The Teacher Shortage: Another Thought

 Here is a thought on how we might minimize the negative impact of the teacher shortage on today's students:   

Why not encourage States to make a policy that allows retired teachers to teach up to 2 class sections per semester in our high schools without endangering their existing retirement income?  Not all retirees would be interested, but there surely are teachers who would be willing to help--and earn some extra money-- by teaching one or two courses per semester or by providing other professional support.

 At the same time, we need to acknowledge that some uses of new technology--things that we did during the Pandemic to keep learning active for our students--will find permanent homes in our educational environment.  For instance, in higher education, we have already begun to see universities using e-learning to share specialized curricula in areas such as agriculture, geographic information systems, and other areas.   In the U.S. Midwest we have the example of the Great Plains IDEA (Interactive Distance Education Alliance)  through which multiple state universities are sharing responsibility for teaching undergraduate and master's level specialties.  This opens new possibilities for school districts within a State to share junior and senior-level courses at the high school level.  

Another way to increase the teaching capacity of our high schools is to partner with area higher education institutions to offer online "dual enrollment" courses,  in which high school students can earn both high school graduation and college credit.

The online eLearning environment has been with us now for over a quarter of a century.  It is increasingly a mature, well-supported learning environment at institutions that have taken it seriously.  Now is the time to consider how to fully integrate it to ensure that students have access to the kind of learning that will prepare them for postsecondary and workplace success.