K-12 Confidential
Even before the pandemic lock-downs, American teachers from sea to shining sea reported a critical shortage of teachers within their ranks, and have watched in horror at the crippling levels of greed, arrogance, apathy, and ignorance at every level of K-12 educational governance. While embattled teachers have continued to try in vain to draw attention to the issues, our leaders have failed to acknowledge the problems at all. But since covid, the nation’s teachers have borne witness to a break neck hastening pace of this downward spiral–and a total avoidance of a conversation from our leaders.
This a-political podcast, created and produced exclusively by teachers, gets into the nitty gritty details of why teachers are leaving the profession in droves, and uncovers huge contributing structural problems baked into the teaching profession which are not discussed or understood even within the K-12 educational world, which also explain why so much of what is done in K-12 is ineffective. These desperate, passionate, highly qualified teachers use this podcast series to insert teachers forcefully into the national conversation about the critical issues plaguing K-12 education, because no one else was letting them in–a fact which belies a central thesis about the roots of the problems discussed throughout the episodes. Listeners will be gripped by the reality that without substantial reforms which empower teachers to lead the work, the inevitable result is a collapse of our very ability to effectively self-govern–a process which they argue is already well underway.
Listen as they describe the problems in teacher pay, teacher preparation requirements, special education, climate and culture, reading instruction, the false promise of existing DEI based frameworks in K-12, and the problems inherent in outsourced canned curriculums. Become a part of the solution as they outline a framework to authentically fix these problems, which require all hands on deck from both inside and outside of K-12 education.
K-12 Confidential
Episode 3. Introduction to the Teacher Shortage Mess
The podcast 'K-12 Confidential' addresses the multifaceted issues within the American K-12 education system, focusing on the severe teacher shortage crisis. Hosted by Trina and new co-host Manuwellla Allen (Mani), the discussion highlights how low literacy rates and inadequate teacher preparation impact educational quality. Notable contributions include Dr. Paul Bruno's research on the teacher shortage, emphasizing the lack of consistent data reporting across districts and the nuances of the crisis. The conversation underscores the necessity of a K-12 Educator Governing Board to standardize reporting and empower teachers to lead their profession. The episode concludes by urging viewers to support their petition advocating for this governing board, aiming to foster significant educational reforms.
00:00 Introduction to the K-12 Education Crisis
00:36 Meet the Co-Host: Manny's Background
02:05 Teacher Shortage Crisis: An Overview
02:51 The Nuances of Teacher Shortage
06:31 Impact on Education Quality
09:06 District Responses to the Shortage
11:05 Governance and Reporting Issues
17:07 Upcoming Episodes and Conclusion
We need more teacher voices to this this justice! Visit us at k-12confidential.com to request to speak on the podcast.
Sign the petition to join the movement to save K-12 Education!
Welcome, Mani. I am so excited for the viewers and listeners to meet our fourth. Most amazing co-host, um, my dear friend Manuwella Allen who goes by Mani. She's gonna be joining us on a regular basis to talk about the topics, and she has extensive history, um, and education. So, Manny, tell the listeners without mentioning your district just a little bit about.
Who you are and how we know each other.
All right. Well, I was a previous special ed teacher and now I am an ethnic studies teacher. And, um, I've known Trina. It feels like forever. You feel like my sister. You know, we've just been, um, I met you through your husband and we connected, and from that moment on, it's just been.
It's been great. It's been just, we've been really, I think we're very good with balancing each other out.
We are, and you know, we started school staff against sexual violence together. Yes. The organization that, um. Really offers support and services to teachers who are dealing with sexual violence problems on their campus.
'cause so many districts, well all the districts Yes. Are trying to cover it up. Right. And it's really traumatic for the teachers. And of course we are advocating for reforms for the students. Right. And it's a lot. It is a lot. And we'll be talking about that in the DEI mess. Yeah. Yes. So today we're talking about the teacher shortage mess.
