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Teachers are leaving Pennsylvania classrooms at the highest rate on record, a new analysis found.
The study, by the Penn State Center for Education Evaluation and Policy Analysis, examined teacher attrition from 2021-22 to 2022-23, concluding that 7.7% of the Pennsylvania teaching workforce, or 9,587 teachers, left their positions from one year to the next.
That’s up from the 6.2% attrition in 2022, and 5.4% in 2021, making it the highest-ever attrition rate on record, said Penn State education professor Ed Fuller, who conducted the analysis. The data do not show whether teachers are leaving for positions outside Pennsylvania or quitting teaching altogether.
» READ MORE: Pa. issued the lowest number ever of new teaching certificates as educator shortage worsens

PA REAP (Pennsylvania’s Regional Education Applicant Placement) is hoping to assist your efforts regarding the placement of prospective teacher applicants into classrooms across the Commonwealth.

As many of you already know, PA REAP is an online recruitment and application service for educators. The system is dedicated to helping schools and applicants save time and energy by using a user-friendly online job application system.

PA REAP offers prospective teacher applicants:
1. The power of a network of opportunities without any costs,
2. The ability to share resumes and documents,
3. The opportunity to find employment from over 260 school districts and private schools throughout Pennsylvania.

PA REAP offers school human resource departments a tool:
1. To post positions,
2. Search and find candidates,
3. To manage the application process.
Please be sure to inform your students to add their resume and state application into PA REAP. By doing so, their profile will be available to schools across the Commonwealth. (Please feel free to pass along this email communication directly to your prospective teacher candidates.)

The website is www.pareap.net.

All ready to make great connections - teachers and schools. Talk with us!

Interesting point of view for you to consider:

School funding suit verdict won’t fix our education system. Here’s what will

By Sharif El-Mekki

t took many years, but the courts have now ruled: Pennsylvania’s patently inequitable state education funding system, indeed one of the least equitable funding systems in the nation, is unconstitutional.

Too many of our communities — low-income Black and brown communities, rural communities, low-income suburban communities — are living with the fallout of generations of this inequity. From lower graduation rates and diminished career prospects, economic insecurity, and public safety challenges, the way we have funded schools in the Keystone State has built an architecture of haves and have-nots, of a fundamental injustice for far too many children, families, schools, and neighborhoods.

But all that will change now, right?

Unfortunately, no.

Judge Renée Cohn Jubelirer’s ruling is a sweeping and stinging indictment of the way the state allocates financial support to our schools.

“The consistency of [achievement] gaps over the variety of inputs and outputs leads to the inescapable conclusion that these students are not receiving a meaningful opportunity to succeed academically, socially, and civically, which requires that all students have access to a comprehensive, effective, and contemporary system of public education,” she wrote in her 786-page decision.

In ruling this way, Jubelirer makes a critical observation that shows us both the desperate need to create a just and equitable school funding scheme, but also how much more must be done to ensure that, as Gov. Josh Shapiro put it in his statement on the ruling, “every child in Pennsylvania should have access to a high-quality education and safe learning environment, regardless of their zip code.”

To achieve that vision of universal access to high-quality schools and safe learning environments, we’ll need a comprehensive overhaul of all parts of our education system.

That starts with teacher preparation and development.

Schools need to prepare teachers to reach the kids they serve.The vast majority of our teachers are prepared by institutions where curricula and pedagogical frameworks are based on the work of white educators such as Horace Mann, John Dewey, and BF Skinner, instead of Black luminaries like Carter G. Woodson. Aspiring teachers are often left without the understanding of how their own unconscious bias shapes how they interact with Black, brown, and low-income students. As a result, many teachers are unable to develop, foster, and maintain relationships with these students. Research shows that white teachers have lower expectations for their Black students, which may be a direct result of this disconnect and social distance, and hinder those students’ academic success.

The organization I lead, the Center for Black Educator Development, is working to equip educators with the skills and cultural understanding they need to teach all children well and help them achieve. Despite our growth, our own reach is finite: Just over 2,300 educators attended our professional learning offerings last year. In a region where more than half of teachers say they are not prepared to lead a diverse classroom, we’ll need a significant increase in our scale to reach the more than 124,000 educators serving our state’s 1.73 million schoolchildren in public schools.

We’ll need to look at how we develop a curriculum that gives students the skills and learning opportunities they will need in order to build stable, productive lives in an ever-changing economy. All schools — not just those in high-income areas — must support student aspirations and expose them to potential careers early, so they have the understanding and pathway to pursue their passions and professional ambitions. Once students have identified potential career goals, schools need to be able to provide them with the skills they need to get there: either a four-year degree, industry-recognized certification, or other pathways to personal fulfillment.

If we think the state funding formula is the only thing broken at Pennsylvania schools, that’s like saying that all a broken-down car needs is a full tank of gas. It now ought to be able to run a race against well-oiled high-performance vehicles, right? The fuel — the funding — is just a part, albeit an integral one, of the problem.

