Trying Times
A look into the state of education
Amy Renner Hendricks | Marketing & Communications
In ninth grade, Jennifer Graviet BA ’95 was voted Most Shy and Most Talkative. “Figure that out,” the self-described introvert says, laughing. It’s 4:15 p.m. at Sand Ridge Junior High in Roy, Utah. School has been out for an hour already, but Graviet, a ninth-grade English teacher, is still there. She usually arrives at 6 a.m. and leaves 12 hours later. She has her routine down; she’s been doing it for 22 years — at the same school.
“Most teachers don’t stay in junior high as long as I have, but my students, they’re so funny!” she says, her face brightening. “I did change rooms. I used to live across the street (the hallway), but this room became available, and it had windows!”
Two students — a boy and a girl — pop in and ask, “Do you need help with anything today?”
“That is so nice of you, but I don’t need help today,” Graviet answers, smiling. “Have you asked Mrs. Smith, the librarian? She always has projects.”
“We looked in the library, but she wasn’t home,” the boy says.
And the two students head out, in search of a teacher in need of assistance.
Graviet laughs — she does that often — and says, “See, they really do think we live here!”
Suddenly, the intercom switches on, and a man’s voice booms: “Good afternoon, Scorpions. If you are not with a teacher, please find your way to the nearest exit.” And in his best sports announcer voice, he adds, “Have a great afternoon, and stay ‘Scorpolicious!’”
Graviet chuckles. “That’s Chris Maag, our Spanish teacher,” she says. “What you just heard is a great example of a junior high school teacher’s personality. For me, there is nothing more enjoyable than this community.”
But as much as she loves her job and as good as she is at it — Graviet was a runner-up for the 2012 Utah Teacher of the Year award — she isn’t 100 percent sure she would recommend being a teacher. “A part of me would say, ‘Don’t do it,’” she says, crestfallen, whispering the words. “It’s just that so many teachers are exhausted and feel beaten down. Sometimes I feel like I’m mourning the profession I love.”
To explain what she means by that, Graviet compares her first year of teaching to her 22nd.
Teaching Then Versus Now
“When I started teaching English in 1995, we didn’t have standardized tests in English/language arts,” she says. “I’m not saying that extreme is great, but do you know how much we played, and how much we learned while we played?” she asks. “As a young teacher, I may not have known exactly what I was doing, but you know what I did do? I created a family and a culture of learning. Testing wasn’t always at the back of my mind. The only thing at the back of my mind was, ‘What am I going to do to make this lesson a really good learning experience for my kids?’”
Today, Graviet’s ninth-graders miss at least six periods of English in the spring, spending those sessions in the computer lab taking Student Assessment of Growth and Excellence (SAGE) tests, Utah’s comprehensive testing system. They take two periods to complete a reading test, two to complete an informative essay and two to complete an argumentative essay. Students also miss two periods of science and two periods of math for SAGE tests throughout the year.
It isn’t that Graviet is anti-testing — in fact, she uses the SAGE test as a tool to pinpoint where students need help — but she is opposed to the amount of testing required and the pressure it puts on both kids and teachers.
“Sometimes when we do something fun, but frivolous, the kids will ask, ‘Are we going to be tested on this?’” Graviet says. “Just last week we did some mad libs to lighten it up a bit, but even I was like, ‘OK, tomorrow we have to get back to work, we have to get back to it.’ As their teacher, I know what they’re going to be tested on, so we write informatively, we write argumentatively, but do we write creatively? Hardly ever, because it’s not going to help them on the test. And we want them to succeed — for themselves and because we, as teachers, know we will be judged on how they do.”
The T Word
Good or bad, testing is a reality in U.S. schools.
On the one hand, test scores, like Graviet says, give teachers and schools the ability to assess students better. Jack Rasmussen, dean of WSU’s Jerry & Vickie Moyes College of Education, laments not having today’s assessment tools when he was a teacher.
“Teachers are much more sophisticated in their ability to gather data and assess where their kids are,” says Rasmussen, who spent 10 years teaching, mostly at the junior high school level. “For example, I always knew my seventh-graders’ reading levels, but if I had a student who was reading at a fourth-grade level, I couldn’t always pinpoint the problem. Today’s data can help you do that.”
On the other hand, standardized tests don’t always accurately measure students’ abilities.
“We live in a world where numbers create an illusion of accuracy,” Rasmussen says. “In other words, ‘If you can put a number on it, it means something.’ Well, maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t.
“Our current structure says you can set a standard that everybody can reach, but that’s not true. Kids have different abilities and different learning curves. Even if they can meet the standard, they might not be able to meet it in the time frame given. That doesn’t mean that our schools are failing. It’s like someone deciding all babies should walk by 9 months old. That would never happen, but, for some reason, people think teachers can make it happen in academics.”
Deterring Future Teachers?
If, like Graviet fears, students aren’t enjoying school, why, she asks, would they want to become a teacher? It’s a question she ponders — often.
“When I first started teaching, I’d ask my students, ‘How many of you want to be teachers?’ And the majority of them would raise their hands. Now, not many do,” Graviet says. “I was trying to figure that out, so I thought back to when I was their age. I loved the way I felt in school — the learning, the discovery. I’m not sure kids today, even our very best students, love the way they feel in school. We’re definitely not going to create a new generation of teachers if students hate the way they feel in a classroom.”
She’s right. Enrollment in teacher education programs is dropping. Kristin Hadley, chair of WSU’s Department of Teacher Education, pulls up an enrollment graph on her computer. She looks at the figures and says, “It’s not good.”
From the fall of 2006 to the fall of 2015, the department has had a 24-percent decline in the number of students admitted to its programs, which include early childhood, elementary, secondary and special education.
The problem is not specific to Weber State.
