Continued: With teacher away, is it a useful day?

Diane Wiltermuth retired from the Anoka-Hennepin schools in 2003 after 34 years, but nearly every day since she has stood before classes as a substitute teacher.

"I work a lot," Wiltermuth said recently as she filled in for an English teacher at Coon Rapids High School.

Students across the Twin Cities and the United States are seeing many substitute teachers like Wiltermuth. The use of substitutes now is so great that a recent study shows U.S. students will have spent the equivalent of a full year with a substitute by the time they graduate from high school. And research shows that even 10 days with a substitute can lower student test scores. In the state's three largest districts, thousands of regular teachers miss tens of thousands of days a year, requiring schools to turn time and again to substitutes.

This continuous need for subs -- as well as a demand to improve student achievement -- is pressuring schools to ensure that time with a substitute is still quality instruction.

"It really depends on who is in front of a student," said Thomas Dooher, president of Education Minnesota, the statewide teachers union. "With No Child Left Behind [the federal education law] and increased accountability, you really want that student in front of their teacher as much as you can."

But life happens, and subs are needed. Wiltermuth didn't know she was teaching at Coon Rapids until getting a call at 10:30 the night before, asking her to sub for another substitute who had to cancel for a family emergency.

The key to keep from losing ground, officials say, is planning and preparation.

Many regular teachers now provide detailed lesson plans for subs to follow. Such plans also can include details about the kids, the school schedule and the procedures to follow if there is a problem.

"Is this useful time?" Wiltermuth said as her class prepared to watch a movie and then take a test -- tasks laid out by the regular teacher. "A lot of it depends on how it's set up."

For example, when Wiltermuth was still a regular teacher, she drove to school on the day her father died to write up several days worth of lessons just so her class wouldn't fall behind.

Dorothy Hoffman, director of curriculum and instruction for the Minneapolis schools, said three things are needed to ensure students don't fall behind with a substitute.

"First, how well-prepared is the classroom teacher? The second piece is how well has the teacher prepared their students for the experience? Do they know they will have specific tasks while the regular teacher is out of the classroom?" Hoffman said. "And the third piece is how skilled is the reserve teacher? You don't always get someone who is even licensed in the discipline."

Minnesota school districts require their substitutes to be fully licensed teachers. And long-term subs must be licensed in the subject areas they teach. But it is not unusual for a teacher like Wiltermuth, who taught business, to have to cover an English class.

Anne Forest, a retired parochial and public school teacher who has been a sub in St. Paul for 15 years, seemingly teaches a different grade in a different school -- elementary through high school -- just about every day.

Forest sees her breadth of experience as an advantage.

"I may have a better idea of how to work with a fifth-grader who is having trouble, because of my experience, than someone who has only taught the second grade," she said.

Still, officials acknowledge that keeping teachers in their own classrooms is ideal. They develop relationships with their students. They know strengths and weaknesses.

"Anybody who walks into the classroom who is not the teacher the students are used to is going to create a change in the life of the kids," said Valeria Silva, chief academic officer for the St. Paul Public Schools. "When teachers are not in the classroom for any length of time, say about 10 days, it's an issue. Student performance is going to be affected."

Subs up, scores down

According to a recent story by the Associated Press, Charles Clofelter, a Duke University researcher studying the impact of using substitute teachers on student learning, has found a link between teacher absences and lower student test scores. Raegen Miller, who is conducting research at the University of Washington, is studying the impact of teacher absences on fourth-grade test scores. He found that 10 teacher absences a year can cause a significant drop in math achievement. And a teacher gone for two weeks can put students behind at least that much time.

Yet few districts are dialing back on the number of substitute teachers they use. In fact, according to U.S. Department of Education data, substitutes are filling long-term vacancies. Nationwide, the number of schools reporting that they used substitutes to fill regular teaching vacancies doubled between 1994 and 2004. More than one-fifth of U.S. schools use subs to fill vacancies.

Whether long-term or short-term, schools' need for subs is acute.

In the Anoka-Hennepin schools, the state's largest district, teachers were out of the classroom 37,702 days in 2006-07, with more than 14,000 of those days used for training or meetings. In Minneapolis, where officials said about 3.4 percent of regular classroom teachers are absent on any given day, teachers missed the equivalent of about 13,000 days last school year for staff development or other reasons, district officials said. And last year, about 2,800 St. Paul classroom teachers missed 33,868 days -- including a little more than 13,000 days for training.

"Sometimes, we need 300 [substitute] teachers in the system to cover all the classes in a day," Silva said.

Still, using a sub is often considered the best option. When subs cannot be found, schools have to get other classroom teachers to cover during their prep period. Or kids are farmed out to other rooms.

Acknowledging the need to reduce teacher absences, St. Paul is moving away from taking teachers out of their classrooms for staff development. The St. Paul schools this year are doing more in-room training, by using coaches who observe teachers with their class. So far this year, the district has cut in half the number of days teachers are out of their school for training.

Forest, who serves as secretary of the St. Paul Reserve Teachers Association, said the issue isn't whether using substitute teachers is good or bad. "The real issue is how can we make sure when there is a need for a substitute that it's a good day for the students and their learning?"

How well the regular teacher plans and how well administrators support subs go a long way to answer that question, she said.

Wiltermuth said her goal is simple: "That the kids stayed safe, we've followed the directions of the instructor and the time has been useful."

Most of the time, she said, she succeeds.

"About 90 percent," she said, smiling.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. James Walsh • 651-298-1541