Trend+10

=Trend 10: Competition will increase to attract and keep qualified educators.= (High Demand...Even Higher Demand)

__** External **__

1. Many Keeping qualified teachers and dismissing the rest will cause many teachers to explore alternative careers, therefore increasing job competition across the board. Laid-off teachers will seek other jobs to stay afloat. Employers of all fields will see an even greater amount of applicants competing for the same job. Laid-off teachers with advanced degrees, specialized skills and years of experience will give other applicants some serious competition.

2. In many places, families can choose whether to opt out of the public schools and send their children to private school alternatives. This option enhances parental choice and potentially imposes additional competitive pressures on public schools. Therefore, schools want the best teachers in order to attract the best students.

3. Allocating funds, determining curriculum, hiring teachers, and making a variety of other decisions suggests that much if not most of the effects of competition operates at the district level.

4. Universities will be required to improve their educational preparatory programs in order to prepare new teachers to be competitive in the teaching field.

5. Competition to "be the best" will most likely continue to promote standardization within schools. Since parents and communities will want tangible evidence to measure success, the importance of test scores will continue to increase.

__**Internal **__ 1. Many school districts are cutting teachers based on the number of years they’ve been teaching, not how well their students perform or how effective they are in the classroom. This layoff system not only puts young teachers at risk for losing their jobs, but students are also getting the short end of the stick. Making layoffs without considering performance can be detrimental to student academic performance because the teachers who stay may not be the best educators. Just because a teacher has been at a school for multiple years doesn’t necessarily make him or her better educators — they just have more experience.

2. Because teacher quality has been identified as one of the most important determinants of student outcomes, it is logical to believe that the effects of competition on hiring, retention, monitoring, and other personnel practices would be one of the most important aspects of any force toward improving public school quality. Some research suggests that competition raises teacher quality and improves the overall quality of education.

3. Competition among schools within a system could promote competition within individual schools, which if used in an unbalanced way could stifle collaboration.

4. Teachers competing to be the best may instill that competitive nature to their students. This has the potential to teach children that the most important goal is: "always win and be the best," which neglects many other important life lessons.

5. Many teachers will perform at a higher level when they feel there is something "at stake." From this aspect, competition can be beneficial.