Across Utah, enrollment in teacher preparation programs is declining. According to the 2015 Title II Reports on National Teacher Preparation Data, enrollment in teacher education programs at Utah’s 10 traditional programs (colleges and universities) decreased by 26 percent from 2012-13 to 2013-14.
“There are a number of factors that I think contribute to the enrollment decline,” Hadley explains. “On the positive side, women — and the majority of our students are women — are seeing more options career-wise than they did, say, 20 years ago, and that’s a good thing. On the other hand, when you become a teacher today, you are picking a career that is on the lower end of the pay scale. So, if you are the best and the brightest in your class, unless you just have a sincere passion for teaching, why would you choose that route?”
In addition to declining teacher education enrollments, licensed teachers are leaving the profession at alarming rates. The Utah State Office of Education reports that 42 percent of new teachers quit within five years.
Dale Payne, recruitment coordinator for the Moyes College of Education, says negative messages in the media are a contributing factor, in addition to low compensation, challenging student behaviors and lack of respect.
“Teachers are committed to their kids,” Payne says. “They love them like their own children and spend more time with them in many cases. The thought that somebody is going to hold your career and your livelihood hostage because you couldn’t reach one or two kids is a huge deterrent. And that happens.
You can get 38 out of 40 kids to do incredible work, but people are going to point to the two you couldn’t reach and call you a failure. Unfortunately, those are the messages we’re seeing out of education. People don’t look at the challenges those kids were facing outside school — perhaps it’s an issue of poverty or struggles in their home life — and that the teacher did everything they knew to do.”
Whatever the reason, the decline in teachers puts Utah on a dangerous trajectory.
Hadley calls up a PowerPoint presentation prepared by Utah’s Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel. “Look at this statistic,” she says. “By 2050, the state is expected to be educating 985,000 school-aged children, an increase of 64 percent from 2015. If enrollment in the state’s teacher education programs continue to decline and teachers continue to quit the profession, we’re in trouble.”
The Teacher Shortage
To address the shortage, the Utah State Board of Education, in 2016, unanimously adopted the Academic Pathway to Teaching (APT) rule, which provides individuals with an alternative method of teaching licensure.
The APT allows individuals who have bachelor’s degrees or higher from regionally accredited universities to become teachers after passing content knowledge tests. While the individual is not required to have classroom experience, the APT requires that any “Utah public school district or charter school that chooses to hire an individual holding this type of license must assign a master teacher as the individual’s mentor.”
A key word in the rule is “choose.” A spokesperson for the board described APT as “voluntary,” meaning school districts and schools are not required to hire someone with an APT license. The board supported the rule as a method to hire knowledgeable but nontraditional teachers for hard-to-fill spots and to allow those who didn’t major in education to have the option to consider public service in education.
Despite the board’s intention to help with the teacher shortage, the APT faced criticism from many teachers.
Rasmussen says he understands why.
“Take me, for example. The fact that I was good at math and could present it, didn’t mean all of my kids would learn it,” Rasmussen says. “If I were, say, teaching ratios, 60 percent of my kids might get it, but 40 percent might not. I would have to stop and think, ‘How do I get these kids to wrap their heads around it?’ The ones who are most at risk, teachers need to be prepared to help them the most. Without a teacher education background, I don’t think they’ll be prepared.”
Graviet is opposed to APT, which she made known during her campaign to win a seat on the Utah State Board of Education — yes, she ran for office, putting her introversion aside for the sake of students and schools, and won. On Jan. 12, 2017, she was sworn in as a member of the board, representing the 4th District, which includes parts of Weber and Davis counties.
“I don’t think we should be experimenting on our kids,” she says, referring to the APT. “I’m afraid what’s going to happen is that we’re going to make teaching a profession where even more people leave. If you have nothing in the game, you’re just coming in and trying it out, what’s going to keep you? For me, the kids keep me, obviously, but also the fact that I spent five years getting two teaching degrees, that I spent four years doing reading endorsements, that I spent two years doing a master’s degree in counseling. That’s 11 years! I’m invested.”
What Else Can Be Done?
The Moyes College of Education is also working to address the teacher shortage. In addition to its undergraduate and graduate degrees, Hadley says the college offers programs aimed at increasing the number of teachers, especially where they’re needed most, including special education and English as a Second Language (ESL).
WSU’s Project PRIME (Preparing Research-based Inclusive Multidisciplinary Educators) helps increase the number of teachers working with students with disabilities. The program is available to those who have bachelor’s degrees and who already are working in local charter and public schools assisting students with mild to moderate disabilities. It is funded by a grant through the Utah State Board of Education.
Weber State’s TAPT (Teacher Assistant Pathway to Teaching) is a program that helps teacher assistants become licensed teachers. Originally created in response to critical shortages of ESL teachers, the program has been expanded to include any teacher assistant working in the schools. The TAPT program has a 96 percent graduation rate, resulting in a Utah State teaching license, and is fully funded by private donations.
The Moyes College also offers three graduate certificates in elementary teaching, secondary teaching and special education for students who want to be teachers but received bachelor’s degrees in fields other than education.
On a Positive Note
Yes, there are challenges, but at the end of the day, teachers can make a difference, and that’s what we should be focusing on, Payne says.
“Weber State created an inspiring video where we asked students to name the last three Oscar winners for Best Actress and the last three NFL MVPs. They didn’t do so hot,” Payne says, laughing. “But when we asked them to name three teachers who had an impact on them, it was easy.
“That’s the thing about education. We just sat here for an hour talking about all of the challenges surrounding education, but the moment you asked us who our favorite teacher was — mine was Mrs. Cashman, fourth grade — the whole weight of the room got lighter, our faces brightened. Why? Because teachers are incredibly important to us. That’s why we need to fight the negativity. That’s why we need to stand up for education.”
