Data Doesn't Tell the Whole Story
08/29/2015
In response to Chalkbeat’s story, “Why people think there’s a teacher shortage in Indiana and why they’re probably wrong,” the story purports to demonstrate the teacher shortage does not exist based on old federal data and several anecdotal assumptions.
When ISTA President Meredith said, “Who cares what the data says because when you have administrators who don’t have applicants before the first day of school, there’s a shortage, end of story,” her observation was correct—that particular data is not relevant to today’s situation. The federal data used in the story has at best a small fractional impact on today’s discussion, limited to telling us what used to be the case in Indiana.
What’s clear is that many administrators across the state have said for weeks that positions have been difficult to fill and many remain open. If classrooms do not have credentialed, qualified teachers at the start of the school year then a teacher shortage exists. Period. When young teachers like Ashley Maloff in Chalkbeat’s article say the toxic teaching environment is why she doesn’t want to teach any longer then there’s a problem.
If policymakers and media want to know what is going on they should talk to the educators. ISTA has said and continues to say the cause of the shortage is complicated and while the reforms are a big part of the reason they are not the only reason.
Those who jumped on the quote attributed to President Meredith in the story without acknowledging the fundamental flaw in the data strengthen the argument that there are those out there who only seek to politicize education policy, not discuss it honestly.
Here is what we know today. We know the number of students entering education programs at universities across the state are in decline; we know that the number of new licenses issued in the state has dropped; we know that the number of students being served in Indiana schools is over a million; we know that administrators in districts from New Albany to South Bend are having difficulty filling openings.
It’s time for policymakers and others in positions of power to go to the source and start listening to the experts—Indiana’s teachers.