Providence Facing Teacher Shortage According to Local, National Experts

Providence Facing Teacher Shortage According to Local, National Experts

Providence was named as a school district "featuring a teaching shortage" in a August 10 New York Times article entitled "Teacher Shortages Spur a Nationwide Hiring Scramble" -- and local stakeholders are weighing in on the significance of the distinction. 

"Louisville, Ky.; Nashville; Oklahoma City; and Providence, R.I., are among the large urban school districts having trouble finding teachers, according to the Council of the Great City Schools, which represents large urban districts," wrote Mokoto Rich for the New York Times, in a piece that focused predominantly on the teacher shortage facing California.

As for local leaders, there was little surprise that Providence was pinpointed on the national stage. 

GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST

"We have shortages in hard to fill areas that have been historical hard to fill. For example,  ELL/ESL; Special Education, the sciences and math.  Those areas have always been difficult," said Maribeth Calabro, President of the Providence Teachers Union. 

"There are many contributing factors to the lack of teachers in these areas. Providence has not had a concerted effort by its HR department, prior to the new Director, to actively promote and recruit at the colleges," Calabro continued. "I also believe that Providence teachers continually maintaining the bottom position in terms of salary also contributes significantly to the problem. I personally believe that with an active, consistent recruitment process and competitive salary the city could fill those positions with teachers."

The Providence Public School department website currently lists over forty open positions for external candidates including six admininstration jobs, four open substitute positions, 26 certified positions, and four support/classified positions.  

Not reflected in those numbers are the listings for internal candidates, which are only accessible online to teachers currently in the school system.  

Data provided by the Rhode Island Department of Education show for the 2013-2014 school year, there were 2003 teachers in the Providence public school system for nearly 24,000 students. 

Ranking Providence

The Council of Great City Schools spoke Monday about how it came its assessment of highlight Providence nationally as a school district of note facing a shortage.  

"We surveyed human resources from our urban school districts a few weeks ago. The questions we asked the districts [were]: Are declining applications at Colleges of Education affecting school district recruiting and hiring of teachers? Are you seeing shortages? The New York Times reporter then called districts with follow-up questions after that," said CGCS communications manager Tonya Harris, noting that since the survey was completed several weeks ago, "it’s possible that the district has secured all the teachers it needs at this point."

Rhode Island College spoke to its efforts to meet the changing teaching needs of the the state. 

"Because Rhode Island College has strong connections to the state's education community and is attuned to the workforce needs of Rhode Island, the college has been aware of increased demand for educators specializing in the STEM fields -- in Providence and a number of other Rhode Island cities and towns," said Laura Hart, Director of Communications.  "In response, RIC has taken proactive steps to address this need, including collaborating with the Governor's Office and RIDE on a National Governor's Association grant to recruit and retain teachers in hard-to-staff fields such as science, math and computer technology."

While Providence is just one of several cities that was mentioned specifically, Chad Aldeman wrote for EducationNext what he believes is behind the overall shortage trend nationally. 

"What’s causing teacher shortages across the country? Although it might be fun to blame your least favorite thing in education–the Common Core, say, or teacher evaluations or millennials–new research suggests the economy is the primary driver in the supply of new teachers (h/t InsideHigherEd)," wrote Aldeman on August 10. "The paper looks at the college majors of students who turned age 20 between 1960 and 2011. Then, it linked the students’ decisions with data on macroeconomic trends to examine how business cycles affect student choices. Of the 38 majors included in the study, education was the biggest loser."

In Rhode Island, Teach for America has been part of the education landscape since 2010, placing recent college graduates to teach in low-income communities for a two-year committment. 

"The unfortunate reality is fewer people today are choosing to enter the education field and lead our classrooms," said Rhode Island Teach for America Director Heather Tow-Yick. "There are a number of factors contributing to this: we’re seeing an increasingly polarized public conversation around education; the broader economy is improving and people who experienced the national recession during their college careers are showing more interest in what they see as financially sustainable professions; teacher satisfaction has dipped steeply in recent years; and education has been deprioritized by most Americans when they rank major issues facing our country."

"But my team and I work with teachers and schools across Providence every day and I see a different story. Teaching remains a critically important profession and leaders are teaching in classrooms around Providence with incredible commitment and love; they aren’t backing down from challenges and they continue to bring more opportunities to Rhode Island’s kids. This is what drives us at Teach For America to work in partnership with districts, local colleges, and other organizations, to recruit and train diverse and talented leaders to make a long term commitment to education, and to teach in Providence’s highest need classrooms," continued Tow-Yick.

"As we think about the challenges students, particularly those growing up in poverty, are facing as they enter the new school year, I hope more people will choose to fight for educational equity and help create the change we need for children across our city and country. We can’t expect teachers to do it alone, but we also can’t underestimate their impact," said Tow-Yick. "Our highest impact teachers come from all backgrounds and experiences, but are united in this difficult and deeply inspiring work by their belief in the potential of every student. I hope readers who hold this same belief will consider choosing to do more; I hope they’ll choose to teach."