Maine teachers want more connection, mentorship and financial support • Maine Morning Star

Dozens of Maine educators said the state’s support for education, autonomy in the classroom and tight-knit communities were appealing factors to stay in the profession. But because of various barriers including low pay, restrictive certification requirements and limited pathways to becoming a teacher, Maine is suffering from the same educator shortage as the rest of the country.

That’s according to a report released through the new Teach Maine Center, a teacher-led effort to recruit and retain Maine’s workforce developed by Educate Maine and the Maine Department of Education. 

In recent years, staffing shortages have been a major issue across the state, with hundreds of unfilled teacher, education technician and school bus driver positions (although data on current open positions is not collected at the state level, by the Maine Department of Education or other organizations). The shortages can be attributed, in part, to the financial and policy barriers to becoming a teacher, as well as the average teacher salary, which advocates say is inadequate in the face of rising costs. 

“Maine teachers love what they do. They also face deep, systemic challenges in their day-to-day work, for which there are no easy fixes,” the report said. “Fewer and fewer people are entering the teaching profession over time.”

While Maine educators often find teaching to be a meaningful and rewarding profession, the cost-benefit analysis of an increasing workload, expectations from administrators and parents, and the low pay combined with the rising costs of housing and teacher certification means more teachers are leaving the profession entirely. That means the state has to develop new strategies to make the profession more attainable, attractive and financially sustainable, the report said.

Between October 2023 and May 2024, the Teach Maine Center conducted listening sessions with more than 240 educators throughout the state. They represented all grade levels, including early childhood and adult education and at least 157 different schools from 100 districts. The feedback from the listening sessions will inform the priorities for the Teach Maine Center and the development of a strategic plan.

One of the biggest issues for a lot of Maine teachers remains a largely underpaid, stressful work environment with a lack of support, according to the report.

“What surprised us a bit was that there were themes across all 16 counties regardless of where folks were teaching,” said Jason Judd, executive director of Educate Maine. “We heard so much about creating more pathways into the teaching profession by addressing things like teacher certification as well as supporting ‘grow your own’ programs for ed techs and other school staff that might want to be teachers in the future.” 

Maine educators discussed the changing nature of teaching, including the growing workload, high expectations from administrators and parents, and challenges managing classrooms with increasing student behavioral challenges.

But new teachers are also facing barriers entering the profession, the report found. Most Maine teachers are still using traditional routes, including an undergraduate teacher preparation program or certification course after completion of a bachelor’s degree. Options for alternative certification are particularly limited in rural or coastal counties. 

The Maine Department of Education said it processed 34,794 applications for certification and/or background check clearance to work in Maine schools during the 2023-2024 school year. While those numbers do not represent approval status of applications — nor the number of certified individuals actually working in Maine — more applications were processed in the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 school years than in the two years before the COVID-19 pandemic, a department spokesperson said.

“The number and diversity of barriers to becoming a teacher in Maine is astonishing given that there is such an intense workforce shortage – more must be done to alleviate barriers to joining the profession,” the report said.

Recommendations based on educator feedback

The center offered recommendations based on feedback from educators, ranging from quick fixes to large-scale policy changes. One key focus was eliminating barriers to certification, including finding alternative pathways for districts to help ed techs or other school staff pursue teacher certification, accepting out-of-state certifications, and counting prior work experience toward certification.

The State Board of Education, which develops the rules for teacher education and certification, is currently accepting public comments ahead of changes to the state’s certification requirements, Judd said. 

“It’s a really important time for educators to weigh in on how they can make changes to the teacher certification system to support new pathways into the profession, because we do have a pretty traditional pathway into the profession in Maine,” Judd said, adding that he believes there’s “an openness to identifying and making some changes” in order to make it more flexible “but still have rigorous pathways to ensure that we have the best educators all across the state.”

Another proposal is increasing teacher compensation, such as providing financial support for certification, paying student teachers while they’re completing required credits, and raising salaries for teachers and ed techs.

Educator salary increases were considered by the Maine Legislature this past year, though measures to increase minimum teacher and support staff salaries were introduced but died when the session ended.

Finally, the report emphasized the need to bring teachers together for peer learning opportunities, professional development and mentorship to address the complaint that teaching can sometimes feel isolating.

The funding for these initiatives would have to come from partnerships between the state, various nonprofit organizations and higher education institutions, Judd said. While it’s unclear how much, he believes that in order to implement the report recommendations, the state budget would need to include educator workforce reform.

“It all comes down to mentorship and support,” a teacher from Cumberland County quoted in the report said. “The Center could identify educators who would like to become teachers and help them find those pathways, and then support them through those years when they first start at teaching.”