George L. Hanbury II, Ph.D., is the president and CEO of NSU.
Teachers are essential to educating our next generation of leaders and professionals, but the latest headlines are sounding the alarm that the supply of teachers is falling far short of the demand.
In 2022, the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics reported that 44% of public schools were experiencing full and part-time teaching vacancies. Additionally, a 2022 Gallup survey found that K-12 teachers were experiencing higher levels of burnout than all other industries nationally.
National teacher shortages have been at crisis levels since before COVID-19, but the pandemic accelerated both the problem and the need to find a solution. Nova Southeastern University’s Abraham S. Fischler College of Education is taking action to help ensure that Florida schools have teachers in place to provide students a quality education. At NSU’s Fischler Academy, future teachers earn bachelor’s and master’s degrees in just four years, are supported by scholarships and are guaranteed full-time job offers upon graduation in some school districts like Broward and Pinellas counties.
Fischler Academy students also benefit from international travel study to gain experience in teaching in other countries. In the five years since its inception, the Fischler Academy has graduated more than 200 students. These teachers have careers in elementary and secondary education, and as specialists in exceptional education. Today, the program has 240 active students.
Teachers were hit hard during the pandemic, but many persevered to ensure that their students were still learning in difficult situations. As a nation, we must invest more in education—and our teachers—in ways that will stabilize the profession. NSU’s approach is one method to train new teachers, but we must also support all the teachers already in the field who show up to work every day for their students.
We all remember the teachers who inspired us and left a lasting impression. Today’s students need those inspirational teachers just as much, if not more.
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