When an Algebra 2 class and the band program started the school year without teachers, many Cal High students must have been thinking, “Here we go again.”
Last year, the AP Literature classes didn’t have a teacher until mid-September, and the school didn’t have an AP Physics program because a teacher was never hired.
Although Cal’s AP Physics program is back this year, what has happened with students starting the year without permanent teachers is part of the nationwide teacher shortage that continues to plague public education.
“The teacher shortage isn’t just happening here,” Cal counselor Rebecca Bellini said. “It’s everywhere.”
There were 567,000 fewer educators in America’s public schools in April than before the COVID-19 pandemic quarantine that started in March 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor statistics.
In California alone, more than 200 school districts reported that 75 percent of schools are starting this school year with a shortage of qualified teachers, according to a Learning Policy Institute study.
This forces many schools to hire under-trained teachers and substitutes to help out in the long run, particularly in subjects that are challenging to fill such as math, science, art, and special and bilingual education.
To start this school year, there are more than 10,000 teacher vacancies in California. This includes positions filled by people who do not hold credentials, according to the State’s Department of Education
The situation is even worse outside of California. Two thirds of Tennessee schools started the 2022-23 school year with nearly 39,000 positions either vacant or held by someone with an emergency teaching credential, according to the Tennessee Department of Education.
Virginia had more than 3,500 full-time teachers vacancies for the 2022-23 school year, which means nearly 4 percent of all teaching positions were not filled, according to the Virginia Department of Education. Statistics showed that vacancies increased from the previous year.
Because this ongoing national problem has affected schools locally, an Algebra 2 class didn’t have a teacher for the first month of school until Haoyu Chen returned to Cal and stepped back into the classroom on Sept. 18.
“I temporarily stepped away from this position due to family reasons,” Chen said. “So I’m basically returning to the position I had last year.¨
But before Chen returned, students struggled in the class and often felt like they were behind compared to the other Algebra 2 students who started the school year with a teacher.
“It doesn’t really feel like a class,” sophomore Tabitha Israel said before Chen returned.
Israel said it was difficult for her and other students to understand concepts without a teacher present.
“It definitely feels a bit strange to not have a teacher,” sophomore Yasasri Chintapalli said. “It worries me because it is a core subject and not an elective.”
Chintapalli said the substitute teachers didn’t really know how to teach math, and students often argued over answers.
The time it took to hire an Algebra 2 teacher made many students and parents question the hiring process. Principal Demetrius Ball said the process of hiring a new teacher involves numerous steps.
First, the position is posted online for a few weeks, typically during the springtime. After screening applications, interviewees are selected based on their resume, reference letters and experience.
During the interview process, a panel of teachers and administrators interview candidates. Teacher who are offered jobs have one to two days to accept the offer. Ball believes numerous factors play into the teacher shortage, including the pay and cost of living in the Bay Area.
“Money is a motivator,” Ball said. “It’s really difficult to make [teaching] appealing.”
Bellini agrees.
“The average teacher salary just isn’t enough to live here for a lot of people,” Bellini said.
Bellini also believes politics contributes to teacher shortages.
“A lot of times, schools and teachers are often villainized in the media for things that are outside their control,” Bellini said.
Teacher shortages have been a persistent issue for the last decade, but this problem has been worsened by the pandemic and recent increase in school shootings. According to the publication Education Week, teachers also have expressed frustration with their jobs’ low starting pay and a lack of respect from their students.
“Sometimes I wonder if teachers don’t view their job as potentially dangerous with the gun violence issue that we have in this country,” Bellini said.
English teacher Ginger Clark said state colleges and universities are working to make it easier for candidates to get their teaching credentials while earning their bachelor’s degrees.
“If there’s a way to make it easier for [teacher candidates] to actually get into those schools so that they can benefit from those programs, then maybe we’ll see more people come into progression,” Clark said.
The teacher shortage, specifically in the math department, may affect other teachers. Bellini said because algebra and geometry are graduation requirements, many upper level classes may no longer be offered so the required classes have teacher coverage.
“Most of our math teachers were working more than full time [last year] to cover what should have been another person and a half,” Bellini said. “Teachers need to be compensated and feel respected for people who want to do this work.”
