School security. What does it mean, for a teacher… or a student… to be ‘secure’?
Can we talk honestly about this question, without slipping into a place of fear and insecurity?
Last year, the University of Colorado announced “guaranteed admissions” to the CU Boulder School of Education for students enrolled in either of two ‘concurrent enrollment’ programs. The two high school programs — Teacher Cadet and Pathways2Teaching — offer college readiness courses and college credit for 11th and 12th grade students interested in exploring teaching as a career. From that announcement:
The guaranteed admission agreement comes at a critical time. Colorado and the nation face significant teacher shortages, particularly in rural areas and among teachers of color, according to recent reports from Colorado Department of Higher Education in collaboration with the Colorado Department of Education. Data show enrollment in teacher preparation programs have experienced year-over-year declines in enrollment in teacher preparation programs…
As with many states, Colorado is grappling with a teacher shortage that’s particularly acute in rural areas and in specialties like science, math, and special education. Colorado schools must try and fill about 5,000 vacancies annually, according to Colorado Department of Education estimates, but the number of students graduating from teacher training programs at Colorado colleges dropped more than 24 percent between 2011 and 2016 — from 3,274 to 2,472. That’s less than half the number of teachers needed to fill vacancies. (The number ticked up slightly in 2017 before dropping again last year.)
As a result, Colorado tries to lure teachers from outside the state. But one survey found that more than 90 percent of Colorado school districts, in 2017, paid an average teacher salary below the cost of living in those districts.
This past session, the Colorado General Assembly attempted to address the shortage. Senate Bill 3 provides up to $5,000 a year in loan forgiveness for up to five years, for as many as 100 teachers a year who take jobs in challenged districts or in hard-to-fill academic subjects like math and science. Senate Bill 9 increases the amount of a stipend for rural teachers pursuing additional education, and removed the cap on how many teachers can participate in that program. Senate Bill 190 creates a certification for ‘mentor teachers’ and provides a $2,000 stipend for mentors working with student teachers.
A decent salary is one form of security, for a teacher. For a student or parent, there’s no doubt a feeling of security in knowing that the teacher has made a long-term commitment to the profession.
Knowing that people with guns are patrolling your hallways? Is that a form of security?
The research available shows that schools in 2018 were, on average, much safer places than they were in the 1990s. In fact, violent crimes by young people — not only in schools but everywhere — have shown a marked decline nationally. You can find many discussions and ilustrations of this dramatic drop in violent crime, online. The following graph is one example, from https://www.researchgate.net:
The solid black line shows the number of juveniles, age 10-17, arrested for alleged homicides. As we can see, the number has now dropped well below the levels from 1980 — and is about one-fifth the rate in the early 1990s. Criminologists are at a loss to explain this drop, just as they were unable to explain the dramatic increases during the early 1990s.
Other surveys show, however, that Americans have generally remained unaware of this dramatic drop in all violent crime since the early 1990s — not only crimes committed by juveniles but also by adults. Most Americans seem to believe that crime has gotten worse over the past decade. We saw this idea — that ‘crime is getting worse’ — actively promoted by the proponents of last year’s Archuleta County “Jail & Justice System” tax increase proposal. The measure failed at the polls, but our community still might believe that crime is getting worse, and that our schools are getting less safe.
The numbers don’t support that belief. But national media coverage can easily make you feel otherwise.
From the Washington Post:
The Education Department reports that roughly 50 million children attend public schools for roughly 180 days per year. Since Columbine, approximately 200 public school students have been shot to death while school was in session, including the recent shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida…
That means the statistical likelihood of any given public school student being killed by a gun, in school, on any given day since 1999 was roughly 1 in 614,000,000. And since the 1990s, shootings at schools have been getting less common…
One chance in 614 million. The Archuleta School District has nevertheless decided to place police officers in school hallways, to prevent a crime that will almost certainly never happen.
The chance that your child’s teacher will quit the profession before reaching their fifth year of teaching? One chance in two.
In 1987-88, the most common amount of experience for US teachers was 15 years, according to the US Department of Education. Twenty years later, the most common amount of experience was one year.
A couple of excerpts from an article by writer Kathleen Jasper, posted to the website Conversation ED from December 2014.
A mass exodus is happening in K-12 education. Research shows that 50% of new teachers leave the job before year 5. That number is consistent across the country and represents a giant chunk of the workforce. According to study conducted by Alliance for Excellent Education, teacher turnover costs the US 2.2 billion dollars annually.
When asked about this costly phenomenon, Dr. Atkins, the assistant superintendent of Lee County Schools, one of the largest school districts in Florida, mentioned that his district’s strategic plan included goals to reduce teacher turnover. He also mentioned the first step to achieving these objectives is to understand why people leave – a key element that was missing in years past.
It took me all of 10 minutes to find that key element. I didn’t need a fancy strategic plan or a lengthy research study. I simply asked 10 teachers, with various years in the system and at different levels, the question, “Why do you think 50% of new teachers leave teaching before their 5th year?”
Based on her casual interviews, Ms. Jasper came to the conclusion that ‘lack of effective leadership’ was the main cause of teacher burn-out and bail-out. But teaching is an incredibly challenging job, in 2019. Teachers leave for a wide variety of reasons. And college students are increasingly reluctant to enroll in teacher training courses.
So I’m thinking about ‘security’ and what it means to a student to learn under a master teacher, in an environment free of fear.
And where state-mandated testing is focused on every important facet of human learning…