Standing in the Gap: Addressing Shortages in Oklahoma Rural Arts Education
Elizabeth Maughan
October 1, 2024
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What is the current state of the educator community ?
In 2002 and 2007, AEP published two reports focused on the arts teaching workforce: Teaching Partnerships and Working Partnerships. These reports defined the arts teaching workforce to include certified teachers, teaching artists, higher education faculty and educators in arts and cultural institutions. AEP has defined arts education more broadly in the years since to include all learning that occurs in homes, schools and communities. The previously defined groups, as well as with parents and guardians, early childhood caregivers, community elders and others who serve as educators, all contribute to children’s arts learning.
While all adults who interact with children can serve as teachers and mentors, K-12 public school teachers impact the largest number of young people. However, the number of teachers overall – including arts teachers – has continued to decline in recent years. Researchers working in education and the economy published reports about a looming teacher shortage even before the COVID-19 pandemic, and those shortages are accelerating as we continue to recover.
Since 2004-05, about 8% of teachers leave the profession each year. While the number of leaver teachers remains steady, the interest among young people in pursuing a teaching career continues to decline. This trend poses a challenge for making teaching an appealing career option for young people. As a result, school districts, states and teacher-preparation programs must adapt. Understanding the issues in the teacher workforce requires an acknowledgment of the interconnected issues involving teacher recruitment, preparation, development and retention.
The arts teacher workforce (comprising of dance, media arts, music, theatre and visual arts teachers in K-12 schools) faces its own unique challenges. Arts teachers commonly believe that teacher evaluations don’t accurately reflect their quality of arts teaching and can often times feel undervalued in their subject areas and isolated from their peers and the broader school community. We hope this resource page can help identify these challenges, spark conversation and share information and potential solutions.
The Teacher Workforce
Teacher workforce research is often broken up into four distinct categories:
1. Recruitment
2. Retention
3. Preparation
4. Development
Click on each petal to the right to read a definition and some questions to think about when learning to build a sustainable educator community.
0
%
of public school teachers
remained in the same school.
0
%
of public school teachers
changed schools or districts.
0
%
of public school teachers left
the field of education.
0
%
of public school arts and music teachers remained in the same school.*
0
%
of public school arts and music teachers changed schools or districts.*
0
%
of public school arts and music teachers left the field of education.*
* These statistics are from the Current and Former Teacher Data Files of the 2021–22 Teacher Follow-up Survey. This survey only polled visual arts and music teachers, which is reflected in the data above. There are currently no data on these statistics for dance, media arts and theatre teachers.
Teacher Shortages
Teacher Licensure
Where are there arts teacher shortages?
The U.S. Department of Education’s most recent report lists 21 states as experiencing teacher shortages in the arts.
What resources exist about the teacher workforce ?
- All
- Arts Education
- General Education
- Compensation and Benefits
- Diversity and Inclusion
- Funding
- Job Satisfaction and Morale
- Recruitment Strategies
- Policy
- Professional Development
- Support for Early Career Teachers
- Teacher Preparation and Support
- Teacher Attrition
- Teacher Evaluation
- Teaching Incentives
- Work Environment and Culture
Paid Teacher Residencies: An Equity Lever for Transforming Washington State’s Education System
This report offers a comprehensive, research-based rationale and plan for the State of Washington to explore moving towards a consolidation of preparation pathways into an increasingly focused set of options that ensure aspiring teachers are prepared through full-year paid teacher residencies before individuals become teachers of record, starting with a focus on special education pathways.
Teacher Preparation Goes Virtual in the Wild West: The Impact of Fully-Online Teacher Preparation in Texas
With teacher shortages in Texas, online preparation programs are seen as a potential solution, especially with more uncertified teachers post-COVID-19. However, concerns about their quality and effectiveness have emerged. This eight-year analysis shows that while online programs are convenient, teachers from these programs have lower initial effectiveness and higher turnover rates.
Schools Can't Afford to Lose Any More Black Educators
Despite the critical need for more Black male teachers to improve outcomes for Black students, the representation remains alarmingly low. The story also explores broader issues such as poor pay, political pressures, and racial biases that contribute to the retention crisis among Black male educators nationwide.
