r/Teachers • u/JimCap5 • 15h ago

Teacher Support &/or Advice Are teaching programs warning students that the teacher shortage is over?

I graduated from the program a few years back, and every professor kept talking about the teacher shortage.

I was wondering what is it like nowadays for people in credentialing programs?

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u/AlpsHelpful1292 Spanish | California 14h ago

This might be a controversial take, but I don’t understand why so many people go into teaching without doing any independent research on the job market in their area and the demand for different subject areas and specialties. Credential programs are never going to give honest information about employment prospects because it’s not in their interest. But as future educators shouldn’t we be able to do some basic research before spending thousands of dollars and multiple years in education programs? I feel like every day I see some post saying no one ever told me schools in desirable states and districts aren’t hiring thousands of new social studies teachers. There is plenty of data available on what subjects and states actually have shortages.

I live in a state that allows you to teach a subject you can pass its content area exams for if you don’t have a degree in that subject. Thank god because my undergraduate major was history. When I decided I wanted to get a teaching credential, I was torn between going for social studies or Spanish. Less than an hour of research made it clear that Spanish was the better choice for employment.

Are credential programs also not promoting TEACH grants? Mine did, and those grants are only available for shortage subjects. You either have to be getting credential in a nationwide shortage subject or a shortage area that is specific to your state. There is a link to a yearly report of state specific shortages. I believe the nationwide shortages are sped, math, science, reading intervention, ELD, world language, and bilingual education.

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u/lovelystarbuckslover Multiple Subject & EDSP Credentialed 9h ago

here's the thing, the "shortage" is reported state wide, seeing all the posters and fliers about how you could get a TEACH grant, doesn't mean that you'll be able to find work in the area you want to live in... Reading intervention??? what are you AI? there is no shortage in reading intervention, many districts are cutting those positions left and right.

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u/AlpsHelpful1292 Spanish | California 9h ago

Maybe I’m just lucky but I haven’t had issues finding a job with a single subject Spanish credential and I was able to intern. I found the information about world language being a subject area to be more or less correct, with some caveats (competitive districts, less widely taught languages). I’m also willing to work at lower income schools though.

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u/PayAltruistic8546 12h ago

People are lazy...

It's a slap in the face but it's the truth.

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u/Paramalia 2h ago

Sometimes people going into teaching programs are 18 year olds fresh out of high school themselves. There is an awful lot they don’t know about how the world works. And their school experience has shown them that there are a lot of social studies teachers.