Teacher shortages are projected to hit Virginia and Maryland in the coming decade as nearly half the educators now in classrooms reach retirement age.
But school districts locally are expected to be buffered by a healthy supply of young educators.
6.2 million: Number of teachers in the United States
71: Percentage of K-12 teachers who are women
17: Percentage of K-12 teachers under the age of 30
82: Percentage of teachers who are white
8: Percentage of teachers who are black
6: Percentage of teachers who are Hispanic
3: Percentage of teachers who are Asian(Data collected from the U.S. Census, 2004)
Nationwide, more than half of teachers are older than of 50 and nearing retirement, according to a recent report by the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, a nonprofit research advocacy group. In Maryland and Virginia, 47 percent are past that milestone.
In Montgomery County, however, less than a third of teachers are older than 50, and the average age is 42. Fairfax County shares an average teacher age of 42, but did not have data immediately available about the percentage older than 50. In the District, 43 percent of teachers are older than 50, according to school system statistics.
Around the nation, however, the report predicts the 2010-2011 school year will see the peak of baby boomer retirements, and too few young teachers will be available to take their place.
By 2020, more than half of today’s teachers could be gone, the report’s authors said, partly because of a nationwide retention rate of 50 percent for teachers in their first five years of the profession.
Fairfax schools are in line with that trend: Exactly half of the system’s teachers hired in 2003 left by the end of the 2007-2008 school year. But in Montgomery County, only about 35 percent left the profession before completing five years in the classroom. In D.C., statistics on one-year retention show that about one in four teachers hired in 2007 did not return in 2008.
Those better-than-average trends, however, still allow room for some worries.
Tom Israel, executive director of the Montgomery County teachers union, said that despite the school system’s efforts to hang on to young teachers, the number of those who quit is too high.
“The workload and time demands are such that people just burn out,” Israel said. “Just giving young teachers a mentor hasn’t always been enough to keep them when the demands are so high.”
Donna Wiseman, dean of the College of Education at the University of Maryland, keeps her eye on districts farther afield than the D.C. suburbs, and worries about places where young people are less likely to migrate.
“Right now many older teachers are afraid to retire because of the economic downturn,” Wiseman said. “But as soon as the economy starts to come back, there are going to be some huge shortages.”
