Insights into the Teacher Shortage Crisis
in the Clark County School District

The shortage of teachers in the Clark County School District of Las Vegas, Nevada is profound; they don’t have enough teachers to teach the children enrolled, causing classroom overcrowding and staffing issues.  Because of this issue schools, teachers, and students are being stretched too thin to make ends meet in their current schools and the children aren’t getting the attention and education they need and deserve.  The cost of inaction on this issue will the worsening of what is currently happening in schools throughout the valley; overcrowding and understaffing of classrooms and hurting the educational opportunities of all the students involved.  As of July 26th, 2021, only two weeks before the school year started, there were 656 vacant teaching positions in the district with over 300,000 students enrolled for the school year. (White, 2021, July)  This issue deserves the utmost attention and demands immediate action.

Related Literature Review

             In my literature review of the issue of advocating for the issue off filling the teacher vacancies in the Clark County School District in Las Vegas, NV, I uncovered the fact that isn’t just a local problem unique to just this school district; it is a national crisis that needs addressed as soon as possible.  I uncovered statistics that are extremely ominous for the future of education, but at the same time solutions to the problem that gave hope for the future.

Historical and National Context

As the article I read on the national Shortage of teachers on University.com, Top 5 States with the Highest Teacher Shortages 2021, Sarah Harris pointed out that for years, the public education system has dealt with sweeping teacher shortages and vacancies. The staffing issues tend to affect some states more than others, but most jurisdictions have difficulty hiring and retaining employees. (Harris, 2021)  The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) projects there will be a demand for approximately 300,000 new teachers nationwide and a supply of just over 100,000 by 2024. (Harris, 2021)  Of all the 50 states in the United States of America, California, Nevada (where I currently reside),  Washington, Arizona, and Hawaii.   As Harris went on to discuss, these states had many different positions especially in need; mathematics, science, and special education among the most pressing.  Clark County Schools, my local school district is no different, they have just been using other methods to deal with these problems, but they too seem to be running out of options.

Local Context

Another article I read, Combating teacher shortages: What CCSD teachers hope will change in another pandemic school year, Clark County School District is using long-term substitutes to fill some of the void from not having enough full-time teachers.  As they are seeing, going to that well to often is possibly doing more harm than good.  According to the article, in the 2019 to 2020 school year, CCSD's fill rate was over 82%. A fill rate is the percentage of teacher absences requiring a substitute that were in fact filled by a substitute. (White, 2021, September)  Due to COVID protocol adopted this year, and other factors as well, the average daily fill rate dropped to 62.4%, upon returning to in person instruction this school year, the district's fill rate took a nosedive. (White, 2021, September)

Solutions

Upon further research, I found articles offering hope to solving the problem of filling schools with eligible, salaried, full-time teachers.  In his article, Program offers new path into classroom amid teacher shortage, D. Anderson explores an alternative route to licensure to become one, offered in the state of Colorado.  Typically, a teacher would go to school for several years and attain an bachelor’s degree in Education while a student teaching program before seeking a job in a public school. But with the alternative license program, overseen by the State Board of Education and the Colorado Department of Education, someone with a bachelor’s degree who can prove competence in a particular subject, exams or credit hours, to start teaching right away. (Anderson, 2021)
Similarly to this method of attaining teaching licensure, Arizona State University is teaching a revolutionary way of filling gaps in education departments, as I am witnessing first hand in this class right now.  ASU Preparatory Academy and Mesa Public Schools have noticed positive changes in the learning environment after piloting new learning models created by the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University. (Pedrosa, 2021) The Mary Lou Fulton Teacher’s College, which I am a proud student at, has unveiled its team teaching model.  It is a model they have created and implemented creates cohorts of students with similar academic goals and skills who learn from a group of educators working together to create a more personalized schedule for their students. (Pedrosa, 2021)  The teachers involved in the team teaching program have articulated approval and actually enjoyment in participating in the groundbreaking innovation in education.

Servant Leadership

The class presentation defines leadership as a process whereby an individual a group of individuals to achieve a common goal.  The presentation went on to discuss different models of leadership including the trait approach, skills approach, behavioral approach, authentic, transformational, and last but not least servant leadership.  They numerous ways that this model of leadership ties in to my educational advocacy issue is that a basic principal of advocacy is communication.  The servant leadership model depends primary on and fosters communication between leaders and followers.

Furthermore, the class text defines servant leadership as a leadership style and philosophy whereby an individual interacts with others, fellow workers or management, to achieve authority rather than power, including vital practices in communication such as listening, empathy, awareness, healing, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of people, and building community.

My Preferred Leadership Model

The leadership I pride myself in favoring would be the authentic leadership style.  Forbes magazine defines authentic leaders as being self-actualized individuals who are aware of their strengths, their limitations, and their emotions. (Krause, 2013) It is very clear to me where my strengths and weaknesses lie, and I am not afraid to ask for help or seek support from an individual or group that knows more about something than I do.  The article by Krause went on to describe authentic leaders as those who show their real selves to their followers, who do not act one way in private and another in public, or hide their mistakes or weaknesses out of fear of looking weak. (Krause, 2013). I would define myself in a very similar way, even overly self-deprecating at times, honest to a fault, but at the same time lead from my heart, mission driven, with the big picture always in mind.  These attributes of being an authentic leader will allow me to sink my passion into this project and bolster my legitimacy as an advocate, in anything I choose to champion.

I WILL BE THE EPITOME THE SERVANT LEADERSHIP STYLE.

Servant Leadership Themes chosen: Empathy,  Self-awareness,  Persuasion,  Foresight

Insight Statements

Empathy:  In order to assess the negative impacts on students' learning environments, one must consider and gather input from the students' experiences, perspectives and needs.  Taking that into account, the biggest problem facing the education system in the Clark County School District that will have the most negative impact on student’s learning environments for years is the shortage of teachers; this crisis will only exacerbate the overcrowding of class rooms and teacher to student ratios, only hurting the students.

Self-Awareness:  My chosen leadership style, the authentic leadership model, will allow me to be taken seriously as an advocate and have my passion seen as formidable strength in my advocate tool box. 

Foresight:  Understanding the impact this staffing crisis will have on current and future students, after graduating from Arizona State University in December I will fill one of the hundreds of vacancies as a full time teacher so I will be able to see this project through and actively play a part in fixing the problems of understaffing and teacher/student ratio, but continue to advocate for more people pursuing teaching careers in the Clark County School District.

Persuasion:  Through my unique skill, I will use my strong knack at interpersonal communication and my highly approachable personality to advocate for and inform people of the process to become and the benefits of being a public school teacher in Las Vegas, NV.