Teaming up to build effective teaching force

Despite efforts to recruit licensed educators for the 2014-15 school year, the Clark County School District began the year with nearly 700 teaching vacancies. About a month ago, this number remained at more than 600, and the vast majority of classroom vacancies are in schools in low-income communities and those that serve families whose primary language is not English.

The benefit of an effective teacher is obvious. For children who live in poverty or come from unsettled or transient homes, a good teacher is not just important for academic performance, but critical to the child’s likely success as an adult. An effective teacher improves a student’s likelihood of graduating from high school, completing at least some post-secondary education, securing meaningful adult employment and reporting satisfaction and happiness as an adult.

A 2012 study, “Great teaching: Measuring its effects on students’ future earnings,” determined each year a student living in poverty spends with an ineffective teacher ultimately costs him or her an estimated $50,000 in lifetime earnings. There are also larger societal costs. For example, for every year a well-prepared and effective teacher is unavailable for a classroom of Clark County children, it results in a loss of taxable individual earnings of $1.5 million; multiplied by even 600 classrooms, this number grows to nearly $1 billion. Having a well-qualified and effective teacher in every classroom is not only our moral imperative, it is also an economic necessity.

Although the shortage of well-qualified and effective teachers is not new in Clark County, it is becoming more acute. In light of the changing demographics of the valley, renewed population growth, the aging of the teaching force and increased demand for teachers throughout much of the United States, some have identified Southern Nevada’s shortage as a crisis.

Over the past 40 years, the number of individuals entering a career in education has dropped by more than 40 percent. As a result, it is imperative that the community and the school district recruit talented people to serve the growing demands of our schools while retaining excellent teachers.

Over the past three months, we’ve convened a diverse consortium of nearly 100 community members to address our state’s teacher pipeline crisis. Discussions have included public and private colleges and universities, the school district, the Nevada Department of Education, Nevada Succeeds, the Las Vegas Global Economic Alliance, the Latino Leadership Council, the Clark County Black Caucus, the New Teacher Project and Teach For America.

We share a common commitment to identify and support multiple approaches to increase the availability and retention of effective teachers in Nevada. Together, consortium members are developing solutions aligned with three basic principles:

1. Teacher pipeline solutions must be developed through a collaboration of business, education, policy and philanthropic communities, so promising local students and teachers are drawn to Southern Nevada to pursue careers in education.

2. Opportunities for professional advancement, increased leadership and increased compensation must be made available to attract and retain highly talented, productive and motivated teachers. Every effort must be made to retain individuals who maintain a level of professional competence necessary for effective performance.

3. Programs must be designed collaboratively by educator-preparation entities and the Clark County School District to ensure ongoing support, evaluation, professional development and mentoring of educators, particularly in their first years on the job.

The strategies are intended to address immediate and long-term aspects of the teacher pipeline. Progress will require action by legislators, engagement by the business community, cooperation across community advocacy organizations, improvement by educator-preparation programs, targeted investment by our philanthropic community and a focus on innovation. The road will be long, and the work will be difficult, but the progress of the consortium thus far is a shining example of the promise of bringing together the broadest range of perspectives to serve a larger, more meaningful cause.

Kim Metcalf is dean of UNLV’s College of Education. Victor Wakefield is executive director of the Las Vegas Valley chapter of Teach for America.

Review-Journal political columnist Steve Sebelius will return Jan. 7.