The ongoing teacher shortage in West Virginia was a major subject of the West Virginia Board of Education meeting Wednesday.
The board’s first meeting of the new year focused on identifying teacher recruitment challenges. The state is short about 1,000 certified teachers, according to the West Virginia Department of Education’s Educator Preparation Taskforce (EPT).
The taskforce was formed in 2020 with the specific goal to address the teacher shortage. The EPT reported to board members that there are five specific recruiting challenges in the state.
Those include:
Lack of a robust multi-channel marketing campaign
Costs associated with teacher preparation and licensure
Barriers created by licensure testing and content-hour requirements
Beginning teachers lack access to consistently high-quality induction and mentoring programs
Lack of a comprehensive, single platform to provide data on teacher preparation, recruitment and retention
Board President Miller Hall said that by identifying these issues, it will help state education officials build a framework to address the problems.
“The work of this taskforce is essential to our efforts in addressing teacher shortages and creating effective measures to keep educators in the profession,” he said.
West Virginia Superintendent of Schools Clayton Burch added that, “Teacher preparation, recruitment and retention are essential to our state’s economic stability and success. We have begun a process that requires the attention and energy of all stakeholders.”
The taskforce said that while there is a shortage of teachers, classrooms are not without educators, however, there is a significant number of classrooms led by either long-term substitutes or teachers without certification in a specific content area.
West Virginia K-12 schools are experiencing a teacher shortage in all subjects, but there are five areas where that shortage is seen as critical.
Those subjects include math and science, special education, elementary education and counseling — and the shortage is felt most in southern counties, according to the West Virginia Department of Education.
Education reporter Liz McCormick spoke about this challenge recently with Carla Warren, director of Educator Development and Support Services in the WVDE’s Office of Teaching and Learning.
They discussed the scope of the teacher shortage in West Virginia along with solutions to tackle it. One of those solutions identified by the department requires that by fall 2024, every student exiting a university teaching program in West Virginia must participate in a full-year residency program in one classroom, in one school.
The idea is to create an immersive experience for the new educator and build a sense of community.
The transcript below is from the original broadcast. It has been lightly edited for clarity.
Listen to the extended version of the interview for more of the conversation.
Extended: About 1,000 Vacancies Exist In K-12 Schools, But A New Residency Program Could Help Turn The Tide
McCormick: We know from talking with teachers and county superintendents that many counties are experiencing a shortage in some form, but can you give us a sense of the magnitude of this issue here in West Virginia?
Warren: Sure, thank you. So, the overarching problem is that collectively as stakeholders, we are not recruiting, preparing and retaining enough qualified individuals into the profession to successfully provide equitable access to all of our students in West Virginia. There are many reasons for this, but if we look at some of the data, we see that based on the latest retention and mobility data, that 20 percent of our beginning teachers are leaving [the profession] after their first year, which is twice the national average, over a similar time period.
We also are seeing that about 32 percent of West Virginia teachers are leaving the profession within the first four years of entering the classroom. So that attrition piece is a large magnitude. And of course, we know that the financial cost to our districts is large, because when a teacher leaves a classroom, it’s about an average of $9,000 in a rural district, [and] up to $21,000 for an urban county to retrain a new teacher. So those attrition costs add up very quickly.
We know that one of our goals is to expand the number of high quality educators in our state. We are seeing that our students who are coming out of educator preparation programs in the state are well prepared to enter the classroom, but the problem is input. We don’t have enough students being recruited into the profession, for multiple reasons, to staff our classrooms.
McCormick: Do we know why they’re leaving our schools?
Warren: There are some top recurring causes, and I think it’s important to emphasize that this is not a West Virginia problem. This is a national problem. Of course, teacher shortages have been increased by COVID — that has made everything exaggerated. But of course, the low pay and benefits are an issue for West Virginia teachers. If you look at some of the new data that just came out of the Southern Regional Education Board, it shows [West Virginia], particularly [compared to] our border counties, there’s about a $10,000 difference for a teacher teaching in West Virginia and driving 10 miles to teach in Maryland. It’s the same in Virginia, it’s about a $5,000 difference. So we know that costs and benefits are part of the problem.
If we look at the national stage, we know that lack of respect and esteem for the profession is a concern for many teachers, or many students entering the education profession. And then again, back to that attrition piece, we have fewer students entering [the profession], and we have more teachers retiring.
