Press Release: For Immediate Release
ALABAMA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE, INC
Alabama Academy of Science (AAS) Position Statement on the establishment of the Teachers Excellence and Accountability for Math and Science (TEAMS) Program
AAS Recommendation for Funding HB 537, SB 327
Currently in Alabama there are about 7,500 positions for math and science teachers, but only about 4,600 of those are filled by educators with credentials in those subjects. This is not just an issue for Alabama but is prevalent nationwide. Current educational thought holds that the pivotal reason behind failing schools is the inability for schools to staff classrooms with qualified teachers this being especially true in the fields of math and science.
On March 31, 2021, the AAS Executive Committee voted to recommend and support the Alabama State Department of Education to establish the Teacher Excellence and Accountability for Mathematics and Science (TEAMS) Salary Schedule Program; to provide additional compensation to teachers of mathematics and science who elect to participate in the program and meet the required qualifications; to provide an additional annual supplement to program participants teaching in hard-to-staff schools; to create the TEAMS Fund in the State Treasury; and we do not support the terms of employment for participating teachers.
However, we have reservations in our support of a program that takes away teacher tenure of qualified educators, the benefits of the bill as written outweighs theoretical loss. The AAS would also propose the establishment of TEAMS as a mechanism for stimulating additional teacher engagement through stipends for extracurricular science teacher coaching for participants in Science Fair, Science Olympiad, Science Paper Competitions (AJAS & Gorgas Scholarships), Robotics (BEST and VEX), etc..
The actual proposed salary schedule, and what regions are considered hard to staff are missing from the bill as are all of the requirements for eligibility that a participating teacher would have to meet. Clarifying what is proposed and creating a more inclusive environment would have greater success for increasing the number of math and science teachers available for the program.
We urge the State Legislature to move forward on the funding of TEAMS for the 2021-2022 budget year after addressing the reservations of AAS. We respectfully request State School Superintendent Dr. Eric G. Mackey to give full consideration for the development of this program to be included in the strategic planning initiatives underway.
Establishing the Teacher Excellence and Accountability for Mathematics and Science (TEAMS) Salary Schedule Program is integral to Alabama’s future!
If further information is needed, please contact us.
Jack Shelley-Tremblay, PhD
President, Alabama Academy of Science
Ellen Buckner, PhD, RN, CNE, AE-C, Samford University
Alabama Academy of Science, Chair, Gorgas Scholarship Competition
Larry Krannich, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Chemistry, UAB
Executive Director, Alabama Academy of Science
Virginia Vilardi, PhD, Elmore County Schools
Alabama Junior Academy of Science, State Science Fair Director
Mark T Jones, PhD, Nationally Certified
ACS B Science Olympiad Coordinator and Community Founder
Alabama Junior Academy of Science State Director
The following is supportive documentation for establishing the Teacher Excellence and Accountability for Mathematics and Science (TEAMS) Salary Schedule Program by the State Department of Education.
- From the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators (https://amte.net/issue/2016/12/math-teacher-supply-demand-and-shortages-us)
One of the five major factors that influence teachers’ decisions to enter, stay in, or leave the teaching profession and related recommendations.
- Salaries and other compensation
- Teachers’ salaries are not competitive with other professions; many salaries are too low to support a middle-class existence. Even after adjusting for the shorter work year, beginning teachers earn about 20% less than their peers.
- For teachers in high-demand fields such as mathematics and science, salary differences between teaching and other jobs available to them are particularly important.
- “[T]he best-paid teachers in low-poverty schools earned 35% more than their counterparts in high-poverty schools” (p. 10).
- States that have raised and equalized salaries have solved shortages.
- Report recommends increasing teacher salaries, as well as overall compensation by offering housing incentives. Also recommends providing low-income schools with additional resources to attract and retain high-quality teachers (focus on equitable distribution of resources)
- From the Alabama Daily News ( https://www.aldailynews.com/lawmakers-look-at-teacher-shortage-colleges-of-education/ )
MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Alabama’s teacher shortage crisis was the central topic during the Alabama House’s Ways and Means Education Committee meeting on Thursday. It was the first public meeting to discuss 2021 education budget appropriations and issues in the upcoming legislative session.
Jim Purcell, the executive director of the Alabama Commission on Higher Education, presented data on Alabama’s teacher workforce and ways to attract and retain more teachers.
Since 2010, there’s been a 40% decrease in students entering state teacher education programs. Meanwhile, 8% of educators leave the profession each year.
According to ACHE data, 71 percent of new teachers are working in Alabama one year after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in education. Purcell said this was a good sign for fixing the teacher shortage crisis.
“We can address education shortage if we target that population because they are going to stay in the state and they are going to benefit from that,” Purcell said.
