Sun editorial:

Shortchanging students

More attention should be directed toward growing reliance on long-term substitutes

Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2008 | 2:09 a.m.

A trend that is raising concern among educators nationwide — heavy use by school districts of long-term substitute teachers — is well established locally and has been for years.

It is a trend that some researchers think is contributing to declining levels of academic achievement.

In Clark County, one of every 22 School District teachers on Aug. 25, the first day of classes, was a long-term substitute. Las Vegas Sun reporter Emily Richmond, writing for Saturday’s paper, reported that many of this semester’s long-term substitutes — 676 in all — do not have college degrees or specialized education in the subjects they are teaching.

It is impossible to pinpoint any one reason for this trend. A general shortage of certified teachers certainly accounts for part of the problem. Teachers who leave to earn higher salaries in the private sector is a factor. Growth and stretched school budgets, of course, play roles.

The upshot is that schools all over the country have teacher openings at the beginning of the school year, and are relying to greater degrees on filling those openings with substitutes. Some are very good but in total they lack the training to be as effective as full-time teachers.

Although it is not the most researched subject in education, what has been written about the growing use of long-term substitutes generally concludes that student achievement suffers.

Given this conclusion, parents should be notified at the beginning of each semester if their children are to be taught by a long-term substitute. The Clark County School District, however, is now following a policy of notifying only the parents of children who attend at-risk schools.

This raised some concern at Thursday’s School Board meeting. Member Carolyn Edwards argued that all parents need early notification, so they can more closely monitor their children’s progress. We agree.

Ultimately, however, Nevada and other states should begin focusing on ways to reduce the need for so many long-term substitutes.

Discussion: 4 comments so far…

By vsestini

9/3/08 at 5:16 a.m.

Suggest removal

The district continues to cry poor mouth and claim it cannot find certified teachers for each classroom, while administrators, supervisors, consultants and an assortment of specialists and deans roam the hallways of our schools.

The public should demand that the district, i.e. the Trustees and Walt Rulffes, give a give a full accounting of all administrative positions that have been created in the last five years. Who are they? What are their job descriptions? What are their salaries and benefit packages worth? A school district phone book lists approximately 3500 such positions all drawing large salaries; our students suffer without textbooks and certified teachers. This is an outrage that warrants a Grand Jury investigation of this district.

There is plenty of money for the Palace of the Kings on Sahara used to house superflous administrators, but not enough to hire teachers or purchase textbooks. Where are the priorities?

This district needs to save tons of money by firing excess administrators , 40-50% , and millions of dollars saved,could be eliminated and returned to the classroom today! Why won't the Trustees an Walt Rulffes face reality? If he can't or won't, then Fire him!
By KDR81

9/3/08 at 8:26 a.m.

Suggest removal

Even if they did have degrees they'd have to jump through unnecessary certification loops to get a full time job as a teacher.

Look, if you want more teachers make reduce the restrictions.

If you want higher quality teachers pay them more but be warned, the only way Nevada can afford to pay teachers significantly more (to get the cream of the crop rather than the bottom of the college graduate barrel) is to increase class sizes to get the biggest value for the buck.

Incidentally many students will perform better with a large class size taught by a highly skilled teacher than a small class size taught by a mediocre (if not worse) teacher.

Whatever you prefer, remember, you can’t have highly paid, highly qualified teachers, and small class sizes at the same time for the entire state. There simply aren’t enough dollars to support that. Period, end of story.
By pauli

9/3/08 at 7 p.m.

Suggest removal

The per pupil spend without new school construction, is the lowest in the country at CCSD. They need to use every effort available to cut costs.
What other ways do they use to save money. Like energy and operating costs savings through government approved projects. How are they trying to be green?
By starrynite7

9/4/08 at 6:14 a.m.

Suggest removal

We can save a ton of money if we check documentation of each student and make sure their parents are citizens of this country. We should not be spending time and money teaching children of illegals. Children should come to school proficient in English and parents should foot the bill to bring their children up to par. We would save money and time, not to mention resources if we just made the parents prove citizenship before we allow them in our schools. The United States has enough problems without taking on Mexico's illegals. We do not owe criminals anything.