What other unique strategies for recruitment and retention are working in South Dakota?

Editor's note: This is the final article in a five-part series, exploring South Dakota’s teacher shortage and the myriad of ways school districts, colleges and the state are attempting to solve that teacher shortage.

There isn’t one key thing that works to reduce the teacher shortage locally, statewide or nationally, Sioux Falls School District human resources director Becky Dorman said.

Fixing the teacher shortage requires not just work by local districts, colleges or the state, but a variety of strategies over the years.

“It seems like there’s a lot of balls in the air when it comes to teacher recruitment,” Dorman said. “In one year, something might be very effective, and then it may end up being less effective the next year.”

South Dakota as a whole has seen an increase of 200 teacher job postings over the last five years, something experts say is driven by pay, politics and the pandemic, for example.

Recruitment and retention play a huge part in that, Dorman said, explaining districts have to keep an eye on searching hard for educators and “keep teaching in the forefront of people’s minds.”

Districts like Sioux Falls and Sisseton have found success in recruiting teachers from outside the state with reciprocity, or recruiting teachers from outside the U.S. by promoting jobs on social media or from positive word-of-mouth.

More: Report: More than 43% of students, almost 5% of staff in Sioux Falls School District are diverse

Retention strategies like mentoring and coaching have also proven successful to help retain teachers of all ages and experience levels.

Here’s how.

Recruiting teachers from outside the state, or outside of the U.S., helps bolster teacher workforce

One thing that can help educators move to South Dakota is the reciprocity in teaching certificates offered since 2017. According to the DOE, 1,097 teachers have received certification in South Dakota based upon their teacher certifications from another state.

Of the nearly 900 unique applicants applying to teach in the Sioux Falls School District this year, about 34% of them didn’t live in the U.S., Dorman said. The district is looking at ways to utilize that international talent and see if they can get them interested in teaching in a “shortage area” such as special education or music education, she said.

Both the Sioux Falls School District and Sisseton School District have seen an increased number of candidates from the Philippines in particular. All of the Sisseton School District’s 20 international teachers are from the Philippines, Superintendent Tammy Meyer said.

More: Sioux Falls School District has 146 new teachers this year. See where they come from

Sisseton schools have seen an increase in the number of international teacher hires because it doesn’t have enough applicants to fill positions without hiring internationally, Meyer said, adding she believes the district has seen an increase in Filipino candidates because of recruitment efforts from current teachers and the knowledge the district will hire internationally.

“Our international teachers come to us with many years of experience in their former districts,” Meyer said. “Hiring international teachers has also allowed us to expand programming for our students in some hard-to-fill areas.”

Retaining teachers in the profession

Retention is another important piece of the puzzle when it comes to a strong educator workforce, Education Secretary Joe Graves said, noting the first few years of a new teacher’s career can be challenging.

That’s why the DOE has a statewide mentoring program that pairs first- and second-year teachers with veteran teachers who provide support and guidance. The program currently has 737 new teachers and 452 mentors.

Graves said new teachers who participate in the mentoring opportunity have a 15% higher retention rate.

More: How Education Secretary Joe Graves plans to improve South Dakota's literacy rates

Schwan said she’s also involved in a statewide mentoring program for third- through fifth-year teachers.

Instructional coaches in the Sioux Falls School District also act as mentors to teachers of all experience levels.

The district also offers retention bonuses. Right now, special education teachers are getting some of those bonuses because “that is a position that is really hard to sell right now,” Dorman said.

In May, the district offered $2,000 retention bonuses, or stipends, to teachers who stayed in their special education classrooms. Any additional funding of the retention bonuses will be subject to the budgeting process in the future. Regular education teachers and other district staff didn't get bonuses.

"I do believe special education teachers appreciated the retention bonus, because several of them communicated with me," Dorman said. "However, I don't have any data on how many teachers were looking to leave (the district) but stayed because of the bonus."

The district also plans to survey its employees on what would help keep them in the profession and on how retention strategies are going.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: SD solutions to teacher shortage include recruitment, retention strategies