Since the pandemic, a rise in classroom disruptions and pressure to help students catch up makes substitute teaching even more challenging, experts say.

By Kelly Burch, Granite State News Collaborative 

When Megan Oxland was substitute teaching she felt unprotected and undervalued, she says. Oxland, a Sunapee resident, is a certified teacher who had worked full-time in a classroom in the past, but as a substitute she was paid the same as people with no specialized training. 

"I was getting paid exactly the same as anyone off the street, but my level of education was much higher than many other subs who were working,” she said. “How do you keep your work ethic up when you aren’t getting paid what you’re worth?”

In addition to pay concerns, Oxland felt vulnerable without any union representation, which full-time teachers have. She said she worried about standing up to students or parents, knowing that the district would have little incentive to stand behind her if parents felt their child was slighted. 

“I don’t want to deal with people always threatening to sue,” she said. 

Eventually, Oxland took a full-time teaching position in Newport, where she works today. While she loves education, she disliked her time as a substitute, and talks openly about her concerns with other people who might consider substitute teaching.

"When people ask me why aren’t you subbing anymore, that deters the next person from ever wanting to sign up to sub,” she said. 

New Hampshire educators say that there’s always been a shortage of substitute teachers in the state, but the pandemic has made it worse. While substitute teaching has always been a challenge, pressure to help students catch up on academic losses from the pandemic and a rise in reports of school misbehavior have intensified the pressure that substitutes face, said Heather Peske, president of National Council on Teacher Quality, a Washington D.C.-based research and policy group focused on educational issues. 

“There have been a lot of challenges since the pandemic,” Peske said.

With misbehaviors on the rise, substitutes are hesitant to enter the classroom

While Oxland worried about job security and legal troubles, other substitutes are concerned for their physical safety. It’s a well-known problem that students feel they can get away with more when a substitute is present, educators say. 

“That’s a pretty longstanding cultural tradition,” said  Kimberly Bleier, who teaches social studies at Concord High School. 

Since the pandemic, the problem may have become worse, with 84% of public schools reporting that student behavior has been negatively impacted, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). In Keene, high school officials reported more vandalism, fighting and other misbehaviors last year. 

Around the same time, Nashua High School North teacher Walt Freeman appeared before the school board to discuss the “violence and apathy” that he felt had turned his school into “a dystopian novel.” He later appeared on the NH PBS show “The State We’re In” to discuss a rise in violence in Granite State Schools. 

About half of schools report an increase in disrespect of staff and classroom disruptions. Concerns over student behaviors weigh heavily on substitutes, especially if they have a bad experience at a particular school or classroom, according to NCES. 

“We have some subs who said ‘No, no way I’m ever going there again,’” said Terry Burlingame, a Spanish teacher at the Gilmanton School.

Schools with high-needs students – including low-income students and those for whom English is a second language –  often struggle to get substitutes, as do rural communities, says Peske. 

In addition, certain subjects – including Burlingame's – are particularly hard to cover. She knows of one substitute in the district who speaks Spanish.

“I try to get her whenever I can,” Burlingame says. “If not, everything comes to a screeching halt.”

That’s not only disruptive academically, but it also impacts student’s morale, Freeman said last year. He said that students without subs are kept in study halls that Freeman described as “holding pens.”

“They’d come down the hallway, and they’d spot the sign on the door and their shoulders would sag. And sometimes they just go, ‘Again?’ or they’d look at us where we’re standing in front of our classrooms,” Freeman said. “… And we’d shake our heads and say, ‘I know — there’s nothing we can do.’ And they would trudge back to the auditorium.”

Calls for more support and training for subs

National research shows that substitutes prefer schools where student behavior is better and there is more support from administrators. But providing that support proves difficult when school systems are already stretched thin, educators say. 

In Berlin School District (SAU 3), training for new substitutes happens at the beginning of the school year, according to Debbie Payeur, the human resources administrator for the district. If a new substitute comes in after that training, principals offer guidance, but Payeur worries. 

“I don’t know if subs get the training they should,” she said. “We don’t want to just throw them to the wolves.”

Peske would like to see districts think about substitute teachers as a critical part of their workforce, inviting them to participate in training and ongoing professional education. 

“This gives them additional skills and also helps them to be more successful with students in that district,” she said.

Meanwhile, districts are doing their best to educate children and support teachers even without the substitutes that they need. Over February break, Jennifer Gillis, superintendent  of the Manchester School District, hosted open hours to interview potential subs. She said there’s a misconception that schools will take anyone who applies. 

“We have to take putting someone in that role, in front of students, very seriously,” she said. “We don’t hire anyone off the street.”

She asks applicants why they are interested in substitute teaching, and which students they’d most like to work with. She wants to see that their intention is to support learners, not just make money. Not just anyone can do substitute teaching, she said. 

“It takes a very special human to pop in and out of a typical life routine…,” she said. “It’s a pretty awesome responsibility and we need you to take it seriously.”

These articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information visit collaborativenh.org.