A New Approach to the Teacher Shortage: Registered Apprenticeships
Despite popular misconceptions, COVID isn’t to blame for the teacher shortage. While the pandemic amplified the issue, the need was great before then. Registered apprenticeships is one solution to the shortage that is gaining some traction.
“Well before the pandemic, we were short qualified educators,” says Maureen Tracey-Mooney, senior advisor for the U.S. Department of Education Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development.
“We were short an estimated 100,000 certified teachers. And by that we mean teachers that are teaching in their certification areas. So they’re teaching a different subject matter than they’re certified to teach in. They’re not under an emergency certification.
“We were short before and then the pandemic had a tremendous impact on all of our public education staffing. We lost about 9% of all local public education jobs in just three months in 2020.”
The big issues, says Tracey-Mooney, are pay, stress, and support. Teachers are paid 26% less than college-educated peers.