Yes. And we're gonna have. Pretty heady interviews on with Dr. Paul Bruno, who's a scholar of University of Illinois Chicago, who wrote the only scholarly article on the teacher shortage that gets kind of taken out of context and misquoted every fall when, uh, reporters attempt to cover the teacher shortage crisis.
So, um. For this, you are gonna help me break it down the 30,000 foot view. So we have some questions.
Yes,
I Sure. You're gonna ask me, take
it away
and nanny.
All right, so what is the deal here? Do we really have a, a shortage?
It's a complicated question. Okay. So, and we talk about this in the interview extensively because Paul will say that it's kind of hard to know exactly how bad the shortage is.
Um, and like if you look at the student to teacher ratios, they're actually much lower now than they were in the fifties. Um. Some of the nuance here is very confusing because actually SPED laws passed in the seventies.
Okay.
Okay. And so that changes. If you just look at the number of students in a school and the number of teachers at a school and you do a division problem, you're getting an idea that's not ab accurately capturing what's going on.
'cause there are a number of teachers who have very small cohorts. Yes. So if you wanna know, because of special education, so if you wanna know. How big your gen edu, your gen education classrooms are. That's a whole other thing. And it's a really convoluted mess and really hard to get at that information because if you ask teachers, they'll tell you their classrooms are bigger now than they were 10 years ago.
Okay.
Right. But those ratios make it look like we have, uh, what, 16 to one in California and No. I mean, how big are your classes this year, Manny?
Well, they started off pretty nice and now they're getting larger, so yeah. Sean was just telling me he has classes of 40. Yep, that's, that sounds about right. Yep.
Not enough desks in the room to even accommodate those students.
No. And for me in middle school, I've been pretty lucky. Um, but this year I have 34 and I don't have enough desks. I had to grab more desks. So this idea of do we have no shortage because the ratios are low? That's not true. We do have a teacher shortage, but the truth of it is way more nuanced and complicated than that.
Right. We get into it. Yeah.
Yes, and, and. Real quick. We also have to look at, we're teaching a different student than in the fifties, you know, so there, there are a lot. Mm-hmm. There's a lot more to them than, yeah. So, um, which areas are impacted more? Do you know? Teachers
know. Special education.
Yes.
Right. Yes.
Uh, absolutely. Urban and rural districts. Um mm-hmm. In the sort of scholarly discussions about the shortage, urban areas get mentioned. Of course, no justice is done for those schools. Nope. But rural areas too. The only schools that don't have a problem are suburban and they even have a problem. Right. Also, certain subjects, um, STEM subjects in the single subject world.
So what we mean by that is, um, math and science, single subject to high school level.
Mm-hmm.
Um, 'cause they have other options of employment and then foreign language teachers for some reason were having a significant shortage. That's right. Um, so, but the main thing here is that. S low socioeconomic neighborhoods, BIPOC communities are, um, exponentially greater hit with the shortage and this idea that the, the extent to which.
The lack of veteran teachers is affecting the quality of the education is minimized, not understood, and covered up. So it's, it's, it's bad and it intersects with a lot of the other messes that we talk about throughout the podcast.
Agreed, I agreed. So, how does the shortage impact the quality of education our students receive?
Well, you know, if you ask a teacher, we'll tell you the teacher preparation programs are onerous and ridiculous and don't make us good teachers. We learn on the job. So no matter how much you wanna say, this is a high quality, highly prepared teacher 'cause they did this and this and this and this, and that's not true.
What makes us good is not any of that. Mm-hmm. That's all just ticking boxes. It's time. It's time and we don't get really good until, I don't know, 7, 8, 9, 10 years in. Okay. Make it that far. Yeah. And the real crisis is 'cause like some of the hardest stuff we teach is little kids how to read.
That's right.
It's the most esoteric, poorly understood nichey thing we do that is so counterintuitive to our brains. Uh, we're not wired to learn to read. Teachers, like I say, in so many in the episodes, tend to be people who learn to read easily, and that's just not the common experience. Yes, for most, most people. Most people struggle to pick up the skills, especially in English, and it is not intuitive to teach or learn.
