Idaho teacher shortage leads to hiring of teachers who are not certified

To say that Idaho has a teacher shortage is an understatement according to concerned educators.

Desperate school districts are being forced to hire uncertified teachers to plug the vacancies.

The shortage extends to substitute teachers as well.

Nancy Peterson has a challenging job. She’s the substitute placement clerk for Bonneville District 93.

“This morning was kind of tough, ” Peterson said. ” I couldn’t get anybody to fill a couple of positions so then I start calling the high school or middle school and they try to find teachers who can help.”

They pull aides from special educations classrooms, or fill with teachers during their prep hour, or double up classes if need be. The need is so serious, Superintendent Chuck Shackett offered this incentive this month.

“If you will come substitute in the Bonneville School District, we’ll treat you to lunch,” Shackett announced.

Wendy Schneider has been substituting for a couple of years. There’s enough demand for her to teach almost every day if she wants to. All her kids are in school, so being a sub brings in a little extra money. The only qualifications are being over 21 and passing a background check.

“It’s rewarding to work with all these different children in every different level. I’m high school to elementary,” Schneider said.

While it’s challenging to find subs, finding certified full time teachers is a more serious and growing problem. In fact, sometimes districts are forced to hire college graduates who don’t have a teaching degree.”

“The state typically gives you one to three years going through university or some other preparation programs that are there to get that full certificate,” District 93 Assistant Superintendent, Scott Woolstenhulme explained.

Woolstenhulme says nowadays they have 25 to 30 teachers on what are called alternate authorizations. They are working on getting certified.

“That’s just remarkably different than a decade ago when almost every teacher we had had gone through college and had their teaching certificate and was in the classroom,” Woolstenhulme said.

Devin Bodkin with Idaho Education News has studied the teacher shortage .

“What had happened is there was a sharp decline in the number of teachers coming into the profession, and there was an increase in the number of teachers who were going out of the profession,” Botkin said.

Bodkin made some amazing discoveries when he crunched the numbers a couple years ago.

In Idaho in the 2009 to 2010 school year, 1380 teachers left the classroom, but about 2,000 newly certified teachers more than made up for it.
But by the 2013-14 school year, almost two thousand left the classroom compared to only 934 newly certified teachers.

Last school year nearly 5% of Idaho teachers were not yet certified

Educators admit teaching is not a financially attractive profession, but some say in recent years it’s more than that. They say it’s become negatively politicized even though they say education has never been better.

“But you wouldn’t know that when you listen to campaigns and politicians and what’s coming out of Washington D.C,” Shackett said.

“There’s a lot more federal oversight of things, there’s a lot more state oversight of things. Teachers sometimes feel frustrated with the lack of autonomy,” Woolstenhulme said.

The teacher shortage is good news for people like Mark Bird. He’s been an actuary, for 19 years.

“I’ve always had a desire to teach, and it’s something I’ve thought if I had a chance, let’s go for it,” Bird said.

Rather than go back to school for years to get a teaching degree, Bird took the ABCTE test that focused on classroom management, and in his case, math.

“I crammed for it pretty good for a few weeks and took it and fortunately was able to pass,” Bird said.

Just last week Bird was hired to start teaching math next school year in District 93.

There are different views about the path Bird took. He’s had a couple decades of real life math experience.

“It ‘ s a controversial issued, ” Botkin said. ” Some people like those alternative programs because they have the potential to pull working professionals into the classroom. Others question, is that good for kids. Is it better to have teachers, more teachers go through these traditional routes in our traditional colleges and universities.”

As for the future, some school officials say the legislature has really come through the past year or two with more money for education. They hope that will encourage more people to go to school to become certified teachers.