flexibility, creative control, and a unique schedule according to (Bonstingl, 1992). Flexibility comes in the sense that a teacher can acquire different levels of certification to work in different states as they please. Creative control comes into play since each teacher is given a task by the state and can use any unique technique to accomplish the task the best way they think fit for the students. The final consolation of being a teacher is that they have a three-month annual leave and teach from 7 A.M to 4 P.M on Monday to Friday. This gives the teacher ample free time to undertake their activities and private businesses. With the great flexibility they have and the unique schedule teacher may opt to migrate to states with the best working conditions. the United Kingdom and the United States are not the best working environments for teachers and therefore they experience an acute shortage of teachers generally. Comment by Microsoft Office User: don’t use old references
Eleanor Harding in the Daily Mail claims that there has been a looming shortage in the number of British teachers and the United Kingdom has opted to recruit teachers from abroad (Harding, 2015). The shortage is more on sciences and mathematics subjects and the authorities have no choose but to recruit from abroad. The main cause of this problem is that the government in the past years has failed to recruit more mathematics and sciences instructors. Another cause for the shortage of the teachers is due to the poor working condition and a low pay package making most professional teachers seek alternative career path for a better pay. Statistics shows that the United Kingdom has been experiencing a shortage in the number of the student joining the teaching profession over the last four years in running. From a national audit report shows that around 28% of the people teaching physics are A level student. Furthermore, statistics shows that 54% of the head teachers from the poor areas had difficulties in recruiting and retaining professionally trained teachers in comparison to the 33% overall response from the other region claiming the same thing (Smithers & Robinson, 2005).
In the United States, the situation is similar. There is an endemic shortage of teachers and researchers say that the issue is not about to stop and could lead to a crisis. This issue has plagued leaders’ minds in almost all states. In 2015, the Nevada State Board of Education president termed the shortage horrific, and if measures were not taken, the country would sink. The Education Commissioner of Texas in the same year said that shortage posed great threats to schools. The Labor market for teachers lacks supply with recent reports from ACT indicating that few students in colleges are pursuing education and few students in secondary schools pursue major subjects. The number of students interested in teaching declined from 15% in 2010 to 12% in 2014 (Boser, 2014). The United States Department of Education (USDOE, 2015) also indicated a decline in the total number of teachers being enrolled in a preparation program from 719,081 in 2008 to 465,536 in 2014 (Boser, 2014). This decline depicts the actual shortage in the market (US Department of Education, 2016). These reports show that there is real evidence of shortage of teachers in the United States and the United Kingdom.
The USDOE annually publishes reports on teacher shortages since 1990. The most current report indicates the 2016-2017 teacher shortage in the states, but because of different reporting standards of shortage in different states, the report does not give a full analysis of the statistic. For instance, the report does not give an up-to-date or a good analysis of how the teacher shortage has progressed or evolved from one year to the other. This means that there is no clear or precise figure of the shortage and the number of teachers needed to feel the gap so that the United States can comfortably say it does not have a shortage of teachers. Comment by Microsoft Office User: Why do you not have a citation here?
Even with this meager information, it is clear that some states still scramble for teachers. These include; Oklahoma, Indiana, California, Arizona, and Kansas. California is the most affected having been forced to lay off over 80,000 teachers during the previous recession which was a big blow to the education sector (US, DOE, Office of Post Secondary Education, 2015). This led to a great decline in the number of college students pursuing education related courses. In Indiana, the state struggles to meet the student teacher ratio in both poor rural and urban communities which are in dire need of teachers. Teachers in Kansas are reported to be migrating to other states due to budget cuts on their salaries which yielded great dissatisfaction and led to deteriorated work conditions (US, DOE, Office of Post Secondary Education, 2015)
The teacher shortage problem however is not the same in all states around the United States as some states, like New York, the number of graduating teachers is more than the state can absorb. Reports indicated that only 7% of the certified teachers got a job with the New York states in 2012/13 academic year (Dobbie & Fryer, 2013). It is even worse for art and language specialty as many teacher preparation programs produce a large number of elementary teachers in subjects like English and History where only a third can be absorbed in the states available job.
Why so many variations across states and districts? As the example in Indiana illustrated, geography contributes to aggravating the issue with rural areas having a harder time recruiting and retaining trained teachers in comparison to cities. There is a desperate need for teachers in regions like Philadelphia, Newark, and Baltimore where there are great concerns about security among other urban challenges, where research shows that there may be a great shortage in future. Rural districts lack the power to entice young professional teachers to relocate to those localities where they lack modern housing and other recreational facilities. Therefore, about a third of Mississippi’s Districts in 2013 recorded a looming shortage of teachers in rural areas (Monk, 2007). Apart from the geographical aspect, bureaucracy also contributes to poor allocation of teachers, and if this is not observed closely, the United States states and districts may face detrimental effects of teacher shortages (Monk, 2007).
