EDITORIAL: Exacerbating Nevada’s teacher shortage

Despite national recruiting efforts, the Clark County School District has in recent years struggled to fill open teaching positions. It’s not unusual for the district to begin a school year with hundreds of vacancies.

The issue also touches communities throughout the state. A 2017 report from the U.S. Department of Education identified dozens of subject areas and specialties in which Nevada lacked an adequate supply of instructors.

Retention no doubt plays a role. A 2017 Review-Journal analysis found that 16 percent of the teachers who began in Clark County during the 2015-16 school calendar left the district within a year. Though turnover rates are high for new entrants in many professions — and large, urban school districts are particularly susceptible to staff movement — the district needs to do better.

But why would lawmakers exacerbate the problem by piling more bureaucratic requirements on educators?

The Review-Journal’s Meghin Delaney reports that as many as 900 Nevada teachers — many in Clark County — may be at risk of losing their licenses because they have yet to complete a semester-long class on “family engagement.” Those who fail to pass the requirement — imposed by lawmakers in 2015 — will lose their jobs.

The cost of taking the instruction — which must be done through an approved college-level program — can exceed $1,000. Some teachers told Ms. Delaney that they might consider relocating to states with fewer mandates on licensed educators.

“Do you move for a place where there’s going to be provisions on your license and where you have to do additional coursework,” asked Andre Long, the chief human resources officer for the Clark County School District, “or somewhere where it’s going to be clear?”

Certainly, “family engagement” is part of a teacher’s job. Whether it needs to be the subject of a stand-alone, three-month pedagogical class is another matter.

The root causes of teacher shortages and retention issues are many — unnecessary bureaucratic barriers, a socialized wage structure that rewards mediocrity at the expense of accomplishment, the inability to impose discipline in the classroom and a lack of mentoring, to name a few. Out-of-state candidates may also be turned off by Clark County’s lackluster student achievement levels.

Nevada has taken steps over the years to increase pay and make it easier for experienced instructors to take a job here. It has also created paths to alternative licensure that allow professionals to transition into teaching.

But clearly there’s much more work to be done.