What work has AEP produced about the teacher workforce ?
Support Effective Educators and School Leaders Success Stories
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ArtsEd Amplified Posts About Teacher Workforce
Town Hall for Local Arts Education Supervisors
On May 22, 2024, AEP hosted a Town Hall for Local Arts Education Supervisors, led by Jonathan Juravich, an Ohio elementary art teacher.
Jonathan leads his school’s Building Culture and Environment initiative and serves as the Elementary Art Department Chair for the district.” His personal and professional focus is on the importance of Social and Emotional Learning in our daily lives. This is the topic of his presentations, including his TED Talk “How Do We Teach Empathy,” his limited series podcast “The Art of SEL,” and his Emmy award winning digital drawing program “Drawing with Mr. J.” He is the 2018 Ohio Teacher of the Year and was one of four finalists for 2018 National Teacher of the Year. In 2023, he was named the National Elementary Art Teacher of the Year by the National Art Education Association.
What organizations exist that support the educator community?
Assistance for Arts Education
The goal of the Assistance for Arts Education is to disseminate what’s being accomplished through AAE grant funding, partner organizations, share evidence-based resources and arts education specific toolkits for implementation of quality programming to students to expand equitable access to quality arts education resources.
Learn MoreEducational Theatre Association
The Educational Theatre Association is an international nonprofit that serves as the professional association for theatre educators.
Learn MoreGrantmakers in the Arts
Grantmakers in the Arts is a national association of public and private arts funders that provide members with resources and leadership to support artists and arts organizations.
Learn MoreNational Art Education Association
The National Art Education Association is the leading professional membership organization exclusively for visual arts, design and media arts education professionals.
Learn MoreNational Association for Music Education
The National Association for Music Education is a collaborative community that supports music educators and advocates for equitable access to music education.
Learn MoreNational Association for Media Arts Education
The National Association for Media Arts Education is a national organization with the purpose to advance and promote standards of excellence in media arts education.
Learn MoreNational Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent federal agency that funds, promotes and strengthens the creative capacity of our communities by providing all Americans with diverse opportunities for arts participation.
Learn MoreNational Dance Education Organization
The National Dance Education Organization is a non-profit organization that supports dance educators in every setting and genre.
Learn MoreThe Pathways Alliance
The Pathways Alliance is an uncommon coalition of leading organizations dedicated to supporting and implementing diverse and inclusive educator preparation pipelines, including teacher residency programs.
Learn MorePrepared to Teach
Prepared To Teach helps states, districts and programs design affordable, sustainably funded residencies that attract and retain strong, committed teachers.
Learn MoreTeach Music Coalition
In response to the teacher shortage, Teach Music Coalition has been formed to help find resources and solutions to the immediate, short term and longer-term challenges facing the music educator workforce, working to retain, shepherd and recruit the next generation of music educators.
Learn MoreWell-Rounded Education Programs Office
The Well-Rounded Education Programs Office administers discretionary grant programs that support activities designed to advance literacy skills, provide professional learning opportunities to teachers, support arts education and identify and meet the special educational needs of gifted and talented students.
Learn MoreConnect With Us
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About the Author
Mitra Chamanbahar
Project Manager
As project manager for the Arts Education Partnership, Mitra collaborates and communicates with the AEP team and partners to promote high-quality arts education. Prior to joining AEP, Mitra worked as a Colorado licensed visual arts educator in elementary education settings. She is dedicated to critically developing students’ learning opportunities and equitable arts experiences.
Inquiry Questions
Engage your community in this conversation. Share the resource. Start the conversation. And grow together!
- Q1. What do you find yourself reacting to relative to your personal concept of literacies?
- Q2. How did you notice yourself reacting to the broad concept of literacies?
- Q3. What do you want to know more about?
- Q4. What implications might this concept hold for students, teachers or communities?
- Q5. What new perspectives does this concept of literacies give us?
- Q6.What dominant narratives and images could this concept call into question?
- Q7. Who has been left behind, and how can we ensure they are welcomed, included and able to engage?
- Q8. What is unresolved?
Connect With Us
Your reflections and insights help us build on this work. Please use this form to share your thoughts, ideas, etc., with us!
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