The Impact that the Shortage of Teachers will have on Dallastown
Changes made to education requirements are meant to combat the teacher shortage in PA, but how will they affect Dallastown staff and students?
Schools need more teachers desperately all over the US.
It was only 10 years ago when there were over 20,000 new teachers each year in Pennsylvania. Now there are just over 6,000 new teachers each year. To gain more teachers, the state of Pennsylvania decided to make some changes.
According to the Pennsylvania Department of Education, “The Pennsylvania Department of Education is no longer requiring students to take and pass the basic skills assessment for reading, writing, and math in order to obtain pre-professional educator status.”
The Government seemed to think that the issue came with the number of years of education students that wanted to be teachers would need. They adjusted it, so now people that want to be teachers for K-12 do not need to take the basic skills test, but this will end in 2026.
York College sophomore Samantha Parker who is studying both early childhood education and special education hopes that people will understand that they will still need motivation to become a teacher.
“People should know that if they want to be a teacher just because the education is easier, then they will lack motivation, and they will be less successful in the long run.”
Dallastown Superintendent Dr. Doll says that the teacher shortage was impacted by many factors.
“The COVID-19 pandemic had undoubtedly exacerbated the nationwide shortage of teachers. Teacher compensation is likely another factor behind nationwide teacher shortage.” Doll said.
He explains how Dallastown was not as impacted due to the amount of payment that they were able to offer to teachers.
The teachers were overworked and most struggled with maintaining a balance between teaching virtually and in person during COVID-19. This resulted in the number of teachers in PA quitting to spike up, leaving more gaps to fill. Something else that could have caused the teacher shortage in America could be inadequate compensation.
According to Doll, Dallastown is not being as impacted as other parts of the country. A reason for this may be because of the salary scale and benefits.
In addition, a teacher could rarely take off because there were also not enough substitute teachers. They might not want to take off because they felt unable to take sick days or personal days because they knew that there would not be enough substitutes to take over. Students are still being affected by the lack of substitutes when high school students are forced to go to the cafeteria to do classwork when their teacher is absent, instead of having a substitute present to maintain some semblance of normalcy.
Education for students in Pennsylvania is reaching a downfall, and teachers’ jobs are only going to get harder. But, how is Dallastown being affected by this?
Dallastown is seeing an increase in students as more people move, and as families continue to grow. According to usnews.com, in Dallastown 2022, there were 469 seniors and 510 sophomores. This growth shows the reason why the state department of education thinks that the need for more teachers will have reached over the thousands by 2025 in Pennsylvania alone.
“Teacher burnout has been a driving force behind the nationwide shortage and one of the many reasons our District is taking such a strong stance on offering Wildcat Wellness programs to our employees,” Doll said.
When asked what a good number of students would be in a classroom, Parker said, “the most students that I would want to have would be between 17-20. If it is more than this, then the room starts to get crowded, and, as a teacher, you are unable to pay attention to the students as well.”
Dallastown has a total of 6,400 students and just 442 teachers divided into 8 schools. The ratio of students to teachers is about 14.5:1. This will help the students that go to Dallastown get a better education compared to other schools in Pennsylvania.
For now, Dallastown students are not faced with the same consequences as other schools in Pennsylvania. The education that students will get will be of higher quality. According to nea.org, staff shortages in Pennsylvania are “preventing educators from giving students the one-on-one attention that they need.”
But according to teachers, these changes are not being noticed here at Dallastown.
Dr. Doll confirmed that the student’s education will not be affected when he said, “Pennsylvania has very specific and rigorous prerequisites in order to meet requirements to become a teacher in the state of Pennsylvania.”
Your donation will support the student journalists of Dallastown Area High School. Your contribution will allow us to purchase equipment and cover our annual website hosting costs.