Yes, we need more equitable, sustainable, and predictable funding, especially for schools serving students with greater needs, which Judge Jubelirer rightly noted are most often in our lower-income communities. But the court’s ruling does not totally absolve us from interrogating and restructuring the rest of the dysfunctional system, which keeps too many Black, brown, and low-income students in an endless cycle of low expectations and diminished futures.

This ruling is a resounding victory for good sense, reason, and the further pursuit of educational justice for all of our learners.

But it is merely the start of what must be an expansive and comprehensive transformation of our state’s entire system of public education.

Sharif El-Mekki leads the Center for Black Educator Development. He was a teacher and principal in the School District of Philadelphia and is the former principal of Mastery Charter School — Shoemaker

Campus. He founded the Fellowship — Black Male Educators for Social Justice, is a member of the “8 Black Hands” podcast, and blogs at Philly’s 7th Ward.

Here's an opinion from Susan Snyder, writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer regarding the current teacher shortage. What do YOU think?

A new report on Pennsylvania’s teacher shortage recommends sweeping changes, affecting how teachers are prepared, paid, and retained, and advocates solutions that address not only the problem but also its root causes across the system.

Student teachers should get paid, and Pennsylvania should explore models that would make it free for college students to become teachers. There should be closer partnerships between school districts and colleges, a better assessment of teacher preparation programs, and higher pay for teachers who serve as mentors.

These were among the remedies resulting from a teacher shortage summit in Harrisburg last September that drew 150 educators, policymakers, and government leaders, including then-acting Secretary of Education Eric Hagarty.

The summit and subsequent 36-page report, titled : Addressing Pennsylvania’s Teacher Shortage Crisis Through Systemic Solutions, were led and prepared by Teach Plus and the National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE), two national nonprofits.

The move comes as fewer young people are seeking careers in teaching and as vacancies mount, particularly in special education, English language instruction, and science, technology, engineering, and math. Nationally, the number of people completing teacher education programs from 2011-12 to 2019-20 fell 25%, according to federal data,with steeper drops in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

The report’s authors have already begun circulating it among legislative leaders and cabinet members in new Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration. State Sen. David Argall, the Republican who is majority chair of the Education Committee, has scheduled a Feb. 28 hearing on the teacher shortage where the report will be discussed, its authors said.

“We’re hoping that this can be, in a particularly polarized environment right now, something that

Democrats and Republicans can agree on and come together on,” said Laura Boyce, executive director of Teach Plus PA and a former Philadelphia teacher and Camden principal.

Increase incentives, but don’t lower the bar

The report highlighted four root causes of the teacher shortage: Low pay coupled with increasing costs to attend college; waning interest in the profession and its declining status; inconsistent preparation and induction of new teachers; and “stressful and isolating” work conditions without opportunity for input or ability to advance.

It also called out the problem of too few teachers of color.

“Pennsylvania has a particularly acute shortage of educators of color, with only 6% of the educator workforce identifying as persons of color, compared to 37% of the student population,” the report said.

Boyce’s coauthor, Amy Morton, system design specialist at NCEE, said the report is aimed at boosting the number of people who go into teaching and also improving working conditions “so that we’re not just solving one half of the problem and still wondering why it’s not sustainable.”

Solutions, Boyce and Morton said, should be encouraged through incentives rather than mandated. Some recommendations, such as paying teachers according to advancing skills, may require changes in collective bargaining agreements, the report noted.

They do not advocate lowering the bar for becoming a teacher, though they support removing unnecessary barriers that don’t measure quality. Pennsylvania last year waived its basic skills tests in reading, math, and writing that teachers had to pass — or meet the requirement through an alternative — to enroll in teacher preparation programs. The three-year waiver will allow for study to show whether the test improved the quality of teaching candidates or deterred students from pursuing the profession.

“I’m not crazy about anything that reduces the expectations that teacher candidates should be able to perform at a particular level,” said Morton, who started as a high school social studies teacher and has held leadership positions in Pennsylvania’s Education Department under three governors. “On the other hand, I’m not convinced that the basic skills test is the tool to determine that.”

Fix the ‘wage penalty’

Teacher pay has been a deterrent, the report said.

“Inflation-adjusted average weekly wages of teachers have been relatively flat since 1996, while weekly wages of other college graduates rose 28% over the same period,” the report said.“This leads to a so-called ‘wage penalty’ of 15.2% for Pennsylvania teachers; in other words, college graduates who pursue teaching as a career earn, on average, 15.2% less than their classmates who are employed in other fields.”

Pennsylvania is worse off in that area than New Jersey, New York, and Delaware, the report said.

School districts should create career ladders, identifying mentor teachers who can advance on the pay scale commensurate with their skills and remain in the classroom, the report recommended.

