Teaching Graduates Glut : Student Path of Least Resistance?

Education has always been a catch-all for students that didn't have any idea what they wanted to do after high school. Certainly an educational degree is much easier to get and far less demanding then obtaining a degree in engineering or chemistry.

Little wonder then why so many people opt for education right out of high school, especially when they see how absurdly lacking in teaching skills that their teacher were while doing the 4 years of prep before leaving for 'higher' education and the good life.

Teacher Pay — A Scarcity Issue?
By Stevi Knight

What is scarce is valued more highly than what is common. This basic economic principle explains the high value of diamonds, the competition between contestants on The Bachelorette and why pennies are found forgotten in the middle of parking lots.

Perhaps scarcity is also the underlying reason for low teacher pay. Consider this:

• According to the U.S. Board of Labor for the 2012-2013 school year, 104,647 students graduated with bachelor’s degrees in education even though twice that many (220,000) public school teaching jobs were eliminated over the previous two years.
• Over the past 40 years, student enrollment increased by only 8.5%, while the number of employees in the public-school system doubled.
• In the state of Illinois for each new teacher hired in 2010, nine college graduates received their elementary teacher certificates the previous year.
• For a typical job opening there are, on average, seven applicants. The average number of applicants for a teaching position is 28.

While overproduction of degree-holding educators is desirable to administrators so hiring can be selective, the plethora of applicants decreases the necessity of schools to offer competitive wages and benefits. In short, teachers are not scarce and therefore their value (i.e. pay rate) is lower.
So should the federal government regulate the number of education degrees awarded? Absolutely not. But perhaps the expectations for teacher certification could be increased.

By raising requirements for an education degree, perhaps the 10 percent of teachers who leave after their first year would be eliminated, thus increasing the scarcity of qualified teachers.
Teacher certification typically includes graduation with a Bachelor’s or Master’s in Education, passing a state test to demonstrate proficiency and in specialized areas, passing the Praxis II. Several possibilities are available to increase these standards:

• Extending student-teaching requirements from one semester to a full year or increase required classroom observation hours during first three years of certification program.
• Raise minimum passing score for elementary teacher state licensing tests from the 16th percentile to, at minimum, the 50th percentile.
• Abolish K-8 licenses, instead requiring middle school teachers to demonstrate content proficiency as required by a 9-12 grade teaching certification.
• Increase the number of Continuing Education Units (CEUs) required for teacher certification renewal.

By closing some of these loopholes and increasing teacher certification and recertification requirements, not only would ill-suited candidates be weeded out, but the average caliber of teachers would also increase. With fewer, but better qualified teachers to recruit, school districts would be required to entice new teachers through competitive wages and benefits.