You think about our population, we have a tremendous population that’s over the age of 50. So we have a lot of teachers exiting, and we’re not replenishing the hole in that leaky bucket.
McCormick: You mentioned the pandemic and how it exacerbated this issue that was already occurring. Can you talk a little bit more about how much COVID-19 has impacted our state?
Warren: The teacher shortage is a nationwide phenomenon, and it’s not a new phenomenon in West Virginia. There have been teacher shortages for quite a while in our area. But a research study that just came out of [West Virginia University] indicates that there are about 1,000 vacancies in our schools. And I believe, pre-pandemic, that number hovered more closely to 700.
What is very important to make sure that we understand, though, is that these are not classrooms that are sitting empty. These are not classrooms that don’t have teachers. These are classrooms that may not have a fully certified teacher. However, we are struggling currently with a substitute shortage. So what we have are teachers and principals and superintendents that are covering classrooms, they’re riding on bus routes, they’re serving food in the kitchen, they’re helping the custodian, they’re teaching classes.
We have one superintendent that shared with us that he blocks off two days a week to go into a classroom and teach a course. And COVID has, of course, exacerbated this.
McCormick: Talk with me about some of the plans and goals that the West Virginia Department of Education is looking at right now to help alleviate this problem.
Warren: Absolutely. The Educator Preparation Task Force is looking at recruitment. Part of that task force is looking more closely at the quality of educator preparation programs currently — and these would be our university programs — and also looking at innovation in education.
One of the things that the state department of education and the West Virginia Board of Education have implemented is a residency model, which went into full implementation on July 1, 2021. This says that by the fall of 2024, every student exiting a university educator preparation program will have a full-year residency in one classroom in one school. They will spend the entire year under the tutelage of a cooperating teacher.
So they’ll see the school year begin, they’ll see the school year end, and they’ll become a part of that school environment — that culture. And there is some significant research that tells us that students who are prepared through a clinical residency, remain in the school system and remain in the profession.
There’s only one other state currently that requires an undergraduate residency, and that is Louisiana. There are several master’s level residences in the country, but we feel like West Virginia is leading the nation and providing strong clinical opportunities for our teachers.
For the next six weeks, all Jefferson County public schools will switch to an early dismissal schedule on Fridays as a result of staffing shortages.
Beginning Oct. 15 and continuing through Nov. 19, Jefferson County students will leave school three hours early every Friday. The idea is to allow teachers and staff time to catch up on lessons, clean classrooms and catch their breath.
The move comes in the wake of staffing shortages in the school system as a result of the pandemic.
“Teachers are giving up planning periods, principals are serving meals, central office staff are substitute teaching, and transportation supervisors are driving buses,” said Jefferson County Superintendent of Schools Bondy Shay Gibson in a statement to West Virginia Public Broadcasting.
“We have been all hands on deck for nearly two months. In some school districts, these short staffing issues have led to school closures or shifts to total remote instruction. [Jefferson County Schools] wants to avoid those scenarios, but as the largest employer in Jefferson County, we have an obligation to our staff to give them the tools they need to be successful serving your children.”
The six-week initiative is called Sustaining Excellence.
The school system has anywhere from 131 to 214 empty positions on a given day, with a daily average of about 150, according to Jefferson County Schools. They say this is either because it’s a vacancy with no one in the position or that person is simply absent.
Gibson hopes by dismissing students early on Fridays, this will help alleviate some of the pressure on teachers and staff.
“While we know this will be an inconvenience for our parents, it will serve many purposes that will enhance the quality of the time their children are in school,” said Jefferson County Schools (JCS) in a document detailing the Sustaining Excellence plan.
Jefferson County Schools said students will continue to receive breakfast and lunch on Fridays, and JCS hopes through the “consistency” of the new schedule rather than “sporadic closures,” it will help parents to plan accordingly.
The West Virginia Department of Education (WVDE) said it is not aware of any other West Virginia counties offering early dismissals as a result of staffing shortages.
Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, staffing challenges within school systems have been reported across the country. While this issue is present in West Virginia, it is unclear how widespread school-related shortages are in the state.
According to the WVDE’s online K-12 Education Job Bank, which shows the number of vacancies in all K-12 education in the state, there are 320 job openings within all 55 county school systems.
Of that, there are reportedly only six vacancies in Jefferson County Schools, according to the WVDE. This does not align, however, with what has recently been reported by Jefferson County Schools.
