STEM fields are in high demand, and that creates a tangle of problems for schools.
Students want courses in STEM subjects and companies and government agencies want graduates coming out of high school and college with strong foundations in STEM areas.
To meet that demand, schools are trying to hire more STEM teachers. But their skill sets also make them attractive employees in the private sector, where jobs often offer better pay and benefits than schools.
What is a principal to do?
Get creative, say Monica Asher and Allison Persad, two high school principals hailing from Ohio and New York, respectively.
Both principals have been grappling with STEM teacher shortages for years. Asher is the principal of Olentangy Orange High School outside of Columbus, and Persad is the principal of The Young Women’s Leadership School of Astoria in New York City. They shared tips on how to recruit and retain STEM teachers.
The following responses have been edited for length and clarity.
What are some of the biggest challenges in recruiting and retaining STEM teachers?
Persad: Finding folks who are coming in with [experience] from the industry is difficult. What schools tend to do, like myself, is think about ways to train teachers who are current teachers with the interest. We’ve had, for example, humanities or ELA [English/language arts] teachers, folks that are technically out of content [areas] but have interest in learning, and we’ll send them to training programs, certification programs.
What we found, however, is that folks, once they get the training, they then tend to leave for private-sector jobs and remote jobs.
A lot of it comes down to the salary. “Why would I stay in this profession that is not nearly paying me enough? I don’t have any work-from-home flexibility.” Which I think the pandemic gave everybody sort of like a sweet taste of.
Asher: My previous [high] school where I was the principal had only about 600 students. So, if I were answering this in my previous position, it would be a totally different conversation. Certainly, school size, access to resources, where a school is located impacts all of these things significantly.
Being in a large district with four high schools, the benefit is that we’re able to share resources. Let’s say there is a shortage of a specific type of candidate. I would say physics teachers are often tough to find; computer science teachers are very tough to find. But when you’re in a large district, you can have staff that travel from building to building.
When do you start the recruiting process for STEM teachers?
Asher: In my previous district, we had a nationally recognized computer science program. And the teacher of that program won a national mathematics teaching award. When we knew she was going to retire, it was something that we talked about three years in advance of her retirement so that we could plan far ahead to make sure that we had a good candidate in that position.
Persad: We put in a digital media program where students can learn everything from podcasting to filmmaking to photography. Finding the right media teacher has been something that has taken at least five years.
What I did is I had a former student who went into the world of journalism and media. She’s actually been nominated for Emmy [awards], and I’ve stayed in touch with her over the years. She’s now decided she wants a more regular job as she’s settling into marriage and possibly children. I said to her, “my dream is for you to eventually come back to teach at Astoria.” She wasn’t ready five years ago [or] three years ago. Finally, this year, I’ve convinced her to come back as a teacher. She’s now going to run my media lab.
How do you create a workplace that attracts and keeps STEM talent?
Persad: Everyone wants to be on a winning team. It’s your school being able to tell your story well through both social media as well as your school website and word of mouth. A lot of my best teachers have brought on really incredible people to the team. Allowing teachers to be flexible and create and design things that are meaningful to them [attracts] folks that are like, “oh wow, that sounds so cool. I can come up with an idea and you’ll support me through it.” That’s the best way to recruit and [keep teachers]. And that word spreads pretty quickly.
Another thing that schools have to do, and leaders have to do, is write grants and network, reach out to politicians and get the funding in order to bring in these programs [like robotics] that are going to attract teachers.
What role can partnerships with businesses and other school districts play?
Asher: Planning ahead, that’s been a big one. If you can plan ahead, you can develop some sort of internship model where maybe you are partnered with local businesses and someone who works in the private sector can get an alternative pathway to get their teaching license. There are alternative licensure pathways, but for a person to be able to finish that and then be able to teach, it does take some time.
Looking at how you share resources. When I worked at Avon Lake [Schools in Ohio], we wanted to run the International Baccalaureate program, but it is very expensive and we just did not have the resources. We partnered with Rocky River school district and Westlake school district, so all three of us joined together to [pool] the students for the program. If a partnership with another district is not an option, then absolutely partnering with industry and seeing if there are ways that you can provide an alternative pathway for licensure.
