Category: JMC 3003

The University of Oklahoma Prepares the Next Generation of Teachers

Sitting in the Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education lecture halls, students at the University of Oklahoma prepare for a career in education. As Oklahoma experiences a present-day teacher shortage, the public turns towards the new generation of educators to advocate for the quality of education. The question that many students and educators ask is what Oklahoma will look like in the years to come. 

The Oklahoma Education Association ranked Oklahoma 34th in the nation for teacher salary. Going further, OEA reported that the average Oklahoma teacher earned $54,762 in 2020-2021. As a result of low pay, collegiate students pursuing a career in education remind themselves of the why behind their passion for teaching, even with low pay.

Sheridan Baker, majoring in education at the University of Oklahoma, discusses her desire to become a teacher, especially during the present-day teacher shortage in Oklahoma. Baker details her emotions as she takes on her last semester in the spring before graduating and becoming a teacher.

Sydney Young, a senior at the University of Oklahoma studying education, detailed how she remains focused on the reason she chose to become a teacher. 

“[Education] is a tough industry in need of a lot of reshaping. The pay needs a serious increase everywhere, but especially in Oklahoma. Teachers do way more work than what their paycheck reflects. But, I keep the students in mind and what they deserve to get out of their time in school. When days get tough, I need to keep in mind why I chose this career in the first place. There will be unruly students, parents, or admin, but it is important to keep in mind the passion and love for this career path that led me to take it in the first place,” Young said.  

Colleges across the United States experience a decline in collegiate graduates with an education degree. Pew Research Center analyst Kathrine Schaeffer reported that U.S. colleges and universities had 80,057 students earn education bachelor degrees in 2019-20, which showed a 19% decline from the number of undergraduates with a bachelor’s degree  in education. A drop in the amount of individuals who pursue an educational degree impacts the quality of education as the pool of qualified teachers diminishes. 

With a decrease in students pursuing careers in education, the University of Oklahoma Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education gave its students the resources and hands-on experience to be successful in the classroom. 

Kami Fryer, a junior majoring in education at the University of Oklahoma, spoke about the impact that the Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education has made on her life. 

“The college of education at OU has been a very impactful experience. My professors have taught me what it is like to put my students first. When I first signed up to be a teacher, I thought they were going to teach me how to teach, and I feel like they are more focused on the well-being of the children. I believe knowing, and remembering your passion for students, makes teaching all worthwhile.”

Kami fryer, Junior at The University of Oklahoma

In order to prepare the next generation of educators for the classroom, students at the Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education were given internship opportunities to co-teach with a teacher at a local school in Norman, Oklahoma. 

“I am currently student teaching which has been the biggest help in preparing me for this career. I work contract hours, plan lessons, work one on one with students, and even interact with admin and parents. I am so grateful for this opportunity because so much of this career is experience based. There is so much about teaching that can’t be learned in a textbook so I would say getting to be hands-on and in the field has been the biggest help in preparing me to become a teacher,” Young said. 

In addition to the low annual salary and decline in the number of qualified teachers, the amount of money invested into each student in Oklahoma has declined. From the Oklahoma Policy Institute’s Child Well-Being Policy Analyst, Gabrielle Jacobi, wrote that Oklahoma spends $1,000-$2,000 less than New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas or Missouri. Specifically, the U.S. Department of Education found that Oklahoma spent between $9,000-$10,999 per pupil for the fiscal year 2020. 

A higher spending per pupil in Oklahoma would allow school districts more funding to increase the quality of education. Even more, a proper education or a high-quality education builds the generations to come in the future.  

Sheridan Baker, a senior studying elementary education at the University of Oklahoma, stated why there is a need to provide quality education for students.

“We need to increase better education for students because they are the future generation. Without better education, our future is going to crumble. These kids deserve an education that can prepare them and help them succeed in their life to come,” Baker said.

Oklahoma State Department of Education approves emergency certifications

Emergency-certified teachers are a temporary solution to the deficit of teachers.

Oklahoma school districts are resorting to emergency certification for teacher candidates as a result of the ongoing teacher shortage. The main challenge is that emergency-certified teachers are not a permanent solution to the deficit of teachers. 

Dana Ezell, the Jenks Public Schools chief human resources officer, detailed how urgent the need for emergency-certified teachers is for schools. 

“At Jenks Public Schools, the need for emergency certified teachers has continued to grow. Ten years ago, the district would not have considered a candidate who did not hold certification; today we have nine emergency certified teachers as well as 11 adjunct teachers,” Ezell said. 

The Oklahoma State Department of Education has to receive an application from the district and review the need for an emergency certification for one school year. If an emergency-certified teacher would like to earn the standard certification of teaching, they are given resources by OSDE to pursue alternative pathways towards certification. 

In 2008, the Great Recession caused the economy to plummet, decreasing the funding for public education. Fast-forward to 2018, educators gathered at the Oklahoma State Capitol to protest the lack of funding for education, low pay for teachers, and overcrowded classrooms. The 2018 Oklahoma teacher’s walkout shined a light on the hardships educators continue to face in schools. 

From a National Public Radio segment in May 2021, reporter Robby Korth found that more than 4,000 of the 45,000 estimated Oklahoma teachers leave their teaching positions per year. With that estimated number of teachers leaving in Oklahoma, it results in a lower number of new hires in the profession. 

