What's the state of the teacher shortage in FXBG-area school divisions?
Vacancy rate is below state average in City, Stafford and Spotsylvania, but above in more rural Caroline and King George.
by Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
The teacher shortage looks different in some Fredericksburg-area school divisions than it does in others, according to data for the current school year released by the state last month.
The area’s more-urban school divisions have lower teacher vacancy rates than the state average, while the rural divisions of Caroline and King George seem to be having a tougher time filling open positions.
Overall, the teacher vacancy rate in Virginia schools is 3.9%, about the same as last year. But in Fredericksburg City, it’s just 1%—with only 2.3 vacant teaching positions out of 244.6. This is down from an 8.1% vacancy rate last year.
Stafford and Spotsylvania’s teacher vacancy rates are also below the state average, at 3.1% and 3%, respectively. Stafford has 72.7 vacant teaching positions out of 2,368.9, and Spotsylvania has 53 vacant positions out of 1,776.9.
Spotsylvania’s teacher vacancy rate is down from 7.6% last year. Stafford’s is up slightly, from 2.8%.
But the teacher vacancy rate in Caroline County is 15.7%. Out of 266.8 instructional positions, 42 are unfilled.
According to the division’s human resources director, Karen Foster, salary and commute time and distance were the top two reasons employees gave for leaving the division in their exit interviews.
“The majority of respondents indicated they had a good or very good overall experience working for Caroline County Public Schools,” Foster wrote in an email to the Advance.
The teacher vacancy rate in King George County is also higher than the state average—5.2%. There are 16 vacant teaching positions out of 305.99.
In order to monitor the status of the teacher shortage, legislation passed in 2020 requires school boards to report annually the number of teacher and support staff vacancies in the school division. Data collection began in the 2022-23 school year.
The Virginia Department of Education has used the data to identify “critical shortage areas.” For this year, schools are dealing with a critical shortage of special education, preschool and elementary education and middle school education teachers, as well as Career Technical Education teachers, and math and science teachers.
Locally, the highest vacancy rate in special education is also in Caroline, where 24% of special education teaching positions not assigned to a specific course or grade level are vacant. The next highest is Stafford at 12.2%, followed by King George at 11.7% and Spotsylvania at 10.7%.
According to the VDOE data, Fredericksburg City has no unfilled special education teaching positions in this category.
In elementary education, Caroline County is short seven of 13 early childhood education teaching positions and is short at least two full-time teachers at all grade levels.
Spotsylvania has at least three vacant full-time teaching positions at all elementary grade levels except for fifth grade, which is short just one.
Stafford has 13 unfilled kindergarten teacher positions out of 97.
Editor’s note: Stafford school division spokeswoman Sandra Osborn offered the following clarification on the division’s vacancy numbers: “There is a quirk in the way that our data is stored, and the way the state data system works, that caused ALL of our elementary general education vacancies to show up as kindergarten. The more accurate figure is 13 vacancies out of 590 elementary classroom positions (slightly above 2 percent).”
King George has one unfilled second grade position, one unfilled fourth grade position and two unfilled fifth-grade positions.
Fredericksburg is only short one third-grade teacher and one fifth-grade teacher.
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Be careful with these numbers for Spotsylvania. They aren't telling the whole story. There are vacancies being filled by non-teachers (interim teachers). At last night's meeting it was noted that the vacancy rate would be over 5% if the interim teachers were considered vacancies. There are long-term substitutes, as well, that weren't mentioned.
Please excuse any typos; I couldn't scroll back up to review my comment from my phone.
Always read the fine print and look for spin. Data may not always be what it appears at first glance.
We expect our attorneys to be fully licensed, right? Our physicians? Our hairdressers? Our plumbers? But we're asked to accept that public teacher licensure is optional?
What we, the general public and those who are of the belief that public education is vital, are being asked to do is to recognize the problem, a teacher shortage, but rather than solving the problem we're being asked to lower standards and hope for the best. We're expected to accept that students are being taught by those who may not even hold an bachelor's degree. Interim teachers in SCPS are only required to have an associate's degree or the equivalent of two years of college, They are not required to be licensed or even just a few months away from full licensure. We're to expect long-term subs and interim teachers as the norm rather than a temporary solution. We in Spotsylvania are asked to accept that the district has partnered with a private Christian university to fast track master's degrees. Who's willing for their physician not to have a medical degree or a professional license? Who wants a nurse practitioner without documentation of a professional license?
We're told that mentors will be working with those unlicensed and in some cases undereducated people teaching our students. Mentors (licensed and currently employed teachers) are great and necessary for all beginning teachers but it's not an easy job and possibly more difficult when the mentee doesn't have basic professional training. We're to accept and expect our already overworked and underpaid career teachers to add another very time-consuming and difficult task to their already full plates and not blink an eye or produce anything but high student test scores. Yes, mentors are compensated, but not nearly enough for their professional experience or for the amount of work mentoring requires (while simultaneously working their full time teaching job). We're to accept that mentors who volunteer (or I suspect are often "voluntold") to assume this great responsibility aren't doing it for "the pay." What could go wrong?
Rather than dig deep as to WHY we have a teacher shortage we're willing to turn our collective heads and further disrespect the professional training and education of career teachers. Rather than acknowledge that teachers are leaving the field because of high professional and personal demands, lack of support and general respect, and pay so low that they often have to have second or third jobs to afford housing and basic needs for their families, we've decided to lower standards for professional employment and put the onus on the shoulders of the current professionals who have stayed in the trenches. Again, what could go wrong?
Until we as a nation commit to respect and PAY our public school educators what they're worth and demand that our public schools are staffed by licensed and prepared teachers, we're most likely not going to have the results we need.
What does that require? Funding. What does that mean? In Virginia it means putting pressure on local and state lawmakers. In Spotsylvania our local purse strings come from the board of supervisors. We need them to stop making excuses and engaging in political pandering and fund our public schools. Will that happen? I'm going to follow the advice of my licensed physician and not hold my breath.