As fewer students seek teaching degrees, universities close undergraduate programs
Published in Slideshow World
Education programs at colleges across the country are in trouble.
Oklahoma City University, a liberal arts college with more than 1,300 undergraduate students, has no early childhood and elementary teacher prep programs at the undergrad level. The university determined the programs to be no longer sustainable due to declining enrollment and suspended them for new students in 2020. By early 2022,only three students remained in the combined teaching programs.
News about OCU's decision to suspend these programs came alongside a slate of headlines about colleges suspending or canceling education majors. Other schools such as Harvard andNew Jersey City University have closed undergraduate teaching programs over the past two years. In late 2020, the University of South Florida planned to close its College of Education due to budget cuts but decided to reverse its decision in early 2021 after receiving pushback.
Some universities are promoting graduate programs for those who would have been interested in an undergrad teaching program. Oklahoma City University launched a master's in education in February 2024, while Harvard encouraged undergrads leaning toward that field to pursue the school's master's program in teaching and teacher leadership.
To explore the decline over decades in the popularity of undergraduate education degrees, TeacherCertification.com looked at data from the National Center for Education Statistics.
When colleges phase out primary education degrees, those watching the field worry that the natural pipeline into the teaching profession is being disrupted. In the fall of 2023, more than20% of public schools reported having several teaching vacancies, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
Nuance in the Noise: The Complex Reality of Teacher Shortages, a report from consulting firm Bellwether Education Partners, claims there is no across-the-board national teacher shortage but that certain teaching specialties are in particular demand. "States consistently report trouble staffing special education, mathematics, science, foreign language, and English as a second language classrooms," the report says.
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