A Silver Lining in a Time of Crisis?

As we mentioned several weeks ago, 53% of our teacher workforce are baby boomers, and they are rapidly approaching retirement. If we act now, we can ensure that their years of expertise and experience is not lost. It may very well be possible to turn the retirement “crisis” into an opportunity to staff schools in different ways.

According to Civic Ventures, the financial crisis will force more people to work longer and some people will opt for second or “Encore” careers. A recent Washington Post article said the luxury of retirement is turning out to be unattainable for many Americans due to a wildly fluctuating stock market, depleted 401k plans and empty individual retirement accounts. As a result, Americans are increasingly postponing retirement or getting work in other fields. The economic disaster will crimp budgets, but social needs are only growing and many employers are eager to tap encore talent, according to the Civic Ventures survey. If baby boomer teachers follow the pattern of the larger workforce, then 50% of them will seek at least part-time work in a capacity that allows them to give back to society. Many veteran teachers – especially those who have dedicated their entire careers to improving student achievement – will surely be seeking new learning challenges and new roles.

At the same time, schools are trying to address the changing needs of 21st century learners who have access to more information and more learning resources than ever before, while trying to keep young teachers who leave because they don’t want to work in an industrial-age system. Instead of retiring, what if a valued veteran teacher could act as a mentor and support for new teachers – part time work that would afford her some income and encourage her to impart experience-based knowledge.

An article in yesterday’s USA Today examined the silver lining from the financial crisis. Some of the strongest mathematical minds may be found on Wall Street, and in the current mess, many may be interested in trading math lesson plans rather than stocks. If we take this opportunity to mobilize educators and community members to join forces in schools to prepare today’s students – especially in high-need communities – for 21st century workforce success, we can bridge supply and demand. But we must act quickly to build these pathways before the demographic tsunami hits us. NCTAF is at the forefront of developing a model that demonstrates how exactly this can be done so we can get out in front of the impending school staffing crisis and take advantage of the resources about to be freed up by the collision of economic crises and demographic shifts.

NCTAF wants to hear your Encore career stories! Share them here!

Stayed tuned for more on this as NCTAF prepares to release a survey in December on the demographic shift in the teaching workforce!