| Teacher retention: Working conditions drive decisions for stayers, leavers Volume 12, Issue 5 - February 2008 Stories by Sherry Posnick- Goodwin Within the next decade schools in California will need to hire roughly 200,000 teachers. Multiple factors are at play: insufficient numbers of teachers; the impending retirement of the baby boomers; low retention figures; and smaller numbers of new teachers being attracted to the profession. Combine all that with the recently proposed massive cuts to the education budget, and the stage is set for a major tragedy for California schools. Considering that the typical American school has 30 percent more teachers than California schools, our state would need to hire 100,000 additional teachers just to reach the national teacher-to-student ratio. Between retirements and attrition, California will have to replace 53,000 teachers in the next five years (approximately 100,000 in the next 10 years). At the same time that California approaches the retirement of baby boomers, the number of newly credentialed teachers is falling, as is the number of students entering teacher-prep programs. Add up these factors and the imbalance is impossible to miss. A number of districts are implementing inventive approaches to retain teachers, such as induction/mentoring programs and affordable housing. However, each year one in every 10 teachers working in high-poverty schools — the ones whose students pose the greatest educational challenges — transfers out. The reason cited most often is poor working conditions. Teachers want a safe place to work; they want supportive school leadership; they want a voice when it comes to discussing curriculum content and instructional strategies; and they want to be treated as professionals. This month our feature articles explore how the coming shortage will play out; how declining enrollment will impact the teacher shortage; what’s discouraging would-be teachers from even entering the profession; and what can be done to keep teachers in the classroom. Julie Palacios, shown here working with Yoselin Garcia (right) and Lorena Arenal, is staying in the teaching profession because New Highland Elementary in Oakland lets her meet the needs of her students. "Make strong sentences,” Julie Palacios tells her second- graders at New Highland Elementary School in Oakland. Students flex their arm muscles dramatically as they recite their constructions. Despite her love of strong sentences, it’s Palacios’ gentle style of teaching that endears her to students in this low- income neighborhood. She is warm and nurturing, but in control of her class. She uses humor and kinesthetic activities to connect with them. “I work best with the strugglers,” she says. “When I help them, I feel wonderful.” Palacios, who was born and raised in Oakland and has taught there for six years, understands her students. She’s the type of teacher that the Oakland Unified School District is lucky to have. But she nearly left a year ago because she was unhappy with the working conditions there. “I’ve considered leaving quite a few times even though I really enjoy this profession,” says Palacios, a member of the Oakland Education Association. During her first four years, Palacios taught at a school where she was constantly frustrated by the administration’s lack of support. During her first year, her students didn’t get their books until December, and she didn’t receive a teacher’s manual until February. She had to create her own assessment system in Excel to see if students were learning the state standards — as well as her own alphabet chart. And she did it all while working on an emergency credential. She did not feel respected, either. There were those she refers to as “police” who regularly monitored her classroom to make sure she was following the scripted program word for word. If she deviated — using her professional judgment to meet the individual needs of students — she was chastised by administrators. When her school was turned into a charter, she moved to another school where the conditions were “so-so.” Instead of leaving the profession, she transferred last fall to New Highland Elementary School. She wasn’t sure what to expect, but she was pleasantly surprised. “It’s very different,” she says. “I get a lot of support here. I have time to collaborate with other teachers. I have professional development that’s actually worth going to. We have a scripted program, but I use it as a tool to meet the needs of my children and I have flexibility. I’m treated like a professional. Now, I’ m willing to stay.” Palacios’ experiences in Oakland shed light on the high turnover rate in California, where nearly a third — 32 percent — of teachers leave the profession after seven years. “Teaching and Learning Conditions,” a survey by the New Teacher Center at the University of California at Santa Cruz, confirms what Palacios has discovered — that working conditions drive career decisions for educators. “Data collected from across the country show three primary findings,” says Eric Hirsch, who worked on the study. “The first is, teacher working conditions are critical for increasing student achievement. The second is that improving teaching conditions creates a more stable workforce. Third is that there are considerable gaps between the perception of teachers and administrators regarding the presence of key working conditions.” Ken Futernick, a member of the California Faculty Association, studied the phenomenon of what he calls “leavers” and “stayers” in a 2007 report for the Center for Teacher Quality at CSU- Sacramento. In “A Possible Dream: Retaining California Teachers So All Students Learn,” he found that while teachers are concerned about salary, they are more concerned about working conditions. “We found a key factor in driving people out of the profession is unresponsive bureaucracy that interferes with teaching,” says Futernick. “Leavers talked about top-down control, having little room for professional judgment, scripted curriculum and not