Diane Hirshberg and Dayna DeFeo joined Steve Heimel of KYUK Bethel for a discussion on rural education in Alaska earlier this month. Hirshberg is the director of ISER and DeFeo is the director of ISER’s Center for Alaska Education Policy Research (CAEPR).
DeFeo talked about a current project looking at the role of policy and incentives for improving teacher retention rates in Alaska. She observed that in most places in Alaska and in the Lower 48, “we are in a perfect storm where we don’t have enough teachers.” Fewer people are going into teacher preparation programs in the Lower 48, where Alaska has traditionally recruited. There is high demand and diminishing supply, with competition for teachers within the state and other states as well. “We hope what we find will be meaningful and relevant, and that communities can take those findings and act on them in each of their unique locations,” DeFeo said.
Additionally, there are significant issues around teacher compensation that can’t be addressed until the state looks at the broader question of how we invest in our schools, Hirshberg said. “The school foundation formula has not been looked at carefully. There a lot of positives about how it distributes funds equitably, but the amount of money we are putting in in order to distribute it has not been explored carefully.”
Pay isn’t the only factor affecting teacher retention. CAEPR studies have found that working conditions and the degree to which teachers feel supported by administrators and parents can also cause them to leave a job in one community for another. Community members may assume a new teacher is only there for a few years, and so may not want to invest time into building a relationship. When that happens, the teacher doesn’t feel supported and may leave earlier than expected. Although no one individual is to blame, Hirshberg said it’s a vicious cycle that keeps repeating.
DeFeo and Hirshberg also addressed the issue of facilities, best practices in teaching and learning, and gave kudos to parents, teachers and administrators for the difficult work they’ve done over the last two pandemic years.
