As School Year Approaches More Teachers Calling It Quits
UNDATED -- A recent national report indicated nearly 300,000 teachers have left the profession over the past two years.
Monica Bryon is the Vice President of Education Minnesota. She says we've seen our share of teachers quitting here in Minnesota too.
A study conducted by Education Minnesota says nearly a third of new teachers leave the profession within the first five years on the job.
Some of the ways that teachers are taken for granted with instructional decisions. Large class sizes. When you look at some of those pieces of the profession, with unreasonable mandates, lack of support, and paperwork demands, it is very difficult to manage some of those pieces, and teachers are burning out quickly.
The same study showed that more than half of Minnesota's teachers who have a license are not currently teaching in a public classroom or charter school classroom.
She says large class sizes are one reason why teachers are leaving the profession early, as well as a number of other concerns.
We can make sure that we are reducing the teacher pay penalty and the disparities between teacher pay and other college-educated non-teaching piers. We can make sure that we curb the standardized testing and how much we don't get from that piece.
Districts say the hardest teaching positions to fill are special education, math/science, and English language teachers.
Minnesota has 325 public school districts with over 56,000 teachers currently working full-time. As many as 113,000 Minnesotans have a teaching license.
Locally, Sauk Rapids-Rice Superintendent Brad Bergstrom says he's wrapping up filling the final three open teaching positions in that district. The St. Cloud Area School District still has about 11 open teaching positions.