And so when you have. Students of color, low socioeconomic students, rural students, urban students, special education students, not getting high quality veteran instruction. Yeah, that's true. You wind up with an ever widening reading opportunity gap. We used to call it achievement gap. That's not the correct phrasing.
Agreed.
It is an opportunity difference.
Right.
Um, but you know, it impacts, you know, it impacts the quality of the education. In other ways too. Your classroom management game is weak when you're new. Um, and you know, a lot of times in the low socioeconomic districts, there's like. White people teaching to, um, bipoc students, and that's not, you're not culturally relevant.
You have no game. Right. You don't, you, you can maybe get there. Right? Take you a while. That's right. Yeah. It's gonna take you a while. And we need our best teachers in those districts. That's right. We need to be paying more. And this is something that Paul and I talk about. If you see there's an area that's hard hit by a shortage.
Pay more. Right? Get the best teachers there. Give the newest of us the easiest jobs. That's right. Give the best of us the hardest ones, and freaking pay us for it.
Agreed. I agree. So how are districts dealing with this? Oh God. Manny.
Nanny Manny, Manny. It's so frustrating. Yeah, so this is what we sort of talk about on the podcast, is they try to bring in some of these most hard hit districts.
They bring in, and I've been in these. Situations, um, these credential experts that sit around pulling emergency teaching credentials, like one year credentials to get someone with a pulse in a classroom.
Yes.
And, and then you wind up with, in these districts, you wind up with a bunch of brand new teachers.
And so you realize quickly you're saving a lot of money. Yep.
Yep,
yep. Because of our bizarre step and column where new teachers are making less than half, that's right. Of a complete salary. Mm-hmm. So you have all this great extra money. And guess who shows up with their snake oil? Collect can curriculum.
Mm-hmm. You have a bunch of new teachers use a thick book, turn a page, and teach a lesson. We can mitigate away, mitigate away, sorry, I'm like disappearing my back guys. I'm still trying to figure out my background situation. I, I need to get it dialed and this is. What I got going on today. Yep. And it's alright.
I'll try to make it better. It's alright. Um, but so they mitigate away the newness of a teacher and in some cases not even a teacher of record. Right. It's a parade of subs. That's right. Yes, and the district can say, but we bought this stents thing. It's super simple. It's teach by numbers. Yeah. There is no such thing as teach by numbers.
Right. There isn't. It's so frustrating. So there's more, there's more coming up in the episode, but that's kind of it.
Okay. Well, what was your biggest surprise about the shortage after your investigation of
the
problem? What was the. Outcome.
Well, yeah, when I read the, yeah, when I read the paper, I was like, oh my God, this is evidence of the K 12 governance mess.
Because what Paul and his co-authors are saying is that there's. Most schools are not even reporting. Yeah. And if they are, if they are, it's like piecemeal and strange. And what is the shortage? Is, is shortage. A lack of a credentialed teacher? Is this is a, is a shortage in a classroom, just a lack of a warm body?
Um, and then there's this whole nuanced conversation of, okay, so you have somebody in there with a credential, but they don't have the right one. Right. Both Paul and I say that's not. Uh, shortage problem, like stop making us jump through bizarre hoops. Yes. If we're a pro, yeah. If we're a proven entity and we have game, that's not a shortage problem, like stop with all the bizarre, onerous requirements, but then.
What if you're brand new and you're just an intern? Yeah. Like, you know, so, so the, the biggest problem was that there was a lack of reporting. And the reason why they're able to get away with a lack of reporting is because we have convoluted governance. It's every district is doing its own weird thing.
Mm-hmm. So the terms are, are referred to differently. But you know what I loved, and we're gonna talk about it in these episodes, is he and his colleagues that co-wrote the paper came up with three categories. Lack of reporting, really, there's a category of, we have basically good information that we have a good idea that this is what their shortage rates are, and then there's this middling level of, eh, we're not so sure we have to pull in other data from secondary sources, not from the districts themselves.
