The teacher pipeline in Oklahoma is breaking
[Excerpts]
Some Oklahoma colleges have suspended their education programs for the upcoming semester.
With teacher shortages already hammering school districts, local colleges said that they don’t even have enough students who want to be teachers to keep the programs going.
Oklahoma City University is no longer turning out elementary teachers. The university was left with no choice but to suspend its early childhood and elementary education program in the spring of 2022 because of the low enrollment.
Educators are now worried about what is next.
”We're used to class sizes of 12 students, but we're reaching the point where we had 2-3 students in a class and that just wasn't sustainable," said Dr. Heather Sparks, the director of teacher education at OCU [and a VOICE leader]. . . .
"The pipeline is unfortunately slowing to a trickle. We have very, very few students entering the traditional programs which is very disheartening," Sparks said.
Sparks told KOCO 5 that parents should be alarmed by Oklahoma’s teacher shortage.
"More than double the amount of students entering a traditional program are being certified each year in an emergency situation and I don't think parents are aware," Sparks said. . . .
Sparks told KOCO 5 that the pandemic has only made it more difficult to recruit and sustain qualified teachers.
"They're done. They're just leaving, turning in their notice and there's no one left behind. There are no candidates," Sparks said.