How Concerned Are You?

In this episode I share some of my concerns about the future of education and ask that you join me for a conversation on the topic.

  • Welcome back to another episode of the

    csk8 podcast my name is jared o'leary

    each week of this podcast is usually a

    solo episode where i unpack some

    scholarship in relation to computer

    science education or an episode with a

    guest or multiple guests in this week's

    particular episode i want to do

    something a little bit different the

    point of this is to try and initiate

    some kind of dialogue around some

    concerns that i've been seeing in cs

    education and just education at large so

    this is the first episode that i've

    recorded since csta national conference

    happened over the summer and first of

    all i gotta say thank you to everyone

    who said they listened to the podcast i

    really appreciate it i was averaging

    about four hours of sleep each night at

    the conference after having gotten back

    from a 15 hour time zone difference i

    was pretty tired but hopefully through

    my sleepiness i was able to at least

    convey that i really did appreciate

    everybody coming up and chatting with me

    about the podcast and cs education in

    general if you want to be a guest on the

    show please let me know there's a

    contact me button on my website at

    jaredoleary.com and those conversations

    at csta national in chicago and then the

    following week when i was in wyoming one

    of the things that i was asking other cs

    educators was what their thoughts were

    on the future of the field not just cs

    education but also the field of

    education at large and i gotta be honest

    with you i didn't really get many

    optimistic responses from people and i

    keep asking this question hoping that

    somebody has some optimism to share

    because everything that i'm reading

    honestly gives me some concerns for the

    future so for some quick numbers you can

    just search for teacher shortage you'll

    find news articles several a day coming

    out but at the moment of this recording

    there are 28 000 fewer public school

    teachers than there were before the

    pandemic right now florida has over 8

    where i live has over 2 000 jobs open

    illinois is reporting that 88 of

    districts have a teacher shortage right

    now dallas has over a thousand unfilled

    openings three out of four educators

    wouldn't actually recommend this

    profession to others myself kind of

    being one of those i have a lot of

    caveats for anyone who's interested in

    going into education i'm like okay well

    here are some things you got to consider

    it's great teaching kids but and then

    long list of things three out of four

    educators also say that kids are more

    difficult now than they ever have been

    especially before the pandemic and they

    often report that parents and sometimes

    even admin will defend the kids instead

    of believing the teachers eighty percent

    of teachers indicate that burnout is a

    problem in the field is one of the

    reasons why i ask question on interviews

    with different guests i'll ask how they

    try and stave off burnout and in

    september there's going to be a super

    cut just like there have been for the

    last two years of suggestions for

    preventing burnout more than 50 percent

    of educators are planning on leaving the

    field earlier than they originally

    intended when they first

    started teaching and then others are

    saying okay well we might not have a

    problem right now with teacher shortage

    instead we're going to have a teacher

    surplus in a few years because of

    falling birth rates now there's a lot of

    different reasons being floated around

    in terms of why is it that the field of

    education feels so doom and gloom right

    now part of is just like general lack of

    respect for educators we're often

    treated as babysitters there's a lot of

    monitoring going on and policies being

    put into place to prevent educators from

    engaging in culturally relevant and

    ethical pedagogical practices the pay is

    low for example when i was teaching in

    the classroom they counted nine years of

    teaching experience two of which were at

    the university level and then the rest

    were at k-6 and k-8 schools they counted

    a phd even though i was finishing up the

    dissertation and yet i made less than 45

    there's the high-stakes testing where

    some schools will have like a few weeks

    worth of testing throughout the year so

    the thing that like most educators i

    speak with go into the field for the

    actual you know teaching facilitating

    stuff like that happens so infrequently

    because they're having to do all these

    tests now to try and like incentivize

    people actually staying in the field or

    joining a district there's a bunch of

    signing bonuses being offered in some

    districts some like in california are

    actually providing subsidized housing

    they're trying to increase the pay and

    again it's still low some districts are

    providing four day school weeks and then

    others like in my home state are trying

    to lower the qualifications of what it

    means to be an educator so for example

    in florida they're making us so that hey

    if you've been a veteran for x number of

    years then you can start teaching even

    if you've never had any classroom

    teaching experience in arizona they're

    saying now hey you don't even have to

    finish your degree you can start