Five years after they graduate, those working in Alabama with education degrees decreases to about 66%.
Currently, 30% of Alabama classrooms are taught by “out of field” teachers with no background in the subject they are teaching.
Math and science teachers are among the most sought. In 2018, the state approved a program to help repay up to $5,000 a year in federal student loans for certified math and science teachers who teach in critical shortage areas. Unfortunately, Purcell said, there are currently only 45 students taking advantage of that program and only four of them are serving in high-need areas.
“We may want to think about expanding it to encourage existing teachers to go and get a degree because it’s currently based on the first degree that they get,” Purcell told the committee.
Giving an extra bump in salary to those teaching math and science was another suggestion from Purcell.
The Alabama Teacher Shortage Task Force recommended 23 different proposals to the State Board of Education in October on how to recruit and retain more teachers. They included increasing teachers’ salaries; creating scholarships to encourage students to choose a career in education; providing significant incentives for certified teachers to teach in high need areas; and utilizing veteran teachers in recruiting the next generation of teachers.
Teachers are included in Gov. Kay Ivey’s goal of adding 500,000 newly trained and skilled workers to the state by 2025.
- From the Economic Policy Institute
(https://www.epi.org/publication/the-teacher-shortage-is-real-large-and-growing-and-worse-than-we-thought-the-first-report-in-the-perfect-storm-in-the-teacher-labor-market-series/)
- Schools struggle to find and retain highly qualified individuals to teach, and this struggle is tougher in high-poverty schools (report #2). A dwindling pool of applicants and excessive teacher attrition make staffing schools difficult. With the number of students completing teacher preparation programs falling dramatically, and with significant rates of attrition and turnover in the profession, it should be no surprise that schools report difficulties in hiring and, in some cases, do not hire anyone to fill vacancies. The difficulties are greater in high-poverty schools. The share of schools that are hiring, the difficulty in filling vacancies, and the share of unfilled vacancies all increased in the past few years.
- Low teacher pay is reducing the attractiveness of teaching jobs, and is an even bigger problem in high-poverty schools (report #3). Teachers have long been underpaid compared with similarly educated workers in other professions, with a pay gap that has grown substantially in the past two decades. In high-poverty schools, teachers face a double disadvantage, as they are further underpaid relative to their peers in low-poverty schools.
- The tough school environment is demoralizing to teachers, especially so in high-poverty schools (report #4). Teachers report that student absenteeism, class-cutting, student apathy, lack of parental involvement, poor student health, poverty, and other factors are a problem. Larger shares of teachers also report high levels of stress and fears for their safety. The school climate is tougher in high-poverty schools. Relative to their peers in low-poverty schools, teachers in high-poverty schools are less likely to say they intend to continue to teach and more likely to say they think about transferring to another school.
- Teachers—especially in high-poverty schools—aren’t getting the training, early career support, and professional development opportunities they need to succeed and this too is keeping them, or driving them, out of the profession (report #5). The lack of supports that are critical to succeeding in the classroom and the unsatisfactory continued training makes teaching less attractive and impedes its professionalization. Teachers in high-poverty schools devote a slightly larger share of their hours to delivering instruction, and fewer of them have scheduled time for professional development.
Together, these factors, their trends, and the lack of proper comprehensive policy attention countering them have created a perfect storm in the teacher labor market, as evident in the spiking shortage of highly qualified teachers, especially in high-poverty schools. The sixth and final report in the series calls for immediate policy steps to address this national crisis.
- From Teach.com (https://teach.com/careers/become-a-teacher/where-can-i-teach/shortage-areas/)
There will always be a need for great teachers. Regardless of temporary economic conditions, hiring practices, budget cuts or any other factors that impact the education system, the need for teachers is timeless and universal. Society will always need educators, and in that respect, teaching is one career in which you can be confident you will always have a purpose.
A teacher shortage occurs when there are not enough teachers in key subject areas, which has been partly caused by years of teacher layoffs during the Great Recession, a growing student population and fewer people entering teacher preparation programs, according to the Learning Policy Institute .
The need for teachers is quite real. According to the Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010-2011, employment of teachers is expected to grow by 13% between 2008 and 2018. In 2008, there were about 3.5 million kindergarten, elementary, middle and high school teachers in the country, so we can expect almost another 500,000 to be hired by 2018. Also indicative of the high demand for teachers is the large volume of grants available for teachers.
The specific needs of schools vary from district to district. Some areas, particularly in high-needs schools in the south and west, have higher needs for teachers. There is also a demand for teachers by subject, with certain academic areas needing teachers more than others. Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education is a great example of an area where there is a high demand for great teachers.