No Substitute for Quality - efforts of school districts to hire and retain substitute teachers

School Administrator, Jan, 2001 by Alexander Russo

School leaders try pay incentives, consortiums and temp firms to fill their thirst for substitute teachers

The worst day in Bob Minthom's administrative career was Nov. 12, 1999, a balmy Friday when almost 2,000 teachers in Hillsborough County, Fla., called in sick to take advantage of the beautiful weather and the possibility of a long weekend.

"The weather was just spectacular," recalls Minthorn, who serves as the school district's coordinator of substitute teachers. Thursday had been a district holiday, he adds, "and everybody just said, 'I don't want to go to work."'

With more than three times the usual number of absences that day, almost 400 classes went unfilled.

Even on an average day, Minthorn struggles to fill all the requests he gets for classroom replacements. Of course, Hillsborough County is not alone in this predicament. While some estimates suggest there are as many as a million people who work as substitute teachers nationwide, increasingly there are not enough substitutes to go around. School districts large and small are being hit by serious shortages of substitutes. Frustrated by low wages and difficult working conditions, some substitute teachers are even joining unions (see related story, page 11).

New Tactics

To be sure, substitute teaching remains a low priority in many school systems, even where severe shortages exist. Competing demands for attention and resources often force those in charge of substitutes to make do with a shoestring budget.

Many districts still rely on the school secretary to find substitutes each morning and continue to use handwritten index cards to keep track of which substitutes might be available.

However, the magnitude of the staffing shortfall is compounded today by heightened concerns about the effects of substitute teaching on student learning and a small but high-profile set of cases where substitutes have been accused of unprofessional and even criminal conduct. These factors have generated top-level attention to the issue of substitute teacher quality and are prompting some districts to take steps previously considered unnecessary or impossibly expensive. In these districts, cutting-edge technology, privatization and private-sector style recruitment efforts are all on the table.

The rationale behind these efforts is clear. At worst, an inadequate substitute teacher system can poison broader efforts to raise academic standards and establish accountability. "It's not just a warm body you need, you need a quality warm body," said Susanne Murphy, who coordinates substitute assignments in the 2,500-student Ansonia, Conn., schools. "Someone who cares and has a sense of humor about school kids and what they are like."

Escalating Needs

While substitute teachers make up a largely informal, often-marginalized part of most school systems, their role in educating students can be surprisingly large. Experts estimate that, on average, a student is taught by substitute teachers for 187 days--more than a full year of school--from kindergarten through 12th grade. In districts with higher faculty absentee rates, the cumulative amount can be as much as two full years of schooling.

Fueled by a strong economy and scattered shortages of permanent teachers, the need for substitute teachers is rising. For workers with college credits and other job opportunities, fast-food wages and a notoriously difficult working environment make for a hard sell when it comes to attracting qualified candidates.

The pool of qualified substitutes who are looking for permanent assignments has diminished in many parts of the country. Increased professional development has only expanded the need for substitutes and the amount of time they spend in classrooms. As a result, almost 90 percent of school districts report having problems when it comes to covering all classrooms daily, according to a recent national survey conducted by the Substitute Teaching Institute at Utah State University.

Of these districts, 56 percent report having "serious" problems with their substitute program. In some cases shortages are so severe that classes are regularly cancelled or combined, in-school professional development is severely limited and teachers, administrators and school staff are dragooned to fill the void.

Five Strategies

Superintendents and school personnel directors who've scratched their scalps raw in pursuit of adequate numbers of qualified substitute teachers suggest five coping strategies that follow:

* Strategy 1: Make the Job More Attractive.

One common initial approach is to try to increase the appeal of substituting. Yet the most obvious means--a pay raise--may nor be the most effective.

When shortages become apparent, many school districts first attend to their substitute teacher shortage by raising the daily pay rate, sometimes by as much as 10 percent. While costly, this is a simple way of attracting or retaining substitutes who might otherwise choose assignments in neighboring districts or perform other types of temporary work. Though rates vary widely by region and type of districts, the Substitute Teaching Institute says noncertified substitutes on average nationally are paid about $65 per day, which is sometimes not enough to be competitive in a tight labor market. Rates below $40 per day are not uncommon, according to the reports collected by STI from substitute teachers around the country.