    teaching without one they've even made

    it so that for several years now it's

    the principal who determines whether or

    not you're highly qualified so you

    actually don't even need a teaching

    certificate to teach in arizona which is

    funny because i could not get a full

    elementary teaching license in arizona

    because i never took a phonics class it

    doesn't matter how long my cv is which

    is linked to on my website what matters

    to the department of education is that i

    have to take a phonics class and for the

    cherry on top with that it wouldn't tell

    me which courses counted towards that

    credit until i completed the course and

    submitted the transcript so even if i

    signed up for and completed a course it

    might not actually count towards that

    credit that i am apparently missing so

    needless to say i don't have my

    elementary teaching certificate anymore

    because that's just absurd and in

    arizona again it's the principal who

    determines whether or not you're highly

    qualified or not and some districts

    across the country like some of the ones

    that i know in arizona are actually

    recruiting and hiring teachers from

    outside of the country to try and fill

    these teacher gaps these shortages are

    having an impact on so many educators

    like there's a cs educator that i'm

    working with who had so many teacher

    shortages throughout the school year

    that they rarely were able to actually

    teach their high school cs classes

    because they're constantly having to

    cover the core classes like ela or math

    or whatever so even if you are teaching

    in a school you might not actually teach

    the subject areas that you're hired to

    teach like cs education so i guess like

    broadly speaking what i'm hoping to do

    is start a conversation around this and

    i'm actually posting a discussion forum

    post about this in csta's virtual

    community and it shares the same title

    as this episode and i'll include a link

    to it directly in the show notes which

    again is at jaredaler.com or you can

    just click the link in the app that

    you're listening to this on now

    questions that i have are how concerned

    are you regarding the future of the

    field both in terms of cs education in

    k-12 spaces and then k-12 education in

    general but also how concerned are you

    about the state of education in your

    school district state country etc every

    location is going to be different so

    while your district might be great what

    about in other counties or in other

    states what actions can we as

    individuals or as a field do to mitigate

    your concerns about the future of the

    field is this outside of our control or

    are there things that we can control and

    act upon to try and improve things and

    then also what's something you're

    optimistic about for the future of

    education i don't want to just end on

    bummer notes hopefully somebody's got

    something that they can share that's a

    positive or that they're optimistic

    about but i'm also interested for the

    teachers who are leaving where are they

    going like i know many who have gone

    into real estate and become realtors i

    know others like myself who are not

    working in the classroom but are working

    in education non-profits and then how do

    they feel shortly after the transition

    and then what about years after leaving

    having spoken with so many different

    educators around the country and around

    the world many people are just leaving

    education altogether and in cs education

    in particular the incentives especially

    related to pay and whatnot are much

    larger than some other domains so for

    example my phd's in music education

    being a music educator generally

    speaking can be more lucrative and more

    stable income than just being a

    performer for many people but if you are

    a software developer you could double

    triple quadruple your pay and maybe even

    have better benefits depending on where

    you're at so i'm honestly concerned not

    just for the shortages but also just

    seeing so much turnover in different

    districts across the nation but i want

    to know what you think so i'll include a

    link to the discussion forum post on

    csta's virtual community in the show

    notes and then what i'd like to do is if

    people respond to that is i want to be

    able to read off some of the responses

    in an upcoming episode to kind of help

    amplify the conversation both in terms

    of here are my concerns or here are

    potential actions we can take or here

    are some things i'm optimistic about so

    hopefully this episode kind of sparked

    some dialogue and honestly i hope it

    lowers some of the concerns that i've

    got but i know this was a different

    episode i appreciate you taking the time

    to listen to it and hopefully responding

    in the virtual community and again thank

    you to everyone that i spoke with at

    both the csta conferences in wyoming and

    in chicago again apologies for being so

    tired july was a rough month at two of

    her three dogs die i was only getting a

    few hours of sleep etc etc but i'm

    finally back to recording episodes after

    having not recorded any since like june

    something so thank you so much for

    listening please consider sharing this

    with somebody else stay tuned next week

    for another episode until then i hope

    you're all staying safe and are having a

    wonderful week



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