The Teaching Pipeline has Sprung a Leak

In August of last summer, the Boston Red Sox finally brought up minor league prospect Jarren Duran to the big leagues.  Why are there not more related stories about Hartford Schools bringing on rookie teacher talent?  Like baseball fans who question the moves of team general managers, I was one who questioned the forward-thinking ability of school leadership, those who failed to keep a well-oiled teacher pipeline and to who the “grow-your-own” phrase was now more related to the booming cannabis industry.  With the plethora of teacher preparation programs that have been available over the years, like a baseball’s minor league system, one would have thought that the teacher workforce would have been overflowing with talent long before COVID, serving as a crisis buffer.  There is the Connecticut Teacher Residency Program, Pathways to Certification, Educator Rising, Next Gen Educators, Teach for America, and others.  The pandemic revealed, and further research reveals, that the pipeline had sprung a leak years before COVID.

         The issues with the teacher pipeline are many.  Enrollment in colleges of education began dropping in 2012.   The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education reports that in 2018-2019, fewer than 90,000 bachelor’s degrees were awarded in education, fewer students were entering teacher preparation programs.  Thirty-nine percent of those entering teacher prep programs in community colleges were not completing the program.  NPR reported on a study in 2013 which suggested even those rookies coming out of teacher colleges and teacher prep programs were not ready to teach.  The study stated that in a study of 1100 colleges of education, 7 out of 10 were not adequately preparing future teachers on how to teach kids to read, and 9 out of 10 struck out on researchers’ assessments of their students being able to teach math, science, and English.  You must at least be able to throw the ball in the right direction to make it to the big leagues.  Five years later, in 2018, NPR backed up this study with another from the National Council on Teacher Quality, which stated that the expansion of charter schools resulted in teacher prep programs popping up like marijuana plants all over the country, but that they were offering poor, “narrow, cookie cutter educator training.”  Bad weed.  Included in this list is the infamous KIPP program.

         Then there are the money and attitude issues which affect the pipeline.  In 2018, for the first time in the history of the study, which dates back to Summer of Peace and Love, 54% of parents surveyed by PDK International said that they didn’t want their children to become teachers.  The study said that respondents didn’t believe the teaching profession was as revered as other “high-status” professions such as medicine and law – professions which people enter after spending several years with teachers.  In 2022, EducationWeek revealed that PDK’s newest study on this issue found an increase in teacher-hating parents, as 62% were telling their kids, do something else.  Respect, salary, working conditions, career pathways, and no rugs for their classrooms, have all been mentioned as reasons for career-searching individuals avoiding the teaching profession.  Well, make teachers out of the folks who are already in the classroom, the substitutes, paraprofessionals, or other education aides.  Philadelphia is doing this with a state-funded paraprofessionals-to-teacher pipeline.  Superintendent Torres-Rodriguez is in a “reimagining” mood, she ought to look at reimaging what a sustainable teacher pipeline could look like.

         Like major league baseball teams have been doing for years, and other school districts have been doing for years, Hartford Schools are now looking outside the United States for new talent.  To serve as FlexSeal for their leaking pipeline, Hartford has brought a dozen teachers to Hartford from Puerto Rico, and now they have a “Caribbean Connection” program which they hope will supply teachers for the 2023-2024 year.  This is a patch, however, not a permanent or sustainable solution.  The incentives for the sustainability of a Hartford teacher pipeline will only come when the reasons for the leak are addressed.

         Red Sox prospect Duran didn’t make it.  His underperformance caused him to be sent back to the minors before the end of the season.  I wonder if he can teach?