And then there's a third tier of like, I don't know, we have no data for this, this group, the entire West coast. Washington, Oregon and California is in that bottom group. That's, so, we have no idea what's going on with the shortage. Gavin Newsom recently, um, a couple years ago now asked the CTC, the Commission of Teaching in California, the one that gives us our credentials to do a study to figure out, um.
Why don't we know, uh, where, what, why he, his question was what is the shortage and where's it coming from? And I always say that's like asking the devil why, why there's so many sinners. Don't ask the ctc, they're part of the problem.
That's right. That is the truth. Yes. So speaking about all of this, how does the teacher pay miss teacher preparation?
Miss and the can curriculum miss, intersect with this?
It's like everything we were saying, it's the districts are constantly responding and reacting and they have no vision. And so when you have all these weird, these other weird problems going on, you have these gross can curriculum companies sneaking on in realizing that they can make a fortune off of these dense curriculums.
Mm-hmm. Right. With verified. They're verified with their bogus data, um, and they're now pedaling them to districts that don't have a shortage and charging our districts an arm and a leg giving this crap to teachers who are highly veteran and are, it's insulting. Yeah. It's very insulting to have massive game strong performance reviews and know we know what we're doing and then say, no, don't do that.
Just do this. Mm-hmm. And then have someone constantly come in to double check to make sure you're doing that.
Yes.
Um, and where that comes from is. The teacher pay mess is the problem that started it. Like these districts that don't have enough teachers have the extra money.
That's right.
They have it.
Yeah, because they're paying brand new people making nothing. That's the cant, curriculum companies are gross. They, they, the fact that we don't write our own curriculums, that we don't sit down and like, Hey, who wants to write curriculum? You, you, you, you wanna get a degree in that and make it cool 'cause you're current teachers.
Current teachers. Yeah,
that makes a lot of sense. That makes a lot of sense.
I have a question for you.
Sure.
What, where have you noticed this shortage
crisis? Where have I noticed it? You know, I'm noticing, noticed. Well, I'm gonna go around the corner to answer this question. Okay. Um, I'm noticing it in the large, of course, the large.
Large, large districts, but I'm also noticing it in the little districts. Mm-hmm. And what's happening is just to use, you know, from what I've seen, they don't wanna pay teachers and they wanna say that there is no, um. The thing I'm hearing a lot of is kids are leaving, the districts families are leaving the district, so we don't need as many teachers and so we're gonna lay off 10 teachers 'cause we don't need them.
But then the next year there's 60 more kids than there was the year before. So it's like, so where is there a shortage? Because I feel like it's kind of, they're fighting against each other. The words are, they're there, but.
You're in a di Yeah. You're in a district with declining
enrollment. Right. But then, yeah, every year we're getting more kids, so it's like, where's the decline?
And why are we in this position where you're letting go of teachers? By the time you see, you need more teachers. All the teachers that wanted to be in the district have found other jobs.
We dig. There's so much nuance, like we're just doing the 30,000 foot view. Yes. But the viewers and listeners can look forward to an in-depth conversation.
Yes. Between Dr. Paul Bruno and I, I look forward
to it myself.
Yes. It's coming out after this one. Love it. So, um, that's I think all we have for today. Yes. Yes. We've given everyone a teaser. Um. The next couple episodes are gonna be Dr. Paul Bruno, breaking down his article and really getting into the weeds.
And what we see is the intersection. It's like they all are a Venn diagram, right? These messes. But how this mess is evidence that the K 12 governance mess, how it flows into the teacher's, um, pay mass. Yes. Which. Is, you know, mirrored in the teacher preparation mat. It's like it's all stemming from one place, which is that we don't have that K 12 educator governing board.
Yes, we don't get to govern our own profession and really make things standardized and clear. Like if we had one professional body of us, we would all be reporting the shortage the same. Authenticity. Yeah. And holding each other accountable for seeing it. That account, because what we say in the episodes, in this, in this mess is it's red, blue, and purple states and counties.
There's no red, blue, or purple connection to this problem. It's not partisan, bipartisan.
That's right. Good point. Very good point.
Manny, I la you. I love
you too. This has been great. This has been really great. It's been great to see you and talk about this.
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