Judy Mitchell, dean of the College of Education at Washington State University, is not surprised to read the national reports that U.S. K-12 schools need 200,000 more teachers this year. Responding to that shortage, she reports that the WSU teacher education program has been restructured to offer improved preparation and is at full capacity.
“This teacher shortage was predicted during the Clinton Administration,” she explained. “Teachers from the baby-boom generation are retiring now, and they comprise about half of all American teachers. And not only is the birth rate still increasing, but there is an expanding need for teachers with specialized skills in math, science, special education, and ESL (English as a Second Language).”
Teachers with those skills are really in demand now due to the federal “No Child Left Behind” law which mandated a highly qualified teacher teaching each subject. That rule means that every teacher must have a degree in all the subjects they teach.
“Only a very few states will meet that requirement. Washington will not,” Mitchell said. “One reason is at rural schools teachers traditionally cover a range of subjects and do not necessarily have degrees in all those subjects.”
Mitchell cited recent media reports of this national shortage, for example in the Seattle Times on August 22, 2006, at
https://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/education/2003216230_teachers22.html.
The College of Education has been restructuring its programs for more than a decade to better prepare teachers and to prepare more of them, Mitchell said.
“We are full every semester,” she explained. “We received increased funding from the state in 2004 to increase our capacity in high-demand areas like special education and ESL. We were able to hire new faculty and increase the number of students.”
Approximately 440 students are enrolled in the undergraduate teacher preparation program at the Pullman campus, about 240 students who want to become elementary school teachers and about 200 students planning on teaching at the secondary level.
In addition, a total of approximately 180 students are enrolled in the undergraduate teacher preparation programs at the Vancouver and Tri-Cities campuses.
Mitchell cited a number of recent changes at the college designed to increase the number of teachers and improve their preparation,including:
*offering streamlined masters’ degree preparation programs at all WSU campuses for people who have college degrees in non-education majors who want to make mid-career changes into teaching (approximately 115 students are enrolled in these programs system-wide)
*providing courses in the highest demand subject areas (ESL and special education) on-line so that they are available anywhere in Washington
*collaborating with the College of Sciences and the College of Engineering and Architecture to increase the number, and improve the preparation, of math and science teachers
*establishing the School Community Collaboration Center to meet the needs of local school districts
*establishing mentoring programs for students during their student teaching experience and continuing through their professional careers, using high-tech communications systems
*redesigning the teacher preparation program to expose all students to the realities of today’s rapidly-changing classrooms.
“The teacher shortage is real, nationwide,” Mitchell said. “We are trying to do our part to meet this critical need.”
