Technology on the Job for Schools

A new automated telephone “sub-finder” system in the Los Angeles schools has dramatically cut the number of classrooms that lack substitute teachers when regular teachers are absent. That means fewer students are forced to squeeze into the classroom of another teacher or spend a wasted day doing busy work under the eye of a harried principal or an aide.

Only 16 requests for substitute teachers went unfilled Tuesday, the day after the installation of 50 more phone lines enabled the six-week-old automated system to function at its capacity. One week earlier, 145 requests had gone unfilled, affecting thousands of students. The new process on Tuesday also shaved two hours off the usual time needed to contact subs and get their work commitments.

This is measurable progress in a 723,000-student district that desperately needs more teachers. Nearly two months into the traditional school year, 450 classrooms lack permanent teachers, and those students must depend on substitutes.

On average, the district receives requests for more than 1,500 substitute teachers every day. That number should be reduced. To cut down on teacher absences, school board member Mike Lansing recommends compensating teachers who have perfect or near-perfect attendance--a plan that could have a quick payoff, though of course it shouldn’t be necessary to bribe employees to show up for work.

Teacher shortages are concentrated in low-income areas, particularly the southern and central sections of the sprawling school district. The district’s instruction department has recommended that the school board revisit incentives that once rewarded teachers who went to hard-to-staff schools. Again, the challenge would be finding ways to pay for that incentive.

With the automated calling system for subs reducing the number of students who have no teacher, the district is now free to work on longer-terms solutions that would put a qualified permanent teacher in every classroom.