For the second year in a row, thousands of Oklahoma teachers went to the state capitol to rally for public education. Administrators have painted a dire picture of the state’s education system: Teachers are leaving the state or leaving the profession.
Two young Tulsa high-school teachers shared how they got here and what it will take for them to stay.
In an 11th grade U.S. history class on the third floor of Nathan Hale High School, the students are working on a civil rights timeline. Their teacher isn’t much older than them.
"I’m 22 years old. I have been teaching for one year. This is my first year," said Emily Durbin.
After class she walked to Colin Sato’s classroom on the first floor. His silver pi cufflinks are sort of a giveaway.
"This is my second year teaching. I teach algebra II and calculus," Sato said. "Calculus is kind of the mathematical love of my life, I guess."
How did they get here? Teach for America for Sato, who’s from Chicago. The traditional route for Durbin, who grew up in the neighborhood she now works in.
But why Oklahoma? The state has a poor reputation among teachers, something Durbin experienced at a local job fair last year.
"Schools from Texas — they were busy all day at that job fair," Durbin said. "There were, you know, soon-to-be graduates, you know, really interested in wanting to work in Texas."
Durbin can’t imagine teaching anywhere else. Sato came because Teach for America considers Oklahoma a high-needs state. They are exactly the type of teachers Oklahoma wants in its public education system.
"The idea that we work from 8:45 until 3:50, which is the school day at Nathan Hale, is so ridiculous, and it’s not just planning," Sato said. "I’ve taken one of my students to the hospital because he couldn’t get in contact with his parents. This was at, like, midnight."
"There’s always something I can do to make my lessons better, something I can do to help," Durbin said. "Even if it’s just I have one kid in my head — of how could I have made this lesson better for him, just that one kid — then I’ll get up from what I’m doing and start working on that."
While Durbin and Sato are only first- and second-year teachers, they’re sure they’ll be teachers in five, 10, 20 years. That’s not youthful optimism, however. They understand public education hasn’t been a priority.
"The state legislature definitely has broken down the morale of teachers, and it’s becoming such a problem that not only are they leaving the profession, there are several that you don’t hear about that think about it every day," Durbin said.
Unfilled vacancies are one part of the problem. Last year, Sato taught a math class that wasn’t his because of a position that wasn’t filled.
Boosting teachers’ pay — a tough sell with growing state budget gaps — is one step. The other is re-evaluating high-stakes testing, like end of instruction tests.
"People, I think, assume, 'Oh, EOIs' — like the algebra II EOI — 'Well, if everybody’s taking it, that must be a really good test. That must really test a lot'," Sato said. "First of all, if you were to show it to anybody who studies math or is a mathematician, they would be, like, 'This is garbage.'
"I can see how maybe you could use it to weed out this person didn’t do anything at all."
The U.S. history EOI worries Durbin.
"Our principal, he’s present, but he’s not seeing the learning happen in my classroom every single day. But he does see my EOI scores after my students take the test," Durbin said. "What else is there to judge how well I’ve taught them history?"
The bottom line: Without any sort of incentives for teachers — higher pay, smaller class sizes, testing reform — Oklahoma risks losing out on or losing teachers like Sato and Durbin.
"I want to see education in Oklahoma improve, and I want to be a part of it," Durbin said. "There’s lots of people that think, 'I need to make more money. I wish I had nicer things.'
"I’m fine driving a car that’s as old as my students are. That’s OK with me, because this job isn’t about me and it isn’t about my paycheck. It’s about them."
