Key points:
There is a critical shortage of teachers across the United States. (In addition to serious shortages in other professions, such as nursing.) This trend started before the pandemic, but has become more serious afterward.
I teach Latin at a public high school in New Jersey. The signs of this teacher shortage are evident in my own district. Some of my colleagues teach extra classes because we couldn't cover the replacements for maternity leave. We fill other positions with online teachers in different states.
How to cover a critical shortage
Once in my life, I was part of the task of filling a critically needed shortage. After 9/11, I worked as an Arabic linguist at the National Security Agency. We knew we urgently needed to increase the number of linguists working for the NSA, which was tasked with processing intercepted foreign communications, such as planning terrorist attacks.
I was part of the first group hired to work after the tragedy, so I had a front-row seat to see how they galvanized the workforce needed to prevent another attack on American soil. I believe the way they accomplished that mission can provide lessons for us today to address our critical teacher shortage.
Join the NSA
I submitted my resume online to the NSA and they contacted me within a few days to begin the hiring process. A month later I was flown there to test my language skills. I am not a native speaker and I haven't been in a classroom for a few years. Although I did my best to study ahead of time, I found out via email that I had passed the reading portion of her exams, but not the listening portion.
I was devastated. He had wanted this so much.
But then, two weeks later, I received an email telling me that the NSA was creating a new program to train people who failed one of the two tests. They had selected me for this and extended me a job offer. I received the forms in the mail to request my security clearance.
I later learned that the man in charge of recruiting new Arabic linguists created this program precisely because of people like me. He saw that promising new employees were deficient in one of two skill sets. He then created this program where you could hire people and his first task would be to work on his deficient skills.
When I raised my right hand on June 16, 2002, and swore an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States, I knew I was part of the first class of new hires post-9/11. It had taken so long to determine the logistics of where these new employees would work and acquire the computers they would place on their desks. Meanwhile, to address the critical need, they pleaded with retired employees to return even for a few hours a week, if possible.
Immediately after orientation, I was sent to a 30-day class, where I worked eight hours a day on my poor listening skills. It was difficult. I worked hard. At the end of the class, the NSA administered the same exam that I had failed earlier. This time I scored a 92. The plan had worked. A candidate originally rejected for being unqualified had been found to be fully qualified just 30 days after starting work.
Once inside, I experienced the NSA as a vibrant place that prioritized the higher education of its workforce. There was an exciting camaraderie between people who knew they were part of something bigger than themselves, fulfilling a noble mission in defense of our nation. He would eventually serve a deployment to Iraq in 2004, where he would earn the Global War on Terrorism Civilian Service Medal. I chose to leave the NSA in 2006 to become a high school teacher. I had served my nation for four years and felt I had done my duty.
Conclusions for the teacher shortage
There have been multiple studies attempting to diagnose why the attrition rate of new teachers is so alarmingly high (around 30 percent in the first five years of service). People in exit interviews frequently cite low salaries in relation to the workload and time demands of what they consider intense administrative work. But I want to focus on some specific issues that my experience at the NSA could teach us about how to address this problem.
1. Focus on effective training
A program to hire people who are not fully prepared for the job would seem at first glance comparable to the Alternative Route Program, which I took to become a licensed teacher in New Jersey. But a key difference is that the NSA hired people who were deficient in one skill set and then trained them directly where they needed help.
One takeaway for teaching would be that we could do even better with new hires and alternative route teachers in terms of helping them find their way into the teaching profession. The current tutoring program in my district is well organized and effective. But I think we could reduce attrition even further if we identified struggling new teachers early on and directly helped them identify and work on their specific weak skills.
2. More active formation of companionship
In my 2022 article The endless war, I shared thoughts about what the experience of surviving the pandemic together as a school community felt like when I served in Iraq in 2004. When I was in the NSA, we knew we were performing important services. It was difficult work, but bearable thanks to the support of colleagues who shared those burdens.
School districts and educational associations should do even more to actively and intentionally draw teachers, staff, and administration into a sense of intentional and supportive community. My district recently held a professional development day that was amazing. It started with a morning of very useful workshops to choose from, but then the afternoon was a delightful variety of options. These included yoga, Zumba, a walk and talk with management, and tae kwon do, just to name a few. The day went a long way toward promoting the kind of shared mission that I believe will help staff experience the school community as a place of belonging.
3. Do this right, not fast
At first glance, it might seem surprising that it took nine months to bring in a new Arabic linguist in response to 9/11. But the reality is that some important things can't be rushed when you're trying to do something right. The process of properly vetting people for security clearances takes quite a bit of time. And I would suggest that the bottom line for addressing the teacher shortage is that long-term solutions to this crisis will be more important than quick fixes.
Drastically reducing the requirements for a teaching license may get hot bodies into classrooms faster, but it could create its own problems. Introducing truly unqualified teachers into classrooms alongside people who have the appropriate certifications could lead to significant morale issues among teachers and poor outcomes as well. I have no doubt that here and there a talented teacher would emerge who would not otherwise have entered this career. But I also hope that many more leave teaching because they never had anything to do in a classroom.
The solution is to address the systemic problems that prevent high-quality personnel from entering and then staying in these important fields. And that means, at a minimum, more attractive salaries and favorable working conditions.
Looking to the future
I'm glad I served in the NSA when I did. But I am much more grateful to Leonia High School for the opportunity to teach young people for the past 18 years. I think I've done more good for the universe as a public high school teacher than as a spy. I offer these comparisons to my previous service because I hope it can help more people pursue and persist in this rewarding career.
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