Alaska's University for Alaska's Schools 2013 Prepared for the 28th Alaska State Legislature In Accordance with: AS 14.40.190(b) Source: Senate Bill 241, 25th Alaska State Legislature AN ACT A report to the legislature on teacher preparation, retention, and recruitment by the Board of Regents of the University of Alaska Prepared by: Alexandra Hill, Senior Research Associate, Center for Alaska Education Policy Research, University of Alaska Anchorage Diane Hirshberg, Director, Center for Alaska Education Policy Research, University of Alaska Anchorage Deborah E. Lo, Dean, School of Education, University of Alaska Southeast Edward A. McLain, Interim Dean, College of Education, University of Alaska Anchorage Allan Morotti, Dean, School of Education, University of Alaska Fairbanks Under the direction of: Patrick K. Gamble, President, University of Alaska Dana Thomas, Vice President for Academic Affairs, University of Alaska Presented by: The University of Alaska Board of Regents Regent Michael Powers, Chair of the Academic & Student Affairs Committee February 18, 2013 Alaska's University for Alaska's Schools 2013 Executive Summary This report responds to AS 14.40.190(b), which requires the University of Alaska (UA) Board of Regents to report biennially to the Alaska State Legislature on university efforts to “attract, train and retain qualified public school teachers.” It describes the University of Alaska teacher education programs, provides data on teacher education graduates, discusses initiatives across the system to encourage more youth and adults to enter teaching, and describes efforts to mentor and support educators prepared both within and outside the UA system. It also describes some of the research being done on challenges in meeting the state’s needs and to attract, prepare, and retain educators for Alaska. The report then addresses a recent question the Legislature raised about why some of the UA teacher education graduates are not currently teaching in Alaska’s public schools.  The three UA Schools and College of Education produced 242 new teachers in AY 2012. Fourteen of these were new special education teachers. In addition another 66 certified teachers earned special education endorsements.  UA programs produced 80 principals and 34 counselors. 171 degrees were awarded in other educational areas such as superintendent certification, master teachers, educational technology, reading specialist and so forth.  School districts continue to hire around 400 teachers each year from outside of Alaska.  All three UA education programs engage in efforts to recruit and prepare more rural educators.  The UA Schools and College of Education each run initiatives aimed at increasing the number of Alaska Native teachers.  All of the UA Schools and College of Education offer programs that prepare new and practicing teachers from urban Alaska and outside the state for working in rural, remote and indigenous communities.  The UA Statewide Office of K‐12 Outreach also is engaged in efforts to recruit teacher candidates, provide professional development to current teachers and mentor new teachers from both within and outside Alaska.  Education faculty across the three Schools and College of Education and researchers at the UAA Center for Alaska Education Policy Research (CAEPR) are conducting research on critical issues of practice and policy including studies of teacher evaluation, teacher turnover in rural and remote Alaska, and culturally responsive mathematics teaching.  In response to legislators’ questions in 2012, the UA Schools and College of Education and CAEPR explored why many UA teacher education graduates were not teaching immediately after graduation. The major reasons include too many graduates competing for the limited positions in the state’s largest districts and too few willing or able to relocate to rural and remote schools where districts need more applicants. Other factors include: some graduates are less prepared to teach than others, more UA students choose to study elementary education than there are elementary teacher openings in schools, and too few choose hard‐ to‐fill areas such as special education, secondary math, and secondary physical science. Alaska’s University for Alaska’s Schools 2013 i Alaska’s University for Alaska’s Schools 2013 ii Table of Contents Executive Summary ............................................................................................................................................... i Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................ 1 What are the needs and challenges in staffing Alaska’s schools? ........................................................ 3 University of Alaska teacher preparation and retention efforts .......................................................... 6 Additional efforts to address challenges in recruiting, preparing and retaining teachers ..... 13 Research on University of Alaska initial licensure graduates: Why aren’t they teaching? ..... 15 Summary ................................................................................................................................................................ 18 Appendix A: Detailed Data Tables.............................................................................................................................. 