Southeastern NEWS
Southeastern Louisiana University
Public Information Office
SLU 10880, Hammond, LA 70402
504/549-2341/fax 504-549-2061
Date: 4/18/00
Contact: Rene Abadie 1
SLU PRESIDENT PREDICTS TEACHER SHORTAGE
BATON ROUGE -- In the next decade, two-thirds of the nation's teachers will be eligible for
retirement and many will take that option due to the frustrations and low pay associated with
teaching today, the president of Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond said Monday.
"When these teachers retire, we will be facing the greatest workforce crisis in America,"
said Sally Clausen in an address at the Louisiana Yearly Conference on Excellence in Education
held Monday at Pennington Biomedical Research Center. The conference was sponsored by
Novartis US Foundation and coordinated by the Baton Rouge-based Louisiana Resource Center
for Educators. U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu chaired the conference.
Clausen, a former elementary school teacher herself, emphasized that low teacher pay is
one of the primary reasons why fewer college students are going into education as a profession.
"Education calls for the best and brightest students to enter the profession, but we cannot expect
to attract or keep good teachers if their pay is at the bottom of the income ladder for
professionals," she said. "The pay scale for Louisiana teachers is among the lowest in the nation."
The consequence, she said, is that many Louisiana students are in classrooms where the
teacher is working outside his or her field of concentration. In Louisiana public schools, about 12
percent of teachers -- an estimated 6,500 -- are not teaching the subject for which they are
qualified, affecting 90,000 to 100,000 students.
"We must not lose sight of the fact that the most important factor in improving
education is to have a qualified teacher in every classroom," Clausen emphasized. "These
teachers will know their subject matter, be able to teach students of diverse backgrounds, know
how to infuse technology into the curriculum, and -- most importantly -- be able to communicate
effectively with students."
To solve the problem, Clausen said teacher preparation and the teaching profession must
become everyone's business.
"Our colleges must reform their teacher preparation programs," she said. "We need to
strengthen partnerships with the schools in our districts, and we must institute mentoring
programs to assist new teachers during their critical initiation period, when too many decide to
get out of the profession."
She also called for a higher standard for licensure, providing on-the-job professional
development programs for teachers, and holding universities accountable for the quality of
teachers produced. "We must connect our teacher preparation programs to what is actually
happening and to what is needed in our schools," she said. "And we must be willing to guarantee
to our schools that the teachers we prepare are fully qualified."
Clausen noted that Southeastern recently instituted a "teacher guarantee," pledging to
area schools that the teachers prepared at Southeastern will be fully qualified or they will be
re-trained at the university's expense. Since then, several other Louisiana universities have
adopted the policy.
"If we can recognize that we are facing an impending teacher shortage and take steps
now, we may be able to minimize the crisis," Clausen said.
At the conference, Landrieu presented the first annual "Thinking Outside of the Box
Awards" for excellence and innovation in all levels of education. The winners included Clausen
for her work to guarantee the quality of Southeastern teacher graduates; Ellen Greig, teacher at
Westgate High School in New Iberia, for her work in developing student entrepreneurship within
the school; and Kelly Ward, coordinator of Everybody Wins! in New Orleans, for launching a
volunteer-led reading program in elementary schools.
-SLU-
Press release available online at www.selu.edu/NewsEvents/PublicInfoOffice/newsp00.htm