SEMO EDUCATORS TO ATTEND NATIONAL CONFERENCE

The U.S. Department of Education has set its sights on ways to recruit and better prepare teachers for the nation's elementary and secondary schools.

The agency is hosting a conference in Washington, D.C., this weekend to focus on the issue. Five educators from Southeast Missouri are among those slated to attend the national conference on Sunday and Monday.

Southeast Missouri State University is one of three institutions in Missouri that has been invited to attend the conference.

The university's five-member delegation is headed by Dr. Dennis Holt, the school's interim provost and chief academic officer. The other members are Dr. Shirley Stennis-Williams, dean of the College of Education; Dr. Chris McGowan, dean of the College of Science and Mathematics; Dr. Arnold Bell, superintendent of the Sikeston School District and an adjunct professor at Southeast; and Dr. Dan Tallent, director of off-campus programming for Mineral Area College. In his job, Tallent also directs the Perryville Higher Education Center.

Holt said the nation faces a predicted teacher shortage in the coming years. It's estimated that the nation's schools will need to hire 2.5 million new teachers over the next 10 years to replace retiring teachers, meet growing school enrollments, lower class size and replace teachers who have left.

Holt said the conference will focus on teacher recruitment, preparing people to enter the teaching profession and professional development of teachers.

The federal government, he said, wants to improve teacher preparation. To that end, the teacher education efforts at Southeast and other universities may be used as a model, Holt said.

At Southeast, for example, biology courses for students preparing to be science teachers are taught by faculty in the biology department. There's a strong connection between the various academic departments and the teacher education program, Holt said. That isn't the case with some other teacher education programs in the nation.

Holt said Southeast also puts a great emphasis on giving students teaching experiences in the schools.

The federal government likely will offer grants to universities to fund programs or projects to recruit and better prepare teachers, he said.

Bell, superintendent of the Sikeston public schools, will attend the conference as a representative of the Southeast Missouri Superintendents Association.

Bell said there increasing concern about possible teacher shortages. Last year, the Sikeston School District had few applications for four elementary teaching positions. "We had a hard time finding elementary teachers," he said.

Salaries are an issue. Some teachers are leaving the profession for higher-paying jobs in business and industry, he said.

A good economy has resulted in a tight labor market. Companies have started hiring teachers because they view them as quality employees, Bell said.

Most elementary and secondary school teachers are women. Traditionally, teaching was one of the few professions open to women.

But today women can choose from a variety of occupations, including top management posts in business and industry. That adds to the difficulty in filling teaching jobs, Bell said.

Districts also are faced with the need for more teachers because of growing enrollments. Plus, many babyboomer teachers are reaching retirement age, Bell said.

In the past three years, about 100 people or a third of the Sikeston School District staff have retired, Bell said.

The conference, he said, comes at a good time and could help meet future teaching needs in the region as well as nationally.