Clint Duvo had difficulty finding a qualified candidate to teach his career planning class last year. So the principal of Somerset Academy Lakes Elementary and Sports Leadership and Management Middle School in Palm Beach, with more than 90 percent of their students on free or reduced-price lunch, decided to teach the class himself.
“It is a challenge to find people who … meet criteria in more than one subject matter,” he said.
Duvo is not alone. Like many traditional public schools, charter school principals are struggling to find teachers and retain them.
Charter officials say the problem has become worse in the past few years because fewer people are entering the teaching profession, the pay continues to be too low, and many are struggling to afford and pass the General Knowledge Test, one of three tests to become certified. Florida law requires teachers to become certified within three years of beginning teaching, but they must pass the General Knowledge Test after the first year.
There’s also the issue of competitive pay. Jane Watt, board chairwoman for Marco Island Academy, a charter in Collier County serving 230 students, said it is difficult when good teachers leave for higher pay. The school recently lost a math teacher who went back into the financial industry.
While the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools says it does not track data on teacher shortages in charter schools, many charter school officials in Florida say it is an ongoing struggle.
Dave Saba, chief development officer at Teachers of Tomorrow, sees the trend even in his own organization, which provides alternative certification for teachers and recruits professionals in other fields for teaching positions. At Teachers of Tomorrow, 2,500 applied for the program, but only 150 are participating this year.
Saba faces unique challenges, because of a six-month waiting period in Florida for his clients to receive their Statement of Eligibility, and his Florida teachers have a lower retention rate – 65 percent – than the 70 percent rate nationally.
But the certification requirements, which were toughened in 2015, appear to be affecting prospective teachers across the board.
The General Knowledge Test is comprised of four subtests: Essay, English Language Arts, Reading and Mathematics, each with a separate passing score requirement. According to the state Department of Education, in 2017, only 57 percent of teachers passed the math portion and 61 percent passed reading. Prior to the 2015 increase in the exam’s cut scores, 80 percent of teachers passed the math portion and 85 percent passed reading.
Somerset principal Duvo said the tougher tests pose a quandary.
“It is a double-edged sword,” Duvo said. “I want my teachers to be highly qualified and know the content. (But on the other hand), there is something wrong with the formula if that many people are not passing. What is that saying about our profession?”
More broadly, fewer adults are in the traditional pipeline to be teachers. In 2008, there were 9,012 students who completed education programs in the state of Florida. That number has fallen to 5,612 – a 38 percent drop.
Like Duvo and Watt, Idalia Suarez has been struggling with a shortage of teachers at Somerset City Arts Conservatory and Somerset Oaks Academy.
In the past year, she had to fill three vacancies at one school – representing 12.5 percent of her faculty. This proved difficult for the principal of more than 10 years, who had no substitutes available and no large pool of candidates.
She was able find replacements this time but remains concerned.
“I am constantly worried that the shoe is going to drop, and someone may leave, and I don’t have someone to fill the spot,” she said. “If I see a teacher leave, I don’t have someone of the caliber to replace that vacancy.”
The two Somerset schools over which Suarez presides are in South Florida and serve mostly underprivileged students, with 84 percent of them on free or reduced-price lunch.
“It is expensive to live in Miami and the compensation is not there,” Suarez said. Many “teachers can’t afford to live on their own. They must get another job. We are not drawing enough people to the field.”
Realizing she has little control over the pay, Suarez said she makes it a priority to work daily on the things she can control: Nurturing teachers and helping them to grow professionally. She explained many of her teachers transition to the field from other careers, so when they begin teaching, her school becomes the training ground.
“With teacher shortages, we should be removing barriers, not adding barriers, especially if the pool of candidates are career changers,” she said. “We should be able to streamline it and make it more efficient. We are in a crisis.”
William Staros, principal at Gulf Coast Charter Academy South in Naples, shares the same concerns.
He has one teacher who was rated highly effective in her end-of-year evaluation. Her students also scored high on the state test. But she struggles with the math section of the General Knowledge Test. If she is not able to pass the math exam, she will have to take a year off before she can reapply for another temporary certification, Staros said.
“It becomes a frustrating cycle,” he said. “There are teachers that have left the profession because it is so stressful. Some teachers we have hired on a long-term substitute status have taken the test three or four times.”
