Last week I mentioned the new education blog starting up with a music theme. Today I shared about a recent Springsteen show and one of my kids over there. More music below.
More pushback on the teacher shortage narrative via Goldhaber. Here’s Chad Aldeman with even more:
The LPI report confuses these sources of new teachers. They estimate a generic number for “teacher demand” at roughly 200,000 teachers, growing over time to more than 300,000 per year. This is worrying because as a country, only 200,000 to 250,000 people complete a teacher preparation program each year, and those numbers are likely to fall in coming years. LPI eyeballs these sets of numbers and concludes that we’re heading for a severe teacher shortage in coming years.
But LPI’s figures are misleading, because they’re counting all new teachers, not just recent graduates. For example, in 2004, LPI says there was demand for 236,407 new teachers. According to NCES, that year there were only 74,500 new hires who were recent college graduates. LPI repeats the same error in 2008, where it reports 247,964 new hires, even as NCES says only 92,500 of them were recent graduates. The numbers aren’t readily available for more recent years, but it’s clear that LPI’s figures are way out of proportion.
This wouldn’t be a problem if LPI noted these distinctions. Instead, they compound their error by comparing apples and oranges. They compare their figures for total demand against the supply of new graduates. As it should be clear by now, those two figures are not actually comparable. A better comparison is to look at the number of recent graduates who are hired versus the total production of recent graduates. When you look just at recent graduates, you get very different numbers.
Once you start comparing apples to apples, LPI’s “teacher shortage” narrative goes completely out the window…
Oops.
More debate about the NAACP charter school position.
America’s juvenile justice system needs some work…Hailly Korman, call your office!
School By Design pulled the curtain up this week. Story here. Also, the Center For Education Reform is relaunching.
Darrell West looks at driverless cars. The trend toward automation in transportation will impact education, too.
Jane Pauley taking over for Charles Osgood on CBS this morning. She hosted the Bellwether launch event and is active and supportive on education in Indy via The Mind Trust, so she has a special place with us and we wish her well.
Apparently there is some sort of political event tonight. Here are 16 ideas you won’t hear discussed!
Watch this Rhiannon Giddens concert. The music is fantastic and you’ll learn something.
