By TYLER ELLYSON
UNK Communications
KEARNEY – Unprecedented.
That’s the word Janet Eckerson uses to describe the current K-12 teacher shortage in Nebraska.
According to the Nebraska Department of Education’s annual Teacher Vacancy Survey, more than 900 positions across the state were either vacant or filled by personnel who weren’t fully qualified last fall. And that survey only included 310 of the state’s 436 school districts/systems.
“Literally every type of teaching certification is now considered a shortage area in the state of Nebraska, all fields, and we don’t anticipate this problem going away anytime soon,” said Eckerson, an assistant professor of Spanish at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. “It’s not a demographic blip. This is a problem that we’re going to continue to face for years down the road.”
With a higher percentage of educators choosing to leave the profession, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic, and a smaller pool of new teachers to replace them, districts are often forced to compete with each other to recruit talent. This can have a negative impact on Nebraska communities, especially in rural areas, according to Eckerson, a former high school teacher.
“To create healthy communities, you need economic investment and economic development, but you can’t have that without strong school systems,” she said. “And you can’t have strong school systems without highly qualified teachers.”
Eckerson and three colleagues from the UNK College of Education are partnering with Kearney-based Educational Service Unit 10 to address this issue.
Funded by a two-year, $250,000 grant from the Nebraska Department of Education, they launched an initiative last summer aimed at improving both teacher recruitment and retention in the state.
On the recruitment side, they hope to grow the professional pipeline by hosting an event this fall that introduces high schoolers to career opportunities in education and UNK’s teacher preparation programs.
But that’s only one piece of the puzzle.
“There’s a lot of discussion about recruitment, how do we get more teachers, but we also need to focus on the retention aspect,” said Chandra Diaz, an associate professor of teacher education. “We use the teacher shortage term very loosely, because there are actually enough people who have teaching certificates, but they are leaving the profession. We need to understand why that is.”
The UNK team, which also includes associate professor Aprille Phillips and assistant professor Chelsea Feusner from the Department of Educational Administration, is turning to the people who work in K-12 classrooms for answers.
They created a job satisfaction survey that gives educators a chance to voice their opinions while highlighting the things they like and dislike about their positions. The goal is to identify common problems that need to be addressed as well as the elements that create a positive workplace environment.
“Having this data about how teachers are feeling can give us some real insight into the day-to-day issues teachers are facing and help craft interventions that are more likely to be successful,” Eckerson explained.
More than 300 educators from across the ESU 10 service area provided responses. This information will be shared with school administrators and other stakeholders, providing insights into best practices and teacher retention strategies.
“Instead of competing with each other, we really want to incentivize that collaboration and collective problem-solving,” Eckerson said.
SUPPORTING YOUNG TEACHERS
The UNK/ESU 10 initiative also provides additional support, mentoring and professional development for teachers who recently started their careers.
Through the Early Career Educator Cohort program, teachers with less than five years of experience receive coaching from ESU 10 staff while developing a professional network. During virtual and in-person meetings, participants discuss topics such as classroom management, instructional strategies and student assessment, allowing them to learn from each other.
“The early years of teaching are some of the toughest. It’s really hard to be a new teacher,” Eckerson said. “When you create a community where other people understand that – they’re going through this with you – it validates the experience that you’re having and helps you build confidence. It’s encouraging to know that you’re working through this together.”
A total of 33 teachers are part of the program, including Luis Cordova, who joined last summer with the inaugural cohort.
The Scottsbluff native graduated from UNK in May 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in modern languages education and worked at Cozad Community Schools for a year before joining Kenesaw Public Schools, where he teaches 7-12 Spanish.
Cordova called teaching a challenging but rewarding career.
“There are days that are definitely difficult, but it helps when you have that support system and know there are people who are always rooting for you,” he said. “It’s also very satisfying for me to see my students’ progress from the beginning of the year to the end, watching them go from knowing only a few words in Spanish to writing full paragraphs. It’s something that builds little by little, and I don’t think the students realize how much they actually know.”
As a young teacher, Cordova is still learning, too.
Participants in the Early Career Educator program take nine credit hours of graduate courses through UNK, supported by a $2,100 scholarship that covers more than half of the tuition and fees. This includes an educational research course taken as a group, along with six credit hours in their chosen field.
Cordova is pursuing a master’s degree in Spanish education.
“Being able to study these concepts a little more in-depth has definitely made a difference in my classroom,” he said. “My first year, I don’t think I thought about my teaching and reflected enough. Now, I’m much more intentional when I’m developing curriculum and I’m looking for specific outcomes.”
Teachers spend about 15 months in the Early Career Educator Cohort, but the UNK team plans to follow their progress in the years ahead to track the program’s success.
As of now, Cordova plans to remain in the profession, either as a teacher or administrator, so he can inspire more young people to take a similar path.
“I want them to see themselves in my shoes and realize this is something they can do, too,” he said.
