Arkansas’ Teacher Pipeline Running Low

Cathy Koehler of the Arkansas Education Association says teachers need respect.

You don’t have to be a math teacher to know that the number of Arkansans interested in becoming teachers has declined sharply in recent years.

The ranks of students enrolling in state colleges and universities to pursue teaching degrees have dropped dramatically in the past five years, according to U.S. Department of Education data. For the 2011-12 school year, 7,758 students were in traditional or nontraditional teaching programs, but that number had plunged by more than half, to 3,737, by 2015-16.

Only 1,904 students completed training in 2015-16, while the Arkansas Department of Education said that more than 2,000 first-year teachers are hired in the state every school year.

“At some point there is a breaking point where you don’t have enough warm bodies to be in the classroom,” said Richard Abernathy, the executive director of the Arkansas Association of Educational Administrators. “It is a problem not only in Arkansas but all across the nation. Our numbers have declined dramatically in the last eight to 10 years. The bottom line is people are not moving into education; they’re not wanting to be a teacher.”

Abernathy and other experts cite many reasons for the drop. Cathy Koehler, president of the Arkansas Education Association, said that public respect for the teaching profession has declined, and that has altered young people’s ambitions.

Koehler earned her undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Central Arkansas in Conway, which was founded as a teachers college. Now only 4.6 percent of incoming freshmen at UCA are interested in becoming teachers, she said, citing a recent report.

“They honestly don’t see teaching as a stable profession,” Koehler said. “That’s something we really need to discuss as a society. We used to have whole colleges dedicated to producing teachers. Now you’re talking about less than 5 percent who are interested in that as a profession.”

At the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, enrollment in the teaching program dropped from 852 in 2013-14 to 293 in 2015-16, although graduating numbers held relatively steady. Between 211 and 250 teacher education degrees were granted each year from 2010 to 2016.

“We do have a changing culture and climate,” said Jennifer Beasley, the university’s director of teacher education. “I think we need to continue to work hard to build communities of learners and build relationships with parents. We want our students who are wanting to become teachers to feel valued.”

Finding Tomorrow’s Teachers
Arkansas State University in Jonesboro saw its teacher education enrollment drop from 360 in 2013-14 to 301 the next year before rebounding to 423 in 2015-16. Mary Jane Bradley, dean of the university’s College of Education & Behavioral Science, said A-State has been aggressive in recruiting teaching candidates.

Bradley, a longtime faculty member who was named dean in 2016, said the university hired a recruiter specifically for the department, and faculty members regularly visit high schools to promote teaching as a career.

“We have been working really hard in the recruitment,” Bradley said. “I go to schools and talk about how it is cool to be a teacher. In the past, we were fortunate because we didn’t have to do any recruiting because there were so many people wanting to be teachers. That is not the story anymore.”

The state Department of Education adopted the Teacher Cadets program to attract more candidates. It’s a national program with nearly 40 states participating, and it offers qualified high school students credits and teaching internships.

About 55 school districts in the state now participate in the program, partnering with 14 colleges and universities.

Officials said recruiting teachers is not enough; teachers in particular “subjects of need” are hard to find, especially in certain areas of the state, particularly rural districts. Sought-after subjects include special education, math and science.

“How many physics teachers graduated last year? Not enough to go around,” Abernathy said.

Koehler said special-ed teachers are a desperate need, but not because people want to avoid special-ed students. Rather, they’re put off by bureaucratic rules and oversight seen as obstacles to concentrating on teaching.

Special-ed teachers “come in, get buried in paperwork and then they leave,” Koehler said.

Expanding the Pool
One way the state has tried to increase the teacher pool is through nontraditional means.

The Arkansas Professional Pathway to Educator Licensure program helps people earn a teacher’s license even if they lack a teaching degree.

Abernathy said there aren’t enough physics teachers graduating to fill the state’s needs, but APPEL would allow someone with a physics degree to gain his or her teacher’s license.

Abernathy, a former superintendent of the Bryant School District, said he had hired many high-quality teachers through the nontraditional method, but he added it’s not a perfect solution.

“That has been successful to a limited degree,” Abernathy said, describing nontraditional licensing. “There are a variety of things being tried, but until we make teaching a much more respected professional position and get to where they can live off their salary, we’re going to struggle.”

Beasley said the University of Arkansas has a program, UAteach, that allows students to earn an academic degree in high-demand math and science fields and a teacher’s license simultaneously.

When they graduate, they have the option, for example, of pursuing math careers or careers teaching math.

Beasley and Bradley both touted their universities’ recruiting efforts, but Koehler said retention should get more focus. Koehler said studies have shown that teachers are most effective when they have between six and 15 years of classroom experience.

Unfortunately, studies have also shown a disturbing amount of attrition in the teaching profession.

In Arkansas, the retention rate after one year of teaching has averaged 90.3 percent since 2007-08, and the three-year retention rate is 76.6 percent; both rates have seen mild fluctuations, up and down, from year to year but have remained mostly stable. The five-year rate, last measured for the 2011-12 class of first-year teachers, averaged 69.2 percent but is on a downhill trend, falling from 72.2 percent for the 2007-08 rookies to 66.4 percent for teachers who started in 2011-12.

“We are rapidly, rapidly approaching the tipping point,” Koehler said. “If we can retain teachers, we’ll be freed up to spend more time working with students. If you look at what’s best for student learning, retention is the key to success.”

Teacher Program Enrollees
Traditional (T) and Non-Traditional (NT) Programs

* Not active in Arkansas these years.
Source: 2015, 2016, 2017 HEA Title II Reports