Pedagogy of the Obsessed

Keri Randolph, former Assistant Superintendent for Innovation in Hamilton County, shares her own reluctant journey into the classroom and tries to find out why so few people are taking that path. Asking why no one wants to teach anymore to the following experts:

• Pete Fishman, Vice President for Strategy Deans for Impact @psfishman
• Kate Walsh, President of National Council on Teacher Quality @nctqkate
• Tiffanie Robinson, President and CEO of Lamp Post @LampPostBldgs
• Barnett Barry, Founder and CEO for Center for Teaching Quality @teachingquality
• Rickteyzia, Aspiring Teacher and Lasell College Graduate
• Carole Basile , Dean of Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona
  State Teachers College @asueducation
• Lance Huffman, former principal
• Mariel Novas, former community organizer
• Shanna Peeples, 2015 National Teacher of the Year and author of
  Think Like Socrates

The dread color-coded sheets. They always started arriving around January. The Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources would prepare weekly updates on anticipated job openings at schools in the district and distribute them to the district leadership team. Green meant a school was fully staffed; yellow meant more than 50% of openings had been filled; and red meant more than 50% of openings had not been filled. During my first January in the district, I was shocked to see the abundant red lines and numbers of anticipated openings. Over the next few months, the red lines increased with more than 300 teachers needed to fill openings for the following school year. Our conversations as a leadership team were rarely about quality or effective teachers, but rather a growing lack of certified candidates. Through these conversations, I learned that, some classrooms in our highest poverty schools went without a permanent teacher for months or even a year in high needs areas like math and science. But, we were starting to experience shortages across the board except in our most affluent schools. We moved back the hiring season so that it started in December in hopes of signing teacher early before they could be recruited away. We partnered with our local university to improve teacher preparation and strengthen the student-teaching experience. We started a mentoring pilot to support new teachers in hopes they would stay, but through all of this, I saw a bigger problem.

Not enough people wanted to teach in our schools.

See below for some references and additional resources to accompany the content in the podcast.

The Situation: Framing the Issue.

1. Do we really have a teacher shortage?
   a. 2017-18 Teacher Shortage Area Nationwide List from the Office of Postsecondary Education at the US Department of Education. Urban, rural, high poverty and low-achieving schools have the biggest staffing problems.
   b. Some schools and districts (for example, South Carolina) are looking to teacher exchange programs to fill vacancies.
   c. Retention is a huge issue, but it is outside of the scope of this podcast. We plan to release an episode solely on retention soon.
   d. We have a national shortage of minority teachers.
2. Teaching is local, and so are shortages.
   a. Teaching is more local than most professions. Teachers are more likely to teach near where they grew up and receive their training locally, as well. Read more about Deans for Impact on Peter Fishman’s blog, 13 Miles: The Inherent Localism of Teaching.
   b. Check data from your state here. Shortages can vary within states, within communities and even within districts.
3. Teacher preparation programs are lacking in numbers and quality.
   a. Declining enrollment in teacher preparation in some parts of the country raise concerns that local supply won’t meet local demand. More on the data included in the podcast from the Learning Policy Institute.
   b. Teacher preparation program- the quality debate. The National Council on Teaching Quality reviews and ranks teacher preparation programs including traditional and alternative certification programs, though, there’s debate over how to measure the quality of teacher preparation programs. Here’s the link to the Third Way survey, Teaching: The Next Generation, Kate Walsh mentions in the podcast. Here’s the list of alternative teacher preparation programs in Texas.
4. There’s a lot about teaching in many communities that isn’...

Lee Ann Stephens (@MNTOY2006) talks about her work making schools more equitable places and offers strategies for how schools can do this work well with training. Join cohosts Shanna Peeples and Adam Parrott-Sheffer as they learn what are the common challenges and effective approaches when addressing equity in schools.

Lee-Ann Stephens has been an educator for 25 years and was named Minnesota’s Teacher of the Year in 2006.

She currently serves as a teacher on special assignment with the St. Louis Park School District in Minnesota. She serves Latino and African American high school students who are enrolled in Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and honors classes. She previously served as an adjunct professor at Metropolitan State University and she served on Minnesota’s Board of Teaching.

She holds a B.A. in International Studies, B.S. in Elementary Education, M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction and she is currently pursuing an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership. She is a MinnCAN board member.

This episode features many references to the work of Glenn Singleton's Courageous Conversations About Race. Get the book if you do not have it already.

Oh yeah, and rate us on iTunes!

Nancy Gutierrez (@NancyBGutierrez), the CEO of New York Leadership Academy (@NYCLeadership), is back sharing her stories and advocacy for race, equity, and leadership.

This week, Jim speaks with Nancy Gutierrez (@NancyBGutierrez) about what she has learned about leadership. Her reflections on her first year as the CEO of New York Leadership Academy (@NYCLeadership) are full of powerful truths.

We continue to talk to educator authors about why they write. This week Adam discusses Think Like Socrates with author, Pedagogy of the Obsessed co-host, and National Teacher of the Year, Shanna Peeples (@ShannaPeeples)

We are joined by Tulane teacher preparation expert, as well as science teacher phenomenon features in Think Like Socrates, Keri Randolph (@keri_randolph)