'Where have all the teachers gone?' UF guest lecturer pinpoints turnover as key indicator of teacher shortage

UF education lecture series kicks off Oct. 30

In efforts to solve the epic teacher shortage, education leaders are at odds over whether the main focus should be on recruiting more people to the teaching profession or helping public schools keep the most effective teachers they already have.

Area teachers, principals and school district leaders, plus UF education professors and students, will have an opportunity to hear the views and insights of a national expert on the topic on Thursday, Oct. 30, when the University of Florida College of Education kicks off its 2008-09 distinguished speaker series, “21st Century Pathways in Education.”

The first speaker in the series will be Professor Erling “Ed” Boe, of the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education (GSE) and co-director of the school’s Center for Research and Evaluation in Social Policy (CRESP). Boe will present “Teacher Turnover: Issues and National Research” from 3 to 4:30 p.m. in the Terrace Room at Norman Hall, located on the eastern edge of the UF campus at 605 SW 13th Street, in Gainesville.

Boe and his co-researchers are investigating the role of teacher turnover in the annual demand for hiring new teachers in public schools. Ferreting through often misleading terminology and inconsistent findings, Boe has published research reports identifying three basic dimensions needed to assess the true state of teacher turnover:

• Exit attrition—leaving the profession
• Teaching area transfer—shifting to a new area, particularly from special to general education
• School migration—moving to a different school.

Boe writes that only significant, positive change in public school “organization, management and funding” with quell teacher turnover rates. In the interim, he says an increase in the pool of qualified teachers is required to reduce current and future teacher shortages.

Boe earned a Ph.D. in psychology from Washington State University and held faculty positions at the University of Victoria (Canada) and the University of Washington (Seattle) before completing a year of postdoctoral study in psychology at Brown University. He has been on the University of Pennsylvania faculty since 1966. Boe has written widely on teacher supply, demand, shortage, turnover and quality. In addition to frequent contributions to professional journals, Boe has co-edited a definitive volume on current trends affecting teachers: Teacher Supply, Demand, and Quality: Policy Issues, Models, and Data Bases.

UF education Dean Catherine Emihovich says the purpose of the new Pathways in Education speaker series is to bring in leading scholars on key education issues to spark discussion and introduce new insights into education to college and university faculty, students and area educators. The chairs and faculty in each college department are lining up speakers from their respective disciplines.

Following Boe’s talk, the series resumes Jan. 14, 2009, with the second presentation on “Video Games and 21st Century Learning.” The speaker will be James Paul Gee, who holds an endowed professorship in literacy studies at Arizona State University.

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CONTACTS
WRITER: Renée Zenaida, UF COE News & Communications, rzenaida@coe.ufl.edu
SOURCE: Erling “Ed” Boe, UPenn GSE/CRESP, boe@pobox.upenn.edu