In this economy, starting a business is better than teachintg

I received the comment below on an earlier blog about career changers. A lot of interesting points from this teacher.

1. He/she is leaving because of teachers/administration not because of the kids
2. He/she prefers to start a business in this economy over teaching
3. He/she believes that career changers can get into teaching and bring content to life
4. In their experience teaching is learned on the job

As we continue to look for ways to solve the teacher shortage, when you listen to the teachers leaving the profession and not the groups that supposedly represent all teachers, you get a very different story

“I'm a teacher who is planning a career change. The reason for this is partly that I don't get paid enough (I teach private school), but mainly because in teaching, you are not really rewarded for being talented or creative in the same way that you are in other professional endeavors. I'm planning on opening a small business, which unlike teaching, will grow and succeed in direct correlation with my own efforts and abilities. But here is a word of comfort. Good teaching doesn't rely on 30 years of experience. Some people can teach, and some people just can't. Experience does help, but a person can pretty much learn most of what they need to know in 3 or so years. Also, teachers who once worked in other professions frequently bring those experiences to the table, which only enriches their pedagogy. So the real issue isn't so much that teaching doesn't pay enough, it's more that talented people who want new challenges and opportunities to grow aren't given them. And in my case, it isn't the kids; they're great. It's colleagues and administration that frequently drive the brightest and best teachers into other professions. I don't know how to solve this problem, or else I wouldn't be planning my own career transition.”

Millions of Career Changers waiting to Teach

It is hard to tell if you are on the right track in education some times. But a recent survey by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation seems to show we are in the right place at the right time to have a positive impact on students.

Their survey shows the following (which is very similar to a survey we conducted in Florida a few years ago). Bottom line is that there are plenty of professionals out there who want to teach. They just need some extra dollars and need help figuring out how to get there.

From the survey:

• 36 million people age 35-56 in the US have a Bachelor’s degree
• 42% of adults said they have/would consider teaching as a career
• 35% of these people would consider making the switch in the next 3-5 years
• And only 27% of that group know the steps to get certified and becoming a teacher

Not surprising based on our numbers. ABCTE continues to attract thousands of people each year into our program. The number one recruitment strategy that has been successful for us is making the process to get into teaching efficient and easily understood. You would be surprised at how hard it is to figure out how to get into teaching by a state department of education website.

Message to states and districts: stop going overseas to recruit and look right here at home for the teachers you need. They are right in your own back yard.

Career switching will get worse

When people try to claim that the teacher shortage we face is a retention problem, I laugh. Don’t get me wrong – I would love to see better working conditions and even higher salaries for teachers. But that will not come close to fixing the problem.

We no longer live in a society where someone works in one job, let alone one career, for life. Based on my daughter’s college friends, it is not going to get any better.

We took some of her college friends to dinner a few weeks back and half were planning on transferring from Radford University to other schools. They talk about this as if it was as easy as upgrading to a new text messaging plan for their cell phones. Back in “the day”, the only people transferring to a different college were usually doing so for nefarious reasons.

My daughter has now been accepted to James Madison University and will transfer there next semester. All of her friends at the dinner who applied will also be transferring. If they switch colleges this easy, I can guarantee that attitude will carry over into jobs and careers. Thirty year teaching careers will be a thing of the past.

What drives us

Gone are the days of political rhetoric at ABCTE. We exist for one reason – to help states recruit, certify and retain quality teachers. Much has changed here and those changes are radically changing the way we are perceived. Bottom line from NCES numbers:

• 1972: 25% of degrees earned were in education
• 2004: 14% of degrees earned were in education

Labor statistics say that 18-40 year olds will hold 10 different jobs during that time frame of which just over half of the job changes will be career changes

Not enough people are going into education and no one stays in careers for life anymore.