PITTSBURG, Kan. -- Well-dressed and smiling with freshly printed resumes in hand, the newest crop of Pittsburg State teachers moved from table to table in the Plaster Center, Thursday, where they met with administrators from school districts in Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. As demand for teachers in all areas is currently high, it seemed likely that nearly all of the young candidates would have at least one job offer by day’s end.

Dr. Jean Dockers, director of Teacher Education at PSU, said enrollment in teacher education dropped dramatically during Covid, but has been steadily growing, meaning Pitt State will be able to help fill some of those open positions.

“Post covid numbers are coming up,” Dockers said. “We have 90 student teachers this semester, which is a pre-covid number. We haven’t had that many in a long time. We have a large elementary class that is graduating this semester and we have another large elementary class that will be starting in the fall in their last junior-1 block. So those numbers are coming up steadily.”

Dockers noted that the university’s alternative certification programs are growing once again and, she said, “We’re trying to do some innovative things with licensing with the state Department of Ed to try and get more students licensed in a way that is good for the schools and good for the profession.”

Despite that encouraging news, there are longstanding hurdles.

“Math, science, SPED (special education),” Dockers said.

These are three specialized areas that just seem harder and harder for districts to fill and for teacher education programs to recruit into.

“Our math and science numbers are down,” Dockers said. “I have literally three in biology. Two graduated in the fall, one is graduating this semester and I won’t have another one until spring next year. I have zero in chemistry and physics. Math and science are the hardest ones to recruit as students.”