How to get more teachers to work and get into the teaching force?

Question

I have a school project and I need to know how to get more teachers to want to become teachers and stay for a long period of time, I need to know what to get and what teachers want and what to need for teachers to come in and work hard??? Thanks!!!

Answer 1

For one thing, teachers need to know they are supported and not going to be dumped on. As a teacher, I sometimes feel like leaving the profession due to the way I am treated by my administration and students' parents. When I have discipline problems, I am treated as a nuisance. The parents don't back me up and the principals don't have good solutions. It's mostly because they don't have their stuff together. Where are our school policies for these things? Students can do what they want and there is no CONSISTENT accountability. I once put a kid in time out and was told I was "not allowing him to learn." But then when my kids were crying after a natural disaster, they were screamed at by admin for "carrying on like that." I'm definitely going to leave the school site I'm currently at due to the lack of support and emotionally abusive atmosphere. Teachers are treated like pawns. All admin cares about is getting high test scores. They have no school-wide conflict management and I feel like the same "good ol" teachers keep getting praised in our faces after all the extra stuff we've had to put up with (teaching intervention for no extra money, violation of class size limit policies, etc.). IT ALL BOILS DOWN TO NO RESPECT. No respect for the teachers, no desire to stay there to slave over kids like a free babysitting service!

Answer 2

Higher pay would solve a lot of the problems.  It would increase the number of people wanting to become teachers.  It would increase the number of teachers staying in teaching.  Whenever there is a shortage in the workplace, salaries go up.  Nurses salaries increased dramatically when the were nursing shortages, it happens everywhere except teaching.  

Most of the other conditions are pretty much work place common.....better bosses, less pressure, more appreciation.

About the only other factor that I think would make a big difference is no longer making schools mandatory.  Make public schools just like private schools.  It is very difficult for public schools to get rid of bad kids.  The fed. government says that states are responsible for education children no matter what.  Bring a gun to school, you might get expelled from that school, but they district or state is still responsible for your education.  If that changed, teachers would have a much easier time teachers instead of baby sitting.

Answer 3

I agree with the answers here.  I contemplate quiting even though I  love my kids and love my subject.  It's the utter lack of respect, the inability to affect change, the pointless drive towards better scores, and complete disregard for student learning that has me frustrated.  I've said it before....if I'm going to get treated like c**p, I'm going to get treated like c**p for more money somewhere else.  There needs to be an overhaul of the education system where TEACHERS, not politicians, not administrators with no classroom experience, are the architects.  And I agree that due to lawsuits and political correctness we have become babysitters.  Of course, if you paid me $2/hr for an 8 hour day of babysitting 30 kids at a time....I would have made double my actual salary this year (sigh).

Answer 4

As a ten year veteran, I must tell you - the career advantages for teachers are growing slimmer by the minute.  We almost need the corporate world to come into the school system with their information so that we as teachers can collaborate and figure a curriculum that will be condusive for work after college in the business world.  We need people who are interested in science and math and technology.  People who are in college and preparing to teach need mentors and continue to be mentored throughout the process.  It is very frustrating when you have completed college and you and your degree attempt to get certified so you can teach and have no one to help you.  When you get into the schools and find that the behaviors are so outrageous that you are overwhelmed and find that you are not able to teach, but have become a police officer in the classroom - well - some mentoring is necessary.  Incentives such as CASH is always helpful.  The interest in others becoming teachers start at the elementary level and continue.  There were always teachers in my family and for a long time I felt that was my only option. Then I discovered my talent for singing and piano and a career in entertainment was born.  Eventually, my love for teaching was overwhelming in my life and I returned to my first love.