BISMARCK — Like many workplaces in North Dakota, schools are struggling to find people to hire. But this gloomy employment picture has a silver lining: Most newly appointed teachers in the state still hope to make education their career.

That’s according to survey results presented Thursday, Oct. 13 at an online meeting of the North Dakota Education Standards and Practice Board.

Compiled by the North Dakota Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, the Transition to Teaching Survey is conducted in late spring each year and surveys teachers shortly after completing their teacher education programs.

From 2018 to 2021, more than 700 people per year completed teacher preparation programs in North Dakota, and as of early 2022, about 226 “program graduates” answered a transition survey question. into teaching who asked if they were looking for a job as a certified teacher.

About 97% said they were. Moreover, of the 197 respondents who answered the question of whether they considered teaching a career, 157 answered in the affirmative.

A number of members of the North Dakota Education Standards and Practice Board said they found the survey encouraging, particularly in light of a recently released survey by North Dakota United, a teachers’ union, which indicated that many State teachers were considering leaving the profession.

Stacy Duffield, director of the Office of Teaching and Learning at North Dakota State University, who presented the study results on Thursday, agreed that a number of the results were positive and full of hope.

Although she also noted, “They’re brand new teachers; they might still be kind of in their honeymoon phase.”

After Thursday’s meeting, Duffield said in a phone interview that the first five years of a teacher’s career are critical when it comes to job satisfaction, adding that a substantial and sustained connection with a dedicated mentor often does. all the difference.

“One thing we see is that we do a great job with that first year, mentoring them, and then we don’t do the same in second through fourth years,” she said. .

“If you can sustain a teacher with that professional support, and they can last up to five years and feel successful and competent, they’re likely to stay. If they start to feel that burnout or if they don’t feel unsupported is when they are most likely to leave,” she added.