A spokesperson from the WVDE said posting job openings to the WVDE’s website is a responsibility of an individual county and “posting jobs to this site is voluntary.”
The West Virginia Board of Education is exploring ways to improve working conditions for teachers who are emerging from the unprecedented drain of teaching during a pandemic — and looking ahead at the way forward for their students who will need remediation.
The board hopes to address issues like teacher shortages and burnout as classes return this fall and as educators assess the best plan to ensure that everyone in the classroom is supported.
Board members last week heard plans from two counties in their monthly meeting on how they hope to assist students in catching up. They also received a presentation from the nonpartisan Learning Policy Institute. Their study, which began in July 2019 and ended in Feb. 2020, considered teacher shortages as a major issue in West Virginia — but a critical issue in southern counties.
Over the past decade, nearly every county in West Virginia reported a shortage in a subject area. According to LPI, those shortages are greatest in mathematics, science, special education and elementary education.
“Keep in mind, this is pre-pandemic data that we’re looking at,” said LPI’s Policy Advisor Ryan Saunders ahead of the presentation. “There’s still a lot we don’t know about just how much the pandemic has impacted some of these trends that we saw before the pandemic.”
Even though the data was gathered before the pandemic, the institute offered the state six ways to tackle having less staff, with specific focus on two areas they deemed vastly important for the state as it enters a post-pandemic world.
These two areas were strengthening clinical training and induction.
“We’re going to have a lot of new teachers who may not have had the types of clinical experiences they needed because of remote learning, because of shifts from hybrid to in-person classrooms,” Saunders said. “And so there’s a need for those new teachers to get even more support coming out of the pandemic … Induction is going to be the only way they get some of that mentoring and coaching that will keep them in the profession.”
Saunders recommended year-long residencies for teachers and efficient and meaningful training and support.
“Research also indicates the teachers without full preparation, [they] leave at two, to three times the rates of fully prepared teachers creating the ‘leaky bucket phenomena’ that contributes to shortages and undermines school improvement efforts,” he said.
But if teachers receive high-quality mentoring and induction in their first two years, Saunders said teachers are twice as likely to stay in the profession.
Saunders also proposed paying for training with some of the millions of dollars coming in from the federal government’s “American Rescue Plan.” It was announced in March that West Virginia will receive more than $760 million in dedicated COVID relief money just for schools.
West Virginia Public Broadcasting reached out to the West Virginia Department of Education for the number of teacher vacancies in the state, but they did not respond before this story was published.
Summer Remediation In West Virginia
In response to the challenges brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, the West Virginia Department of Education has created a summer remediation grant program available to all counties called “Summer SOLE.”
All but one county (Boone) has opted to receive some of the funding for summer school opportunities. The allocation comes from remaining CARES funding and totals to about $32 million spread out among 54 counties.
Board members last week heard presentations about SOLE plans in Wood and Mercer counties.
Wood County Superintendent of Schools William Hosaflook said their goal will be to help kids fall in love with school again.
“Our summer programming strategy is very simple,” Hosaflook said. “We wanted to recapture the love of learning. We know we’re gonna catch kids up, but that is not our goal. Our goal is to recapture the love of learning.”
Hosaflook said his team will be focused on things like summer school camps rather than traditional summer school. One in particular he pointed to is called Steam Camp, where students will focus on science, technology, engineering, arts and math.
“I started to think, how can we not only validate what’s happening in the classroom, but how can we engage kids in innovation, creativity — to really bring the love of learning?” he said.
Wood County Schools has received $1.5 million for its Summer SOLE programs.
Mercer County Schools is also aiming to do things out of the box. In a statement read to board members, Mercer County Superintendent Deborah Akers said the focus in her county would be on helping children reconnect with school.
“This is definitely a team county-wide effort,” Akers said. “The parameters given to the schools were four days a week, ELA and math skills coupled with enrichment, credit recovery for secondary students, with all transportation and meals included.”
The statement went on to say that principals and teachers have made their programs school specific. But additionally, Mercer County will be offering “classrooms on wheels” that will begin during the second-half of July and run into the fall.
The classrooms on wheels will travel countywide and provide instruction opportunities for students “in their own backyard.” There will be four buses: a STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) bus, a virtual reality technology bus, a fitness and music bus, and an art, drama and writing bus.
Mercer County received $1 million for its Summer SOLE programs.