The United States Department of Education (USDOE) indicates that colleges contribute to staffing inconsistencies since most produce English and special education teachers and fewer teachers in sciences. English and elementary subjects, therefore, have enough but chemistry, mathematics, and physics are highly understaffed. Despite government’s emphasis on STEM subjects, public schools are highly understaffed with these teachers because they lack competitive edge with the private sector which can hire and retain young minds. There should be across-board deliberation on the issue of quality teacher shortages. The government and trainers should inform college students on areas requiring more teachers to avoid the unemployment since virtually about 14%-20% of teachers in common subjects are unemployed (Laura, 2015). Comment by Microsoft Office User: You are using too much of this reference exactly as written and not using quotes. Plus it is a secondary source and you now have 3 paragraphs of just it. so do something on this paragraphs. Comment by Microsoft Office User: You need a year for this reference This reference is not in your list.
The specialists research the motivation behind why obtaining and keeping up science instructors in schools is much an awkward errand for the school heads. From the exploration, it is clear that the arithmetic educators are popular. Then again, there is a deficiency of science instructors accessible for enrollment. The analysts utilize socio-demographic strategies to gather the information that is utilized to demonstrate this speculation. Obtaining and holding educators in state-funded schools is a test in many establishments. The examination utilizes both measurable and subjective ways to deal with decision elements that are huge in holding the educators in schools. The examination utilizes reviews and center gatherings to build up results. The discoveries recommend that great working conditions and better money are the motivating forces and are urgent in pulling in and holding the instructors. The approaches that influence staffing in state-funded schools incorporate approach variables, authoritative components, and the individual manager’s perspectives. (Liu, Rosenstein, Swan, & Khalil 2008) Comment by Microsoft Office User: What does this mean? Comment by Microsoft Office User: There is more information here that should be used in your paper. Did you read this article?
According to Education Commission of the States May 2016 report, there are several incentives used to acquire more teachers in reference to the causes and circumstances leading to the shortage. These include; alternative certification, financial incentives, mentorship and induction, teacher leadership and assessment and feedback. Research data shows that there has been a major decline in the interest of students in the major subjects with the trend being; 15% in 2010, 13% in 2011, 12% in 2012, 2013 and 2014 (ACT, 2015). This is a major decline of supply in teachers’ labor market. Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research’s (CALDER) report showed two consistent trends in the long term on the issue of teachers training. First, the production of teachers is cyclical and responds to economy’s state. Second, there has been a steady growth in the number of teachers produced since 1985. A report from National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) indicated that the state was likely to increase the number of teachers hired by 29% in 2011-2012 with 12% going to secondary schools. This could have been goaded by a report showing declining student teacher ratio in public schools from 1985 to 2012. The report indicated that ratio declines from 17.7% in 1985 to 15.3% in 2013 (NCES, 2014). Comment by Microsoft Office User: You need a citation Comment by Microsoft Office User: What does this mean? Comment by Microsoft Office User: Need a year Comment by Microsoft Office User: Did you use the newest information from this source? No, update it to use https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2015/2015073.pdf
Different bodies have been established in setting standards for training and retaining quality teachers in the United States. Some of these organizations for setting teacher quality standards include; Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (INTASC), the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), and the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS). INTASC is a consortium firm that helps education agencies promote reforms which are standard-based by developing licensing standards for teachers beginning their profession. It helps states work efficiently towards assessment and licensing standards for teachers beginning their profession. NCATE helps strengthen standards for accreditation of teaching and education programs. NBPTS has set standards for issuing advanced certifications, outlining what quality teachers ought to know and ability to implement their knowledge (National Research Council, 2001). Comment by Microsoft Office User: I am not sure this information is needed.
On the off chance that the working states of the educators are enhanced, there would be a lessening in the rate of instructor turnover. This should deal with the issue of staffing and enhancing the execution. The yearly turnover rates and sheer size of showing brotherhood demonstrate inflow and surge of educators in the calling (Ingersoll, and Smith, 2003). The instructor deficiency issue offers issues to the teachers. They think that it’s hard to persuade students to come and stay in internal schools. Paying, motivators, pay rates and offering elective accreditation can lessen the educator deficiency brought on by retirements, classroom approaches and instructor attrition (Howard, 2003). Different states have sorted out various techniques to handle instructors preparing administrations, consequently accomplishing distinctive results. A comparative stage of preparing exercises cannot be received in all the states (Kiker, & Emeagwali, 2010). Comment by Microsoft Office User: Where did you get this information? Are you plagiarizing again? This information is old. The Kiker article is not needed. It does not relate to your topic.