20 A1. University of Alaska Education Program Graduates .................................................................................. 20 A2. Teacher Turnover Rates by District, 1999‐2012 ......................................................................................... 23 Appendix B: Education Certification Programs at the University of Alaska ............................................ 25 Appendix C: Progress Toward the Goals of the UA Teacher Education Plan ........................................... 27 Appendix D: University of Alaska Teacher Education Consortium .............................................................. 29 Appendix E: Why Aren’t They Teaching? ................................................................................................................ 33 Appendix F: SB 241 legislation.................................................................................................................................... 42 Alaska’s University for Alaska’s Schools 2013 iii Alaska’s University for Alaska’s Schools 2013 iv Introduction In 2008, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin signed into law AS 14.40.190(b), which requires the University of Alaska Board of Regents to present to the Alaska State Legislature a report that “describes the efforts of the university to attract, train, and retain qualified public school teachers. The report must include an outline of the university's current and future plans to close the gap between known teacher employment vacancies in the state and the number of state residents who complete teacher training.” This report has been prepared annually since 2009; as of this iteration it will become a biennial report, provided to the legislature no later than day 30 of the regular session, per AS 14.40.190(b). Teacher preparation is central to the mission of the University of Alaska (UA) system. In 2010, the UA Board of Regents endorsed the UA Teacher Education Plan (Appendix C) which established priorities for fulfilling this mission. Under President Gamble’s leadership, the system is engaged in an organizational change effort called the “Strategic Direction Initiative” (SDI). The SDI is aimed at increasing the UA system’s ability to meet the needs of students and the state and fostering a culture of continuous improvement. (http://www.alaska.edu/shapingalaskasfuture/what‐is‐sdi/) The five Strategic Direction (draft) themes are:  Student Achievement and Attainment  Productive Partnerships with Alaska’s Schools  Productive Partnerships with Alaska’s Public and Private Industries  Research and Development to Build and Sustain Alaska’s Economic Growth  Accountability to the People of Alaska The theme “Productive Partnerships with Alaska’s Schools” is of particular importance for this report. The theme includes three broad areas: Alignment, Teachers for Alaska’s Schools, and Rural Education. Alignment includes issues around supporting and strengthening secondary preparation of students for postsecondary education; Teachers for Alaska’s Schools addresses recruitment of young people into the teaching profession, preparation of teachers in the UA system, and induction and mentoring for new teachers; and Rural Education looks at the role UA can play in improving the educational achievement of rural students so that, among other achievements, they qualify for the Alaska Performance Scholarship and do not need remediation once they enter the postsecondary system. This report primarily covers the issues under “Teachers for Alaska’s Schools.” The report does describe some of the UA Schools and College of Education efforts around improving alignment and rural education, but the main focus here is on the topics of recruiting, preparing and supporting K‐ 12 educators. After documenting some of the shortage areas in the Alaska teaching workforce and a discussion of difficulties in staffing Alaska’s schools, we describe the UA teacher education programs, provide data on teacher education graduates from the University of Alaska, discuss initiatives across the system to encourage more youth and adults to enter teaching, and describe Alaska’s University for Alaska’s Schools 2013 1 efforts to mentor and support educators prepared both within and outside the UA system. We also describe some of the research being done on the challenges of attracting, preparing, and retaining school teachers and educators for Alaska. Finally, the report addresses a recent question the Legislature raised about why some of the UA teacher education graduates are not teaching in the public schools. Subsequent reports will address additional specific issues of concern in depth, from the effectiveness of teacher induction and mentoring efforts across the state to the cost of teacher turnover. Alaska’s University for Alaska’s Schools 2013 2 What are the needs and challenges in staffing Alaska’s schools? Staffing schools in Alaska has been a challenge since territorial days. The living conditions and remoteness of many communities, and the distance of the state from elsewhere in the United States have made it difficult to hire and retain educators–both from within Alaska and from outside the state. Educational institutions within the state have never produced enough teachers to meet the annual placement needs of