Educational Hurdles: Alaska falls behind national trends.

• Author: Orr, Vanessa
• Position: EDUCATION

Schools throughout the nation are facing a teacher shortage, and nowhere is this felt more starkly than in Alaska, where a large number of educators are recruited from the Lower 48. This, in addition to other factors including the remoteness of many of the state's schools, the lack of a competitive retirement system, and legislative budget issues, makes recruiting and retaining skilled educators a monumental challenge.

According to Dr. Lisa Skiles Parady, executive director of the Alaska Council of School Administrators, the situation has become even more dire in the last couple of years.

"We are in a national crisis in terms of an educator shortage, and what makes it even worse in Alaska is that we have historically relied on the Lower 48 to recruit teachers, principals, and other educators," she explains. "Teachers used to come to the state from all over the nation to find jobs; the Alaska Teacher Placement job fair in Anchorage had lines out the door. Now, the numbers have fallen considerably; last year, 211 participants came to the fair, and a high percentage of those were already employed here as teachers and were looking to move to other districts."

"I've been part of the Lower Kuskokwim School District for twenty-seven years, and the first job fair that I went to as an aspiring teacher there were 1,300 candidates," agrees Daniel Walker, superintendent of schools for the Lower Kuskokwim School District (LKSD). "Now 200 people is a large number."

Alaska's rural areas are especially hard hit, as teacher turnover is strikingly high. According to the Alaska Statewide Mentor Project's website, some school districts in the state suffer from up to 85 percent turnover, which not only results in a lack of cohesiveness within the school community but also tends to result in poor student performance. While the Anchorage School District is one of the 100 largest in the nation with 3,000 teachers and 50,000 students, 135 of Alaska's 512 schools have fewer than 50 students and 82 schools enroll 25 or fewer students.

"In 2016-17, the average school teacher retention rate in urban areas was 83.3 percent; in rural, remote areas, it was 57.1 percent," says Skiles Parady, "The more remote you are, the higher the turnover."

Principals and superintendents are not immune, either. "Last year, the principal turnover rate was 26 percent, and principals are second only to teachers when it comes to positive student achievement," says Skiles Parady, adding that in the past five years, the total superintendent turnover rate was approximately 70 percent. "High turnover rates affect school stability, which affects learning."

Why Teachers Leave

While some of the turnover can be attributed to teachers nearing...