China News Service, September 23. According to a report on the 22nd of the US Chinese network, public schools across the United States have been facing a shortage of teachers for many years, especially in mathematics, science, special education and language, but the new crown epidemic has exacerbated this problem.
Under the epidemic, teaching pressure has triggered a peak of teacher retirement and resignation.
Schools need to hire staff such as tutors and special assistants, and more teachers are needed to provide online courses for students.
Data map: On May 15, 2020 local time, Mills High School in San Mateo County, Northern California, USA ushered in a special graduation season. Graduates drove or drove to different stations arranged by the school staff to complete the book return. The students did not have direct contact with the staff during the entire process of payment and receipt of graduation items.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Liu Guanguan
According to reports, the states of Tennessee, New Jersey and South Dakota in the United States are experiencing shortages of teachers and lack of staff. One area has 120 teacher vacancies at the beginning of school.
In Texas, Houston, Waco and other major school districts reported hundreds of teacher vacancies in early 2021.
In addition, several schools across the country had to reduce their teaching scale due to lack of teachers.
In Michigan, Eastpointe Community School suddenly announced the restart of distance learning this week because there were not enough teachers.
This school district in northern Detroit has 43 vacancies, accounting for a quarter of its teaching staff.
Spokesperson Caitlin said that in order to avoid sending unqualified substitute teachers, the school district can only switch to online courses.
An unavailable California school district put the flyer in the student’s lunch box so that parents could see the “hiring” advertisement.
In some places, the principal himself acts as the traffic coordinator for the students, and the teachers receive bonuses for signing contracts.
Linda Hammond, chairman of the California Board of Education, said: "The lack of teachers is indeed a national problem, and it is definitely a serious problem for California." A school district in Costa County, West Contra, California is considering hiring out-of-state The mathematics teacher conducts online teaching, while the substitute teacher supervises the students in class.
California’s largest school district, the Los Angeles Unified School District with 600,000 students, has more than 500 teacher vacancies, a five-fold increase from previous years.
The school tries to fill the vacancies with substitute teachers, but they are also in short supply.
According to a June survey of 2,690 members of the American Education Association, 32% said that the epidemic prompted them to plan to leave their teaching posts earlier than expected.
Another survey conducted by the RAND Corporation stated that the epidemic has aggravated the loss, burnout and stress of teachers. The probability that teachers often feel work-related stress is almost twice that of other industries, and the probability of suffering from depression is almost three times that of other industries.