Page 30 - The Edge - Back to School 2017

RECRUITING
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 29

is a dream come true to share her enthusiasm with students in
the hopes of inspiring them to pursue their passions, just as her “It’s hard to get people in the door, especially
teachers did.
Because Maxwell is young, married and was raised in when you have teachers telling their children
Arizona, she and her husband are staying in state for the sake of
convenience, but she said there is a possibility they could move to not to go into the profession.”
another state in the future to seek better pay and a cooler climate. — Keith Snyder, Arizona Department of Education
“You kind of have to go into teaching knowing about the
current situation we have here,” Maxwell said. “I can’t see myself
doing anything else though, I love it. Maybe things will get
better in the future, but for now you have to accept that it sucks
and do it anyway.”
Chandler Uni ed School District, one of the state’s largest profession,” Avey said. “If you have a structure where there’s a
suburban districts, has managed to maintain most of its teacher sense of, ‘We’re in this together. We’re a team. We’re collaborative,’
workforce and thrive in student performance. and that’s really embedded in your culture, I think it makes it
Avey, Bogle Junior High’s principal, said she believes that along easier to bring new people in and to kind of get them to latch
with some luck, making teachers feel welcome, supported and onto that culture.”
valued, while establishing conditions to encourage collaboration Avey has hired 15 new teachers for the upcoming school year,
and leadership is key to keeping teachers feeling needed and including four who are newcomers to the profession. Convincing
ful lled and remaining in an engaged and passionate mindset. young people to become teachers and remain in Arizona is a
“Statistically, nationwide, the rst ve years are the toughest tough sell. And if recent recruitment and retention reports are
for a new teacher and that’s when most (46 percent) leave the any indication, the state’s teacher shortage may be worsening.
When adjusted for cost-of-living, Arizona elementary school
teacher pay is the lowest in the nation and high school teacher
pay is 48th, the Morrison Institute report states.
The number of young teachers leaving the profession
combined with the teachers from the baby boomer generation
retiring is creating what state educators say are fueling the
teacher shortage.
The Morrison Institute’s report echoes the Arizona
Department of Education’s January 2016 Educator Retention
and Recruitment Report. ADE’s report calls for an increase in
teacher pay to remedy what it calls a “severe shortage of e ective
teachers.”
According to the report, the hourly rate for the average
educator is $8.12 an hour above the poverty rate and is only
$328.80 a week more than someone living in poverty.
Keith Snyder, deputy associate superintendent of educator
excellence at the Arizona Department of Education, said
the department has a hands-o approach when it comes to
recruitment and retention e orts. Arizona is a local-control
state, meaning most of these e orts are the responsibility
of the districts or schools, leaving the department with the
responsibility of providing guidance to districts on how to spend
federal funds earmarked for improving teacher quality, should
they request it.
Snyder, a former teacher himself, said one explanation for the
teacher shortage other than pay is change in culture surrounding
the eld and the decline in enthusiasm for the profession.
“It’s hard to get people in the door, especially when you have
teachers telling their children not to go into the profession,”
azcapitolreports.com Snyder said. “If you go to the high schools and ask the students,
602.258.7026 ‘what do you want to be?,’ you’ll be hard-pressed to nd anyone
raising their hand saying ‘I want to be a teacher.’”

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