Education Week - January 18, 2017 - 6

School Systems Confront Shortages of Substitute Teachers
Recruitment efforts
get more creative
By Brenda Iasevoli
Drive down a highway in Michigan,
and you might spot a most unlikely
help-wanted ad, a billboard emblazoned with an urgent call: "SUBSTITUTE TEACHERS NEEDED."
"We thought, 'What form of media
is pretty hard to ignore?' " said Clark
Galoway, the president of EDUStaff,
the school-staffing company responsible for the signs.
Michigan is not alone in its attempt to find creative ways to boost
the ranks of those who fill in for absent teachers. Across the country,
districts are confronting a substitute-teacher shortage, and they're
making extraordinary efforts, a mix
of old-school job fairs and tech-savvy
social-media campaigns, to enlist
teachers who can lead a classroom
at a moment's notice.
Some districts are increasing pay
and benefits for substitutes, while
others are cutting back the number of college credits required for
the job and eliminating qualifying
tests. The question is whether such
strategies can entice applicants in
an improving economy.
Until now, many districts haven't
done much to spread the word, and

that's a shame, according to DeRay
McKesson, the interim chief humancapital officer for the Baltimore
public schools, especially since most
people don't even know substitute
teaching is an option.
"Much of the substitute-teacher
shortage is a lack of recruiting,"
said McKesson. It's not that districts
don't think recruiting subs is important, he said, it's just that in a world
of competing priorities, full-time
teachers are priority No. 1.
The Baltimore district held its first
substitute job fair this past July, in
combination with its regular teacher
job fair. About 150 substitutes were
hired, McKesson said. That effort
worked in tandem with a "refer a
friend" campaign, in which district
employees were asked to recommend
potential teachers or substitutes.

Casting a Wide Net
Districts nationwide, including Elk
Grove Unified in Sacramento County,
Calif., are targeting retirees and stayat-home parents through similar tactics, newsletters, and email blasts to
parents. Recent college graduates are
reached through social media and
visits to college job fairs.
But Elk Grove, the fifth-largest
district in the state, has a plan to
keep substitutes from roaming to
other districts. The district raised
salaries and offered health benefits.

A little more than a year ago, its
school board voted to increase substitute pay from $125 a day to $135,
making it more competitive with
surrounding districts.
Elk Grove also sent an email to
parents, inviting them to think about
becoming a substitute or persuading
a friend or family member to apply.
Shelly Clark, Elk Grove's director of
human resources, said the response
was overwhelming. She said the district is now able to cover teacher absences 99.4 percent of the time.
"Before the recruiting campaign,
it would not be uncommon for upwards of once a week on a Monday
or Friday to not have enough sub
coverage at a school," said Clark.
Many reasons exist for the shortages, according to district officials
around the country. For one, fewer
college students are choosing to become teachers. Enrollment in preparation programs nationwide has
dropped 35 percent in the past five
years, according to a report from the
Learning Policy Institute.
The recovering economy has also exacerbated the problem. College graduates can find higher salaries elsewhere. Add to that the general view
that teachers are overburdened with
responsibilities and get little respect.
"Substitutes are leaving for other
ventures," said JR Godwin, the vice
president of business affairs for
Substitute Teacher Service, which

provides substitutes for districts in
Pennsylvania. "The health-care industry is gobbling them up so they
can become salespeople, because
they are comfortable speaking in
public and teaching people."

Teaching Gaps in Pennsylvania
The situation is dire in Pennsylvania. In the 2012-13 school year, the
state issued 16,361 certifications, according to its education department.
Two years later, that number was
6,215. A new state law will allow education majors with 60 credits under
their belt to substitute-teach for up to
20 days a year. Still, with the precipitous decline in education school enrollment, the shortage will likely rage on.
Districts across the state have
relied on staffing services like Substitute Teacher Service and Source
4 Teachers to bridge the gap by recruiting 12 months a year. Even so,
Godwin predicts that it will be another six years before the substituteteacher pool grows to needed levels.
In the meantime, social media is
helping the service boost its substitute
ranks with recent college graduates
looking to build their résumés, recent
retirees and, in the largest group, stayat-home moms and dads who want
to be done with work in time to pick
their children up from the bus stop.
Godwin says Twitter, Facebook,
and LinkedIn have paid off big for

the company in the past couple
years. The company also reached potential substitute-teacher candidates
through university job fairs, newspaper ads, and TV commercials.
Districts are also beefing up training for their new recruits to stave off
high turnover. Baltimore hopes to
roll out its training for substitutes
in the spring, in time for a second
recruiting fair.
"Our goal is not only to increase
the substitute-teacher pipeline but
to make sure they are effective because we believe every moment that
a teacher is in front of our kids is
important," said McKesson, the human-resource official.
That commitment to training,
more so than pay raises, is the key
to boosting the substitute-teacher
pool, according to Geoffrey Smith,
the director of an online training
school for substitutes, STEDI.org.
"People know better than to take on
something that they have no training or skills to do," he said.
Another key to ensuring substitutes
return, said Smith, is to make sure
they are recognized and appreciated.
Pennsylvania districts have learned
that lesson well, said Godwin of the
Substitute Teacher Service. Schools
are offering substitutes free lunches,
gift bags, and guidance. "The extra
attention makes substitutes feel welcomed and appreciated, and they are
showing up," he said.

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Education Week - January 18, 2017

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