Every year, about 3,000 teachers leave the classroom —
some retire, some move to administration, some leave for family or other reasons. But only about 1,500 new teachers graduate college with a degree in education.
This means only about 59% of new teachers have teaching degrees.
Of course, this does not necessarily mean they’re bad teachers, but they’re entering the classroom with less experience and less training. They require more mentorship and support. They tend to leave the teaching profession at much higher rates, and their students perform worse on standardized tests on average than students of teachers who have education degrees.
Teacher colleges have fewer students preparing to be teachers.
Fewer students in our teacher colleges mean fewer teachers graduating from those programs — and that means the shortage is only going to continue or get worse.
There are thousands more Utahns interested in teaching.
In a 2018 survey of high school students, 44% said they had considered becoming a teacher before choosing something else. 41% of those said better teacher salaries would make them reconsider.
Current teachers also think better compensation could make a big difference.
Of 766 teachers who were surveyed when they left the profession, more than half said that better salaries would improve the profession.
We’ve made some progress.
Teacher salaries have improved over the last few years.
But any increases in teacher pay have had to compete with the COVID-19 pandemic, inflation, and the intense polarization around schools and teachers.