Kentucky’s colleges training too many elementary school teachers

Education Week just published an article about states where the college system is producing too many elementary school teachers for the available jobs (subscription?).

Kentucky is an over-producer.

Per EdWeek, Kentucky has a demand for 730 new elementary school teachers but the supply from colleges is 1,275. That means 545 Kentucky college graduates won’t have jobs waiting for them in our elementary schools.

Kentucky’s education colleges clearly need to do a better job of explaining the job market to the state’s teacher candidates so those students can refocus on areas of short supply such as teaching middle and high school math and science.

Of course, you can’t effectively prepare to be a math or science teacher if your K to 12 schooling left you with deficient skills in those areas.