{"id":155077,"date":"2023-11-03T09:08:18","date_gmt":"2023-11-03T13:08:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/districtadministration.com\/?p=155077"},"modified":"2023-11-03T09:08:18","modified_gmt":"2023-11-03T13:08:18","slug":"student-teaching-better-experiences-solve-teacher-shortage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/districtadministration.com\/student-teaching-better-experiences-solve-teacher-shortage\/","title":{"rendered":"Solving teacher shortages: 5 ways to improve student teaching"},"content":{"rendered":"

Districts are raising salaries, building apartments and giving teachers more planning time. But, with superintendents warning of worsening staff shortages, districts may be overlooking another solution: student teaching.<\/p>\n

“A quality student teaching experience with an effective mentor is equivalent to an additional year of experience for a new teacher. But student teaching experiences can vary greatly,” writes University of Michigan researcher Matthew Truwit, author of “Increasing Teacher Preparedness through Effective Student Teaching<\/a>,” a new EdResearch for Action report.<\/p>\n

There is little evidence teacher shortages will ease anytime soon. In Nebraska, for instance, teacher vacancies more than doubled<\/a> (they rose by 114%) between 2011 and 2023, leaving the state with 769 unfilled positions last year, the Omaha World-Herald<\/em> reported. The number of high school graduates who entered teacher preparation programs rose to 4,149 in 2020-21, compared to 2,822 in 2017-18. Yet, only 1,350 students completed their programs in 2020-21, the World-Herald\u00a0<\/em>noted.<\/p>\n

Truwit notes further that the nation\u2019s teacher workforce is \u201cgreener than ever,” as the number of first-year educators has doubled over the last 30 years.<\/p>\n

Also, policies in many states are working against raising the quality of student teaching programs. For instance, only about half of all states require a student teaching experience to last at least 10 weeks and it has to be \u201cfull-time” in even fewer.<\/p>\n

“Alternative [or job-embedded] programs, which produced about 23% of new teachers in 2019 (nearly 35,000), typically involve a much shorter period of student teaching\u2014or even none at all\u2014before candidates become teachers of record,” Truwit adds.<\/p>\n

Why student teaching matters<\/h2>\n

Superintendents should know that districts that offer robust student teaching experiences are likely to eventually hire those educators full-time. “Surveys of new teachers show that the student teaching experience is the most important part of their preparation,” Truwit asserts.<\/p>\n

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Truwit details five evidence-based strategies school districts and teacher training programs can leverage to better prepare new educators to thrive in the classroom:<\/p>\n

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  1. Incentivize effective teachers to serve as mentors.<\/li>\n
  2. Provide mentors with professional development on coaching.<\/li>\n
  3. Collect frequent feedback from the student teachers and their mentors.<\/li>\n
  4. Place teacher candidates in schools with low turnover, effective faculty and collaborative environments.<\/li>\n
  5. Place candidates in grades, subjects and schools in which they may later teach.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Truwit also described some practices that have proven not<\/em> to work:<\/p>\n