by James C. Sherlock
I offer for your consideration a tale of three Virginia Beach elementary schools and their teacher shortages.
The data provided are from the school quality databases of the Virginia Department of Education and from the jobs database of the City of Virginia Beach Schools, accessed this morning.
All three of the elementary schools I chose for this sample were near where I lived and worked when I was on active duty in the Navy.
John B. Dye Elementary is an extremely high performing school, Trantwood Elementary is a high performing school, and Birdneck Elementary a low performing school in the state SOL assessments. Birdneck is a Title 1 school. Virginia Beach has 17 Title 1 schools, all but one of them elementary schools.
The data in this very small sample show gaping differences in currently open teaching and counselor positions among those three schools. They are not only in the same school division, but within the same zip code.
John B. Dye and Birdneck are 18 minutes apart by car with Trantwood in between. Each is within easy commute distance for the same set of available teachers and counselors. Because of the high availability of Navy spouses, this area tends to have no shortage of teachers.
The relative poverty levels of the student bodies differ, but not as greatly as among many other state public schools, again because of the effects of the Navy on the economy of Virginia Beach in general and the 23451 zip code in particular.
Chronic absenteeism differences reflecting the learning environments in each school, on the other hand, are profound.
There is more to school climate than data will show, but I think readers will find the information thought-provoking.
Bottom line: Teachers and counselors appear to have bailed on Birdneck Elementary, but not on John B. Dye or Trantwood.
I offer a sampling of the data offered in the state school quality databases. Readers can access the full quality data for each school at the links provided.
Birdneck Elementary School – Poor Performing on SOLs. Title 1 school.
Near Oceana Naval Air Station
Students 2020-21 — 611
FTE regular teachers — 51.2
FTE regular teachers sought — 10
FTE Counselors — no data
FTE Counselors sought — 0.9
FTE Special Education Teachers — 12
FTE Special Education Teachers sought — 4
Chronic Absenteeism 2018-19 — 13.9%
Chronic Absenteeism 2020-21 — 35.2%
Free and Reduced Meal Eligible Students: 2020-2021 — 32.5%
Authorized teacher (regular and special ed) / student ratio in 2020/21 was 10.3 to 1.
John B. Dye Elementary School –– Extremely High Performing on SOLs
On Broad Bay Near Cox High School
Students 2020-21 — 728
FTE Teachers — 43.6
FTE Teachers sought — 0
FTE Counselors — no data
FTE Counselors sought — 0.2
Special Education Teachers — 7
Special Education Teachers sought — 0
Chronic Absenteeism 2018-19 — 5.5%
Chronic Absenteeism 2020-21 — 3.5%
Free and Reduced Meal Eligible Students: 2020-2021 — 18.1%
Authorized teacher (regular and special ed) / student ratio in 2020/21 was 14.4 to 1.
Trantwood Elementary — High Performing on SOLs
On Great Neck Peninsula
Students 2020-21 — 446
FTE Teachers — 34.7
FTE Teachers sought — 1
FTE Counselors — no data
FTE Counselors sought — 0
Special Education Teachers — 6
Special Education Teachers sought — 0
Chronic Absenteeism 2018-19 — 6.3%
Chronic Absenteeism 2020-21 — 3.5%
Free and Reduced Meal Eligible Students: 2020-2021 — 21.7%
Authorized teacher (regular and special ed) / student ratio in 2020/21 was 11 to 1.
Discussion: This is not a large enough sample size to generalize about staffing shortages in Virginia schools. Some entire school divisions in other parts of the state have broader school staffing issues compared to Virginia Beach.
But if nothing else, this survey of three elementary schools in Virginia Beach shows that when we discuss teacher shortages, many can be very localized.
And averaging teacher shortages for a large school division and then attempting to assess the effects of shortages on the “average” school is folly.
Same goes for chronic absenteeism in the “average” school, or nearly anything else. No teacher can teach with the enormous absentee rate experienced at Birdneck Elementary.
There is no such thing as the average school.