Low pay makes the profession less desirable to prospective teachers, especially to students from low-income backgrounds who already struggle to pay for college. Pennsylvania should explore funding apprenticeship programs in which students work in school districts and get paid, while having the cost of their teacher preparation covered.

The state also should look at defraying other costs for candidates, such as paying for certification exams, the report said.

And colleges and school districts must partner to create more paths into teaching, such as a program started by the Philadelphia School District to help paraprofessionals become teachers at no cost.

Measure program quality and w**d out the poorly performing programs

In other countries, teacher preparation programs are confined to top colleges, making it easier to ensure high quality across the board. Finland, which has a population of 5.5 million, less than half that of Pennsylvania, has eight accredited programs, while Pennsylvania has 126.

“You have a much different approach to who gets into those teacher preparation programs,” Morton said. “They are usually coming from at the very best top 50% of high school graduates. And you have people who have been successful in K-12 classrooms teaching those teachers how to become successful teachers. That’s not necessarily always the case in this country or in this commonwealth.”

Teacher preparation programs differ in student graduation rates and in the percentage who pass certification exams, giving a glimpse into what seems like inconsistent quality, the report said.

The state needs to collect more data to measure the success of teacher preparation programs, the report said, noting that the state Education Department isn’t conducting on-site visits, instead relying on programs to self-report.

Boyce said legislation passed last year requires some new data gathering, but more is needed. The report advocates tracking teacher vacancies and how well teacher candidates transition from college into the workplace. Pennsylvania should survey teachers on working conditions and query those who leave their jobs, as well as create a public dashboard with information on teacher supply, retention, and satisfaction, the report said.

New funds should be aimed at encouraging closer cooperation between teacher preparation programs and school districts so educators are prepared to meet staffing needs and standards, the report said.West Chester’s recently launched PRIZE program aims to help school districts “grow their own” teachers. Kennett Consolidated School District in Chester County is among its partners.

[email protected]

215-854-4693

U.S. TEACHING PROFESSION IN FREE FALL
Experts insist the re-building of respect is critical to education’s success.

DOYLESTOWN, Pa., November 7, 2022 – What in the world is going on? Since the start of the 21st Century we have been slogging through racial and religious unrest, global terrorism, unending political upheavals, a worldwide pandemic, a conflict between two nations that has the potential of escalating into another world war or worse, and horrific occurrences of mass shootings – anywhere and everywhere – grocery stores, churches, and schools. So, what do we say? Who do we blame? Where do we turn for answers? What must we do to change this out-of-control world we are now living in?

For many, the answer to these questions is found in a Nelson Mandela quote. According to Mandela, “EDUCATION is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” Conceptually, education has always been a powerful tool for managing change. It is much more powerful than any army, bomb or weapon of mass destruction. Then why do we abuse it and how do we solve its crisis today? It is a matter of two-way communication and respect.

“As an educator I have always subscribed to the fact that today’s children are tomorrow’s leaders,” states Pennsylvania Regional Education Application Placement (PAREAP) Executive Director John A. Fraser. “I know I am not alone in thinking this, and I also know that if I am right, we have a lot of work to do to straighten out some of the education problems we face today in this country. We need to address some very serious issues in the education system and we must tackle these head on to prevent good teaching from becoming extinct.”

According to Fraser and his fellow professionals at PAREAP, the teaching profession’s stature needs to be addressed as one of the nation’s critical priorities. In their view, education is every bit as important – if not more important – than global warming, cyber security, and our now planned missions to Mars. “We need to put aside cultural issues and re-administer the mutual feeling of respect – for teachers, administrators, school boards, families and, of course, students. EVERYONE needs to work for the good of all and put personal issues aside. We must have manageable class sizes, sufficient resources, and pay scales that support good teaching.”

Please see next post for more information.

A vote of confidence from Upper Dublin School District, one of more than 200 school districts we are pleased to help:

"I post all of our professional and administrative positions on PA REAP and I search PA REAP for applicants when we have an urgent or hard-to-fill position. I also direct all candidates that I speak with at job fairs to keep an eye both on our website and PA REAP for open positions because it's the most comprehensive job site for PA professional and administrative jobs and I encourage them to create profiles so that they are searchable to candidates by employers."
- Megan Candido
Assistant Director, Human Resources
Upper Dublin School District
Maple Glen, PA

Here is a vote of confidence from one of our many valued clients.

"We value working with PAREAP as an advertisement and candidate search tool. Their site is extremely user-friendly and gives us access to many candidates to encourage them to apply for positions in our school district."

Emily Kehr, MS HRM
Director of Human Resources
School District of Springfield Township
1901 Paper Mill Road
Oreland, PA 19075

We welcome new schools to our extensive list of schools where we help place teachers. Welcome to:

Benchmark School
Abington Heights School District
Hatboro Horsham School District
Lincoln Charter School

If you're a teacher looking for a new position, contact us!!!!!!

Now's the time to apply for a great teaching job. Contact us to learn about the hundreds of school districts we represent and the opportunities that are there for you!