One year of a student’s K-12 educational experience is taught by substitute teachers (Miller, R.T., Murnane, R.J., & Willett, J.B., 2008). Substitute teachers often struggle with classroom management (Byer, 2008) and are perceived by others as a “high-priced babysitter”, “warm body” (Washington, Jr., 1972), or a “placeholder” (Glatfelter, 2006, p.93). Research reveals that on an average, a classroom teacher misses between six to eighteen days of school per year (Zubrzycki, 2012), which results in lower test performance results than peers whose teachers were less absent (Kronholz, 2013). Some examples of classroom teachers’ absenteeism include short term such as illness, mental health, professional development, school business, or jury duty. Other examples include a longer-term absence such as bereavement of family members living abroad, maternity or paternity leave, medical leave, or leave to care for family member (Family Medical Leave Act). Site administrators, such as principals and assistant principals, are faced with many different challenges regarding substitutes covering for their faculty members. One challenge is finding and having effective substitute teachers, and making sure students are experiencing high-quality teaching (Zubrzycki, 2012). Additionally, there is a high attrition rate of substitute teachers due to student behavior (Glatfelter, 2006, p. 16). Site administrators face additional challenges when there are no substitutes available from the substitute pool. Often, site administrators either need to step into the role as the substitute teacher or they request other teachers at their school site to be a substitute teacher and cover their colleague’s class a period at a time.

Authors:
Cynthia Rapaido, California State University East Bay, United States

About the Presenter(s)
Cynthia Rapaido is a field supervisor for science teacher candidates, and a coach and mentor for emerging and new assistant principals and principals. She is passionate about teaching, mentoring, advising, and coaching educators/educational leaders.

Connect on Linkedin
www.linkedin.com/in/cynthia-rapaido-ed-d-7455b67https://

See this presentation on the full schedule – Schedule

Bookmark