Just like in the US, the UK has a similar experience with shortage of quality teachers. Research indicates that there has been a cumulative shortfall in the number of teachers in England, Scotland and other States. In 2015,71% out of the possible 100% target was achieved in training physics teachers. In 2011, a report by Advisory Committee on Mathematics Education (ACME) showed that the expected target through issuing incentives for mathematics specialist was not achieved. There was a shortage of about 4,075 between 2000 and 2010 of mathematics teachers which means the target was not reached. Teacher Workforce Planning Advisory Group (TWPAG) in Scotland reported difficulties in training teachers for some subjects, for instance physics which recorded a shortfall over the years. TWPAG in 2013 indicated a shortage of teachers in subjects such as chemistry, computing, physics, and mathematics with computing reporting an average of 2.81% that was lower than the target of 5.85%. Comment by Microsoft Office User: What other states? Comment by Microsoft Office User: You need a reference and citation. Comment by Microsoft Office User: You need a citation and reference
Data on vacancies of teachers in England showed that most schools feared to report long-term teacher vacancies since there is a notion that schools would appear unattractive for learners. Teachers would also fear subscribing to teaching in such institutions since there would be work overload and low pay. In Wales, for example, newly qualified teachers would receive extra pay along with additional departmental responsibilities for mathematics and science subjects. In England, bursaries of up to £30000 are available for mathematics and science graduates with lower bursaries for other subjects. This indicates that these major subjects are less attractive. Most physics and mathematics graduates end up in other professions which are more rewarding in terms of salary other than teaching. A report released in 2011 indicated that teachers in poor regions worked an extra unpaid 10 hours compared to those in well to do areas of England where they only worked an extra 6 hours a week. Comment by Microsoft Office User: No citations? No references? So You need a citation and reference
Another report released in 2015 on the state of secondary schools revealed there were 1/5th the vacancies for the training of secondary teachers. In the same year, only 82% places had been filled compared to 2014 where 94% places had been allocated for secondary teachers. This decline exacerbates the issue of shortage of quality teachers. Targets for 2015 teachers’ training were only achieved in three subjects only; English, history and physical education. Non-English Baccalaureate courses were only able to meet 2/3 of their target with technology and design being hit the most since they only raised 41% of the set target. Huge targets in mathematics, computing, science and geography were missed. The missed targets were; 93%, 70%, 85%, and 83% respectively. Comment by Microsoft Office User: No citation? No references?
The shortage is there, despite an increase in the number of individuals enrolling for postgraduate training in the teaching field. Reports showed that the enrollment to postgraduate courses increased from 25,753 in 2015 to 28,148 in 2016. This comes after a series of under recruitments since 2010 and therefore this one-time increase cannot offset the shortage. The government’s aim is to train as many teachers as possible to offset the deficit in mathematics and physics. Comment by Microsoft Office User: No citations? No references? So You need a citation and reference
The shortage for mathematics and physics teachers is a worldwide problem and not just in England, but England’s shortage is attributed to poor pay. The government of UK seeks to offset the issue of this shortage through training about 15,000 teachers in general subjects and have them specialize in physics and the mathematics each year. Some incentives would help achieve this target. These would include: getting A level teachers training in mathematics and physics get involved in teaching; increase scholarships for the subjects; and offering to pay off student loans for physics and mathematics. Comment by Microsoft Office User: No citations? No references? So You need a citation and reference
The supply model by National College indicated that the demand for new teachers would not peak until 2019, but it also showed there was a consistent national shortage of quality teachers. According to the model, the shortage arose as a result of increased birth rate with a decline in recruitment of teachers. Retention of experienced and qualified teaching staff proved difficult as per the model since most teachers considered quitting their profession with a good number having already done so.
A report by the National Union of Teachers (NUT) showed that about 49% of school heads considered quitting the teaching profession, 85% of who cited work overload as the main reason. 43% of head teachers complained of working an extra 25 hours of the normal schedule and 29% worked an extra 35 hours of the normal schedule.
According to David Cameron, the former prime minister of UK, little happens in UK in promoting the quality of teaching profession despite its importance. Teachers are important in determining the direction of the economy. The OECD PISA survey of 2006 showed that the UK declined from being 4th to 14th all over the world in sciences, from 7th down to 17th in literacy and from 8th to 18th for mathematics. This was attributed to inadequate teachers and thereby proves the importance of having quality and well-remunerated teachers. To catch up with the failure, the UK needs to learn from developed countries in terms of education and provide high quality teachers for education as their competitors. It is important to note that no system of education in the world could outdo the quality of their teachers. Studies show that the most developed and successful nations such as Scandinavia are those that regard teaching as a high status of a profession. Finland recruits the top 10% of their graduates to teach while South Korea recruits graduates in the top 5% tier. A successful country in terms of education combines giving the teaching profession a high status, increasing autonomy in schools, effective and comprehensive accountability system as well as giving students a high sense of aspiration regardless of their background. Only quality teachers can do this and, therefore, pushing for reforms to the margin in teaching and education sector is the only option. (UK Department of Education, 2010). Comment by Microsoft Office User: No citations? No references? Comment by Microsoft Office User: You must give the titles of these before you can use the abbreviations. No citations? No references? Comment by Microsoft Office User: Of what graduates? All graduates? This statement is not clear neither is the one about South Korea. You also need the correct citation. Comment by Microsoft Office User: There is an updated Whitepaper Report for the UK that should be included ttps://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/508447/Educational_Excellence_Everywhere.pdf
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