schools. In this section, we address some of the contemporary issues around teacher preparation, recruitment and retention. A more complete discussion of these issues will be available in an upcoming report on teacher turnover, supply and demand from the Center for Alaska Education Policy Research (CAEPR). Teacher Turnover As the chart below shows, turnover in rural Alaska school districts is a persistent problem. Although there has been a slight decline over the last decade, rural districts still average almost double the turnover of Alaska’s five largest, urban districts–about 19% compared to just under 10% for the urban districts. Appendix A includes turnover numbers for each district each year from AY 1999‐2000 to AY 2011‐2012. The dip in turnover between 2008 and 2009 may be related to the nation’s financial crisis; districts across the country were either not hiring or were laying off teachers, and this may have led teachers with jobs in Alaska to stay in those jobs longer than they might if they thought there were readily available options elsewhere. Alaska Average Teacher Turnover by Statewide, Rural and Urban Districts, 2000‐2012 n r 25% u et do not rg year 20% Rural ho win wo ar oll h yehe f 15% Total hers eacdistrict t 10% Urban of teaco their nt t 5% ce Urban districts are Anchorage, Mat‐Su, Kenai,  er Fairbanks,and Juneau;  P Rural districs are all other districts 0% The causes of the high teacher turnover are complex and varied. Among them are that teachers recruited from the Lower 48 are far from their homes and families; the remoteness of many rural communities is difficult for some; there are limited choices for housing and medical care in villages Alaska’s University for Alaska’s Schools 2013 3 and urban amenities (such as supermarkets, restaurants, and so on) are generally not available; teachers are not always prepared for the differences between their culture and that of the communities in which they teach; and there are difficulties associated with teaching in schools with a history of high poverty rates and low student achievement. Districts across the state consistently report challenges recruiting and keeping special education teachers and related service providers such as occupational therapists and speech‐language pathologists. Teacher data collected by the state each year provides information on special education teacher turnover. From the 2010‐11 school year to the 2011‐12 school year, about 13% of general education teachers did not return to a general education position in their district; but 21% of special education teachers did not return to a special education position in their district. In rural Alaska, special educator turnover was 31%, compared to 19% for teachers who were not in special education1. Similar data is not available for related services positions, but in a 2009 survey of school districts about speech‐language pathologists, districts reported contracting for those services rather than hiring for them because they could not compete with private sector wages and because there were not enough specialists available to hire. They reported difficulties finding even contract services within the state and in some cases contracted with firms in the lower 48, or used telepractice to provide services. Teacher turnover is defined as the percent of teachers in a given year who do not return to teach the following year in their same district. This is a useful definition when we analyze ways that districts can better retain their teachers. However, when we consider district efforts to recruit new teachers, we need to look at how many teachers districts have to hire; that is, how many of a given year’s teachers were not in the district the previous year. Two factors can make hiring and turnover numbers different. First, if teacher needs are changing (due to enrollment changes, budget constraints or other factors), then districts may have to hire more teachers (to fill new positions) or fewer (as positions are reduced) than the number that leave. The total number of Alaska public school teachers has both increased and decreased in recent years. Second, if teachers leave the classroom to go into administration, then districts have to hire new teachers to fill those positions. Alaska districts hire many of their administrators from within; Alaska’s districts typically have to hire 50 to 100 teachers to replace those moving into administrative positions. Each year, Alaska school districts recruit not only within Alaska, but at job fairs and universities across the country, both in collaboration with UA Alaska Teacher Placement (described below) and on their own. There is some research showing that teachers prepared in state are more likely to stay, especially in rural areas, but rural districts report being able to recruit only a small fraction of their teacher needs from Alaska teacher education programs. Each year, for the last three years, districts have hired just under 1100 teachers; about half of those (504 of 1085) have been experienced teachers, already in Alaska. Some (about 140) changed districts from the previous year, over 20% (about 220) have taught in Alaska public schools before but took one or more years 1 Unpublished ISER analysis, EED certified staff accounting database Alaska’s University for Alaska’s Schools 2013 4