7. Are Problems Perceived by Many?

1. Teacher Morale in Public Education

2. There is a national teacher shortage that is increasing yearly.  With fewer and fewer people pursuing a degree in education, we are going to have a limited ability to staff public school, and it will almost be impossible to find highly effective teachers.

The Who: Public Schools in America

The What: Have a limited opportunity to hire and retain staff at public schools

The Why: Teacher morale

3. I conducted interviews with the CCEA president, elementary school teachers, high school teachers, staff from the school, and school resource deputies.

4. How can the problem be expanded?

Who: Before, I thought that it was really the teachers that were struggling with morale in schools.  After the interviews, all of the elements of the schools are struggling with these issues.  The staff acting as Title 1 support, classroom aides, and administrative assistants are all feeling this pressure that has worked its way from the top as well.  Much of it has to do with a changing dynamic of students, but I will discuss several other factors later.  Not to mention, the administration of the school has the pressure of the school board and the superintendent from state and federal mandates.  This will ultimately roll down hill and will affect the abilities of those in the classroom.  Because these mandates are increasing in nature, I would like to believe that a majority of people in the field are feeling the effects and the data shows how many people are leaving.

What: When asked about the extent of the problem, several teachers admitted that they no longer suggest that people even go into the field of education because it has become so intolerable.  One of the teachers I spoke with that was struggling with the field after being in it for a long time has since quit with the enrollment of new curriculum.  Fortunately, for them, they are now an entrepreneur and are selling fudge and other desserts.  For other teachers, they feel stuck in these roles because their only retirement is through the state.  If they had a 401k or IRA, they could possibly change fields and still be on track to retire.  The CCEA president has been fighting for increases in wages and looking for ways to improve the implementation of mandates, but it's a difficult process when nobody wants to be involved anymore.

Why: In reality, there are a number of factors that are affecting how teachers/staff/administration perform in school.  I mentioned that morale is an issue.  Beyond that I discovered this morale issue has foundational components contributing to the issue.  Respect from the students has become an increasing factor, lack of mental health concerns for teachers and staff, local, state, and federal mandates, new testing implementation, new curriculum, decrease in the feeling of safety at schools.  The list goes on and on.  The teachers were very open to change and wanted to see formidable solutions to what they were evoking.  They feel lost and hopeless and need help or the field will eventually deteriorate.

5. Some of the things that I heard about the schools were incredible and shocking.  I found out that SRDs are being cursed at and beaten by students.  We see teachers going through traumatic experiences without necessary help.  I truly believe that the issue is much worse than I could have originally expected.  Even as an opportunist, I am at a loss for words with what is going on in our education system.  One solution that I do not think is really important is the money aspect.  As much as I would like to see more money in the education system, we typically spend it on more unnecessary bureaucratic processes.  We need to be more effective with the money in the system, and if we do place more money towards the issue it needs to be used to improve mental health of the teachers and students, create positions that pay decent wages, and develop a greater transparency where teachers/staff feel free to express their thoughts.