Prospective Teachers Face Job Market Puzzle

by Peter Vogt

MonsterTRAK Career Coach

You can break into most K-12 teaching jobs with a bachelor's degree, but you might need a PhD to figure out the complicated job market for new teachers in the coming years.

On one hand, there are predictions of an impending K-12 teacher shortage between now and the end of the decade. But on the other, budget cuts stemming from state and federal funding reductions are leading to teacher cutbacks in some areas.

What's the real story? As a teacher-to-be, will you be sitting in the employment driver's seat in the years ahead or finding yourself at the back of the school bus?

Teaching Contradictions

Both are real possibilities, says Mary Daly Lewis, dean of the College of Education at Aurora University in Illinois.

�The illogical issue of a teacher shortage and no new teaching jobs is true,� Daly Lewis says. The contradiction, she notes, �is grounded in how schools are funded -- by local property taxes -- and the great disparity in property wealth of school districts.�

Flexibility and Hardiness

Other factors contribute to the paradox as well, says Erika Karres, author of A+ Teachers and a teacher-training expert.

�Teachers are retiring in large numbers; budget cuts are looming,� Karres says. �But the job market potential for teachers is great if they're willing to move, if they're certification-flexible, if they're grade-level-flexible and if they have hardiness -- if they're willing to take the tough teaching jobs for a year or two and then move on to the better, easier, more glamorous teaching jobs.�

College students will have better job prospects if they:

Prepare to teach in high-demand areas such as special education, mathematics, the hard sciences and English as a Second Language (ESL).

Are willing to teach in inner-city schools.

Will move to teacher-strapped states like California, Texas and New York.

Students who are unwilling or unable to relocate or who want to teach in lower-demand areas such as English, social studies or physical education face more job uncertainty.

Retirement Is One Thing, Leaving Is Another

Karres's remarks identify a key factor for prospective teachers to consider, one that contributes to some experts' predictions of a developing shortage: Many teachers leave the field after a relatively short period of time.

According to estimates from the 1999-2000 �Schools and Staffing Survey� conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics, almost one-third of teachers leave the field sometime during their first three years on the job, and more than 40 percent leave during their first five years.

While the NCES-estimated loss of 700,000 or so teachers to retirement over the next 10 years will be a factor in any teacher shortages, some experts say the bigger problem is attrition due to factors beyond reaching retirement.

�It's not that too few teachers are entering our schools, it's that too many are leaving,� says Tom Carroll, executive director of the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future. �It's as if we are pouring teachers into a bucket with a fist-sized hole in the bottom.�

A Gloomy Future?

Does this mean you're doomed to a gloomy future as a teacher? Far from it. But it does suggest you will need to carefully evaluate information about the teaching job market and resist the temptation to go on cruise control if you happen to be preparing for a teaching career that seems in high demand.

�Getting a teaching job is like getting good grades in college -- extra credit counts,� says Karres. �Administrators like enthusiastic, hard-working, dedicated future teachers who aren't afraid to roll up their sleeves. Teaching jobs await, but not for the undermotivated, the reluctant and the clock watchers.�

To learn more about the future job market for new teachers see:

�Unraveling the �Teacher Shortage' Problem: Teacher Retention Is the Key� (.pdf file)

�Predicting the Need for Newly Hired Teachers in the United States to 2008-09� (.pdf file)

Visit My Monster, or learn more about conducting your entry-level job search on MonsterTRAK.

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The purpose of this article is to both provide information and facilitate general dialogue about various employment-related topics. No legal advice is being given and no attorney-client relationship created. Please see the disclaimer for further limitations and conditions.