ar only 5.5% showed any interest. Among the remaining young people who do decide to teach, reportedly up to half quit within five to seven years@ (p. 63).
More recent statistics show the trend continuing. Steve Wulf (1997, May 26) writes, AOne survey found that 40% of public school teachers would not go into teaching if they had to choose a career again. According to the federal Department of Education, 30% of new teachers leave the classroom within the first three years. Those who stay feel overworked, underpaid,
underappreciated and poorly prepared@ (p. 75).
The shortage of qualified teachers has been a real and present problem in public education since the late 20th century and shows no signs of slowing. Anne C. Lewis (2000, January) lists some of the solutions that have been proposed by experts:
Increasing the supply of good teachers through aggressive recruiting and a focus on high need areas; improving the quality of teachers through tough hiring standards, intensive and ongoing professional development, and assistance for the unqualified to leave the profession; providing incentives to encourage the best teachers to transfer to low performing schools; and adopting "zero tolerance" policies, such as "no emergency teachers" in low performing schools (p. 339).
Yet one of the most promising proposals has met with the greatest resistance within the educati
...