Hope for new teachers coming?

Teacher retirement tsunami is coming

In the next 10 years, the United States will lose half of its teachers to retirement, says a national report released this morning. And that spike, coupled with growing numbers of young teachers leaving the professions, means schools should immediately and dramatically re-think their current staffing models, the report says.

Instead of leaving teachers in isolation, schools should find ways to create “learning teams” that have new teachers, teacher mentors and teacher retirees working in unison, says the report from the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future.

“First time teachers have been leaving the classroom in record numbers,” Tom Carroll, the group’s president and the report’s author, said in a press release. “And now we are about to be hit by a massive wave of retirements. We need to face facts and recognize that the supply of teachers is collapsing at both ends.”

“We can’t recruit our way out of this problem,” the report says.

In 18 states, more than half of all public school teachers are more than 50 years old, the report says. In Florida, the figure is 49.4 percent. The average teacher retirement age is 59.

I read this the other day on a blog that tracks my area's education news. And to be perfectly honest this gave me hope. I know this is ridiculous but there are too many days when I am afraid that I will never find a teaching job. But this article makes me glad I am finishing my master's and will be prepared for the future.

There may be hope for me after all!