<p>When schools talk about their placement rate after graduation, you also need another number, the percentage that start out in music ed that complete the degree and do so within 4 years. That will tell you how many get through the program and how long it takes. S3 started in education at a school that has a high placement rate. They make the curriculum such that they weed out the ones who don't seem suited for education in the first year. But not much of a chance to grow into it either. He probably woudl have been a good teacher, but needed more time to settle into it. Did not make it through the first year.</p>
<p>mercymom - I hadn't read the job description. LOL. I am sure it has to do with possible lawsuits. </p>
<p>jazzmom - cartera mom hit it on the nose. We live in Waldorf. A little east but a large part of Charles County is directly south of DC. Maryland is small but has an unusual shape.</p>
<p>violadad - there might be some systems that have a hard time getting teachers because they are underfunded, poorly paid, and badly run. But there is a severe teacher shortage in Maryland that hasn't nothing to do with any of these things. Maryland graduates around 2500 education majors each year from Maryland colleges. This year Maryland needed around 8000 new teachers. Some of the need comes from growth. There are several fast growing areas in Maryland. Some of it is from teachers retiring. And some of it is from teachers leaving after 4 or 5 years. In our county the starting pay for teachers is over 42,000. We recruit a lot from Penn., Michigan, and Ohio. Apparently these states do not have a shortage. Teachers leave for several different reasons. One the cost of living is very high here. The salary and benefits look very attractive but the reality when they get here is that it is very difficult to live here on a beginning teacher's salary. Another reason is that they come here and boyfriend/girlfriend, mom and dad are still in Penn., Michigan, or Ohio. They stay a few years and have fun but in the end when they get ready to really settle down they want to go back home. Finally the stresses of teaching are just too much and they decide they would rather have a different job.
I think our county does a decent job (not great) of supporting the arts. We have some really great music teachers and some not so great ones. Many of our music teachers graduated from JMU. I can think of one not so great one that did. One of the best in our county graduated from LSU. The best musicians are not always the best teachers.</p>
<p>In some states the public employee retirement programs are amazing. This might be an incentive for some to leave the field, combined perhaps with safety concerns.</p>