Education summit to address Arizona's teacher crisis

TUCSON, AZ (Tucson News Now) - State leaders, national leaders, and hundreds of local educators will meet in Tucson this morning to address Arizona's K-12 teacher crisis.
 
The first-ever Let's Talk Ed: Teacher Workforce Summit happens today at the Tucson Convention Center.
 
Organizers say teachers are leaving the profession at an alarming rate and something needs to be done to stop it.
 
This summit, strategically planned before the legislative session opens for the new year, is designed for attendees to discuss the problems associated with a high teacher turnover rate and brainstorm solutions to keep teachers happy and in the classroom.
 
There many factors why teachers may call it quits. According to an Educator, Retention, and Recruitment Taskforce presentation, research shows low pay, lack of professional support, low community support and respect, inadequate teaching materials and school climate are some of the reasons.
 
The taskforce found the Arizona teacher salary ranks 42nd nationally. Members also discovered that 46 percent of new teachers across the U.S. leave within four years.
 
Former Sahuarita High School teacher Gloria Diaz is one of those statistics.

Diaz spent four years teaching high school English and running various after school clubs before leaving the profession in 2011.
 
"I just felt a lack of support," said Diaz. "By the fourth year, there was too many other things that were being focused on like testing and other things became more important."
 
Diaz now works as an administrative assistant at a local concrete construction company. It's a job that gives her more flexibility.
 
"The hard part are just the time demands are real strong," she said. She explained spending a lot of time outside of work day planning and grading assignments drained her.  
 
"You go in knowing you're not going to make a lot of money," she added. "Because of that, you need to feel appreciated by your staff, superintendent, by everyone else in the district."
 
Diaz said she misses her students, but she became frustrated with a combination of factors and reached a breaking point.
 
"Without that support, it's hard. It becomes overwhelming and too difficult," said Diaz.
 
Diaz's story is one that Marian Salzman, Executive Chair of Teachers Values Teachers hopes to prevent in the future.
 
"It's not a calling, it's a profession and we need to treat teachers like outstanding professionals," said Salzman who helped organize the education summit. "Not like people who are on a service mission."
 
She added, "The fact that service is a component of their job is important, but they are there to basically train  the next generations of scientists and doctors, lawyers, and community activists and we need to treat them that way."

Meanwhile, districts struggle to fill teacher openings.

Tucson Unified School District spokesperson, Stefanie Boe told Tucson News Now that the district has 56 current teacher openings for the 2015-2016 school year. A majority of those positions are filled by long-term subs.
 
The Sunnyside Unified School District has 46 teacher openings, most of them filled by long-term subs too. "It's not the ideal situation," said district spokesperson Mary Veres.
 
The Let's Talk Ed: Teacher Workforce is presented by Tucson Values Teachers, Southern Arizona Leadership Council and Raytheon Company.

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