Giving Compass' Take:

• Jeanne Allen promotes solving the teacher shortage by promoting an entrepreneurship mindset that allows for innovation and autonomy.

• How are the current incentive structures for teachers failing? How can more local autonomy help motivate and retain credible teachers?

• Learn more about the causes of teacher shortages.

Teacher shortages are reaching epidemic proportions. Fewer people with state-required credentials are available to teach, and surveys suggest almost half are considering leaving the profession.

To “help,” states are lowering their hiring criteria and standards altogether. Missouri districts “have been rehiring retired teachers, training counselors and coaches to teach and even putting unqualified teachers in classrooms.”

Many believe the culprit is salaries. Thomas Smith, a Vanderbilt University professor, told her there’s evidence that “teachers are more interested in working at schools where the conditions of work are good rather than in getting paid more.”

But a core reason so many teachers are considering leaving the profession is the lack of autonomy. Giving teachers the ability to innovate would not only improve satisfaction but also lead to far better results for students. So while headlines (and unions) scream that it’s all about the pay, the real solution is enabling them to be entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurs are results-driven, take responsibility for their decisions and need personal power to be agile — all things not typically found in traditional schools. Yet ensuring that teachers remain engaged and autonomous is crucial to their long-term satisfaction. Without that freedom, teachers cannot create the best conditions needed for learning.

Not only can they not control the conditions that bring students to their classes, but they have little say in what they can do to improve those conditions. And the effort they do put in, while enduring onerous rules and regulations, is not rewarded financially. Pay is determined by prescribed, uniform pay scales according to seniority and tenure.

If we allowed teachers to act as entrepreneurs, making rapid decisions locally and changing course when conditions warrant, they would be able to derive joy from their own endeavors, grow what they start and reap the rewards of success.

Read the full article about solving the teacher shortage by encouraging autonomy by Jeanne Allen at The 74.