Welcome back from the winter holidays! Here’s hoping you’re feeling enthusiastic and refreshed rolling into the coming semester. Or maybe you feel like this:
That may be especially true if you’re starting to think about recruiting for your hard-to-fill teaching positions. And trust me, you’re not alone. We’ve been connecting with hundreds of schools across the U.S., and the truth is that recruiting teachers can be difficult, particularly for mathematics. Veteran teachers have raised the alarm in surveys, where they consistently report they’re considering leaving the profession. While the traditional pipeline (new university grads) still provides 75% of new teacher entries, its year-over-year decline has created a sizable gap. And honestly, that makes us excited. Why? This is the perfect time for out-of-the-box solutions like what we provide at MathTrack Institute. As you set your talent recruitment strategy, I thought it might be interesting to highlight some of the recent changes regarding the talent you have available to fill these roles.
Your Next Math Teachers are Hiding in Plain Sight.
The number of paraprofessionals has more than doubled over the last decade.
According to a working paper released by the Annenberg Institute at Brown University (2021), today, there is roughly a 1:3 ratio of paraprofessionals working as teachers in our schools compared to licensed educators. This labor market reality represents the trend in our home state of Indiana, with nearly 95% of school superintendents responding to a recent survey saying they are contending with a shortage of qualified candidates for teacher openings. It may worsen, as even the paraprofessional talent pipeline is drying up. A recent survey indicates that 71% of paraprofessionals out of 3481 that responded are likely to leave their school job, citing pay commensurate with their work as a major reason. These professionals are starting to organize and communicate their concerns in some states.
They are Unhappy for Good Reason
Paraeducators perform the full role of a core classroom mathematics teacher for less pay, less support and preparation, and higher work-related stress.
However, there is a silver lining. The growing paraprofessional workforce shows that there are many people who are choosing to teach in communities across the U.S. Another plus is that this pool tends to be far more diverse along ethnic and racial lines than certified teachers. However, our school and district leaders lack options to support these valuable professionals' biggest complaints about the work: far lower wages, fewer performance incentives, less professional development, and fewer opportunities for advancement within the profession.
Apprenticeship-Based Degrees Can Be a Smart Solution
The Raise the Bar Initiative, released in 2023 by the U.S. Department of Education, illustrates that apprenticeship-based degrees could be one answer to supporting the paraprofessional workforce with a pathway to training, support, degree, licensure, and better pay.
We can help you get there. When you work with MathTrack Institute and our partners, you, as a school leader, could offer a job-embedded benefit to these professionals to fill your hardest-to-recruit teaching positions worth more than $120,000 dollars (traditional cost of a bachelor's degree). How, you ask? Well, apprenticeship-based degrees can be paid for by Pell Grants and TEACH Grants, where the cost of a bachelor's degree could be less than $2,000 total and would only take two years while they work as a core classroom teacher at your school. This may sound too good to be true, but I assure you it is not.
Working for you in Plain Sight
Who comes to mind for you as you think about this solution? There are people in your schools right now whom you trust and who would love to have this opportunity and build their careers at your school. They have the prerequisites of being an incredible math teacher, and our collaboration will get them there. Let’s talk about it! Contact us at MathTrack Institute to learn more.
