In 2015 in West Virginia, some 600 technically non-certified teachers were in front of public school classrooms.
That number has now more than doubled, with 1,544 such educators doling out the lessons for the next generation of students coming up.
The “technical” part comes down to the subject and the class period, Carla Warren said recently.
Warren, a former classroom teacher who now directs development and support services for the state Department of Education, broke it down two weeks ago before reporters and the public at the start of the 2023 Legislative session.
“We have certified teachers,” she said, “but they’re teaching out of their content area.”
That’s because there aren’t as many new teachers readying to take their place, come retirement or career change.
There are 18 teacher preparation programs in colleges and universities across West Virginia, and taking roll in them, Warren said, is easy.
Too easy.
In nine of those 18 programs, less than 20 graduated last year, she said.
Six of them, she reported, graduated 10 or less.
And three of those programs didn’t have one soon-to-be teacher turning his tassel at commencement.
Meanwhile, she said, the state is doing its homework.
Teacher residency programs and “grow your own” educator initiatives are in the roll-out stages, Warren said. The Department of Education is also hoping a better paycheck and other perks will entice young people to enter the profession.
A key motivation, she said, comes in keeping teachers — especially ones in the border counties.
Those are the locales, she and others in the profession say, where it’s all too easy for an educator to jump over to the district next door in the neighboring state for $15,000 to $20,000 more in take-home pay.
Meanwhile, the state Board of Education last month voted to put more supports in place for those education majors working through their Praxis II content exam, which is the academic benchmark for teacher certification in the state.
Under the new measures, student-teachers who initially don’t make the qualifying score on the exam may still work under a temporary license, provided they maintain a minimum grade-point average as they prepare to retake it.
The idea, the state board said, is to keep budding educators engaged and in front of the classroom.
Anything that effectively works for a critical profession in a state, Warren said, where a lack of educational attainment makes for a downtrodden segment of the population — toiling in low-paying jobs opposed to pursuing a career.
“We’re removing barriers,” she said.
“This isn’t an ‘education’ problem. It’s a workforce development problem.”
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