With fewer new hires available in education, emergency certifications are used to fill the open teaching positions in schools. When an emergency-certified teacher is teaching for the first time, support from their administration and coworkers is essential to make them feel welcome. 

“The first year of teaching can be overwhelming for any teacher. Emergency teachers have a bigger challenge because they most likely have not had an internship teaching experience, have not had coursework in classroom management, and have the added stress of navigating the teacher certification process while teaching,” Ezell said.

  Any support from school districts and administrators is vital in order to make the environment at school safe and comfortable. An emergency-certified teacher is balancing a new job with little experience and training like a standard-certified teacher would have the opportunity to complete. 

John Wheeling, a teacher who is currently working on his emergency certification, is an English teacher at Star Spencer High School in Spencer, Oklahoma. Wheeling earned a bachelor’s degree in Secondary Education in 1995, but did not take his certification exams. 

“I will probably only be in the position [at Star Spencer] through May, but I am enjoying the [emergency certification] process. It is a very challenging school, but I am starting to get to know the kids. The process is much faster for emergency certification. There are a lot of steps in the normal process that are skipped in the emergency process,” Wheeling said. 

Approving emergency certifications for school districts is not the long-term solution to the teacher shortage in Oklahoma. Each emergency-certified teacher is simply filling in the gap for school districts with a scarce amount of candidates.

“Emergency certification is not what is best for everyone. It would be better to pay teachers more and to lure more teachers into the profession, but with things as they are, emergency certification is necessary,” Wheeling said. 

 Improving the quality of care that educators receive is crucial to retain teachers in schools. Several factors such as low salaries and a decrease in state funding for education play a role in the Oklahoma teacher shortage and the need for emergency-certified teachers. 

“Emergency certificates [is a] short-term solution to long-term problems. The long-term solution is to revive teaching as a respected, revered, and rewarding career option,” Ezell said.

Oklahoma school districts experiencing a teaching shortage

Educators resort to other options to fill the void of open teaching positions.

School districts across Oklahoma are currently experiencing a teacher shortage. With a decline in undergraduate students earning an education degree, an increase in workload for staff, and an incredibly low salary, districts are scrambling to fill the open teaching and support staff positions. 

Fewer teachers and support staff available to assist students adds additional stress for educators to find substitutes, teachers or administrators to maintain the academic performance and needs of students. 

Penny Sanders, a teacher at East Central Middle School in Tulsa, Oklahoma, describes how students deserve a highly qualified teacher instead of this new norm of finding anyone to fill a position. 

“Schools all across Oklahoma are lowering the expectation when looking for someone to fill a position. We are starting our eighth week of school and still have 5 teaching positions not filled. [Meaning] there are 5 classes covered by substitutes (if we can get one) or by teachers,” Sanders said.

As school districts are struggling to fill the teaching positions, the inconsistency of having anyone available to substitute generates behavioral challenges for those students. 

Brittany Gifford, an assistant principal at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, detailed the impact that the teacher shortage has had on students.

Gifford said, “Behaviors by students have been rough in those classes both because of an inconsistent classroom teacher or class sizes being too large for proper classroom management and classroom community building.”

As a result of the teaching shortage in Oklahoma, positions like a principal, counselor or teacher assistant are being delegated elsewhere in the school and handed additional responsibilities on top of their jobs. An administrator or principal could easily have to cover lunch or recess duty, or even fill in as a nurse for the day.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a decline in the number of students enrolled to earn an education degree in college. Within the past two or so years, there have been more responsibilities handed to teachers in Oklahoma. In addition to the curriculum, a teacher is required to teach, many educators have to take on extra tasks such as filling in as a substitute, having a larger class size, or covering other critical duties.

“When there are teachers or teacher assistants that are out and we can’t find another staff member to cover a duty, then I typically will have to fill that spot. However, that gets tricky because it then takes me away from being able to do any discipline that teachers need help with. Or [there are times where] discipline pops up and I am not able to make it to the duty that needs coverage to help (lunch duty or recess duty specifically),” Gifford said. 

Educators across the state are trying to stay positive during such a mentally draining and challenging time. With countless hours spent outside their classrooms to cover for another class, teachers feel the burden of maintaining their own students’ academic performance while doing their best to fill in the areas where help is needed. 

“I feel disrespected. I feel like my degree in education means nothing if they can get anybody to teach the class. I feel exhausted. I lose valuable time with my own class when I cover other classrooms and I have to decide what I am going to give up to get that time back; time with my family, time during the weekend, or time during my own class? That gets exhausting really quick,” Sanders said.

The atmosphere of education can be described as a time when school districts are making do with the support staff and teachers they have right now.

“Teachers are very tired. There is more mandated for us to make sure we cover our criteria to meet, now with more students in classes and still an incredibly low salary,” Gifford said. 

One solution to the shortage is to increase the pay for teachers. From the National Educators Association salary report for 2019-2020, Oklahoma was ranked 34th nationally with the income of teachers, who earn an average of $54,096 in 2020.

“There needs to be a pay increase for teachers in Oklahoma. [Educators] genuinely work tirelessly to ensure that our students are receiving the best, and then our hands are tied by people outside the field that think they know what we need to be doing. We are not compensated for the work that we do and are expected to be change agents. In a business world, that would never happen,” Gifford said.