Had a great time at the Virginia Association of School Personnel Administrators (VASPA) meeting with HR professionals to get a greater understanding of Virginia teacher shortages.\u00a0 We are submitting our application to become an approved Career Switcher Program in the state. Last year, Virginia started the school year short 1,000 teachers.\u00a0 That is a lot of empty classrooms and severely hurts Virginia students.<\/p>\n
As we work on our application – but as we analyze the requirements, it is not going to be easy. There are a ton of elementary requirements which is why there is such a shortage of elementary teachers.<\/p>\n
Every state has put so many barriers to entry it is no wonder we are seeing such a teacher shortage. So many of them duplicate requirements – there are courses required but also a test to prove you learned something in those courses.\u00a0 It is so cumbersome that people abandon hope of ever getting into teaching.<\/p>\n
We are very excited to be here in Virginia and look forward to working in the state – but we have to make improvements to the elementary certification or we will not be able to help reduce the critical shortages.<\/p>\n