Filling up Position in the School Level
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ichigan schools once again are filling more classrooms with instructors who lack all of the required credentials because they can’t find enough certified teachers. But at the same time, student-teacher ratios are shrinking and highly demanded instructors remain on the sidelines.
According to Bridge Magazine, early school year trends suggest Michigan public schools will surpass last year’s use of more than 2,500 long-term substitutes. These numbers are tallied by the state, which has to give local districts permission to employ less-credentialed instructors for extended periods of time. The number of long-term substitutes used in 2018-19 more than doubled from two years earlier, evoking grave concerns of a general shortage of certified teachers.
Public charter schools — which typically serve more low-income students than conventional districts — are disproportionately struggling to fill classrooms with certified instructors. The Bridge article highlights a small but promising alternative program to train and certify college-degree holders to take over charter classrooms full-time. Michigan schools could benefit from having more alternative teacher preparation options to attract potential instructors who wouldn’t undergo the standard regimen.
After all, the number of education degrees acquired in Michigan has steadily fallen to half of the levels a decade ago. That could mean not enough teachers are being prepared to maintain current student-staffing ratios, but it would be too early to jump to the conclusion that the state needs to double the production of certified teachers. Research of national trends points out that over the previous three decades, more than twice as many education degrees were earned as teachers hired. To the extent Michigan fits the pattern, the decline in graduates with education degrees may mean our state has actually reached an equilibrium between supply and demand for the total teaching workforce.
What, though, if the growing need for long-term substitutes is being driven at least as much by changes in demand as by changes in supply? The Bridge story acknowledges, based on an earlier Citizens Research Council report, that “there are enough students graduating from Michigan’s university-based teaching programs to replace teachers who retire and quit.”
But the article omits an examination of public schools’ overall hiring patterns. From 2017 to 2019, the number of teachers statewide grew by 1.6% while the number of students declined at the same rate. Nearly a third of all conventional districts lost students but still added full-time teaching positions.
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