being treated as professionals.” When asked which aspects of their work contributed most to remaining in the classroom, “stayers” frequently pointed to working conditions that included support from the district office, access to textbooks and learning materials, clean and safe facilities and manageable class sizes. The factor most “stayers” said kept them in the classroom was the decision-making authority they were given at their school. What mattered most, they said, was having a say about curriculum content and which instructional strategies they could use. Other reasons for staying were compensation, a collegial atmosphere among staff, a supportive principal, respect from parents and the community, and close personal relationships developed at the school site. Stayers frequently said their decisions were affected, at least in part, by being able to make an important difference in students’ lives. “Disillusionment with one-size-fits- all instruction is a big reason why new teachers are leaving in droves,” says Nena Torrez, a professor in the credential program at CSU-San Bernardino. “I hear that from my students all the time. When they enter the workforce they are upset that they can’t use all the creative teaching strategies that they learned in college to meet the individual needs of students.” Many believe the punitive No Child Left Behind law — and its heavy emphasis on testing — is a major reason they can’t. It’s somewhat of a paradox, says Futernick, “that the very things that were designed to improve education are, ironically, driving out well-prepared, experienced teachers — the classroom component that assures students will get a good education.” That’s true in the Bakersfield City School District, notes Carol Reichert, president of the Bakersfield Elementary Teachers Association (BETA). In her district, much of the teacher shortage is due to veteran teachers leaving. “The recent phone calls I have been receiving from my veteran teachers indicate that they have had it,” says Reichert. “They resent the distrust that the district is showing toward them. They feel their expertise is being questioned by the countless number of visits and observations from district and state personnel, and they want outta here. “As a president, it breaks my heart when I get calls from veteran teachers who want to get their retirement papers in order so they can slip away over winter break and fade into obscurity. These are decorated 25-years-plus veterans.” Diane Hislop, a fifth-grade teacher at Frank West Elementary in Bakersfield, shows Natalie Ramos how to create a solar oven. Diane Hislop, a veteran BETA teacher, is close to the breaking point after 22 years. Recently, she was chastised for not posting the standards in the “proper” spot in her room. She had put them at eye level for her fifth-graders, but was told they were too low and should be raised. “It’s just one more thing that’s been taken away,” says an exasperated Hislop, who was Teacher of the Year for Kern County in 2002. “You are constantly being beat up. Every time you turn around, you hear, ‘Oh no, you’re doing this wrong. Oh no, you have to do this.’” Frequent interruptions about less-than-urgent matters take “huge amounts of time away from teaching.” Her passion is science, but with the emphasis on testing, there is no time for it anymore. She tries to sneak it in occasionally with such projects as having students create solar ovens from pizza boxes. A schoolwide science fair she puts on provides the only science some students receive. “More pressure and unrealistic expectations are being put on teachers,” laments Hislop. “Two co-workers of mine are retiring early because they can’t take it anymore. But if we all abandoned ship, what would happen?” Even though Hislop is unhappy, for the time being she’s staying put. She explains, “I’m not going to leave, because I love these kids.” But she would like to be treated as a professional. A stone’s throw away is Suburu Elementary School in the Lakeside Union School District. Teachers there, for the most part, are “stayers,” says Lakeside/Suburu Teachers Association President Camilla Sandrini, a teacher at the site. Their salary is not the highest in the area, but compensation is becoming more competitive with neighboring districts. Veteran teachers and newcomers alike are happy with the working conditions. “We find that our new, young teachers are staying. Many of them come here as student teachers and find they really want to stay.” Melissa Gayer, a new teacher at Suburu Elementary School in Bakersfield, says she’ll happily stay because of the support she gets from her school. Melissa Gayer was a student teacher who was pleased to be hired on. “We have a great administration,” says the kindergarten instructor. “They give us the support we need. They trust us and treat us like we know what we’re doing. I can teach the way I think my students need to be taught. I don’ t think any one student learns the same way as the rest, so this allows me to be flexible with my students. And teachers collaborate on almost a daily basis, which makes things really nice.” She has no intention of seeing if the grass is greener elsewhere. “It’s not part of the plan.” Craig Bailey, a fifth-grade teacher who has worked at the site for four years, believes that allowing teachers to have a say in decision-making is a factor in the low turnover rate at the school. “We get in a group and make decisions,” he says. “For example, they came and asked us what curriculum we wanted to have for science.” “We are still allowed to take field trips and have class parties,” says Carolina Obenshain, who has been there for seven years. “Our principal allows us to go ahead and use our own judgment. I don’t know if that sets us apart from other schools, because I’ve never worked anywhere else. But when you talk to people at other schools, it sounds like night and day.” Back in Oakland, the school district is concerned about losing good teachers like Julie Palacios. A district committee studied the problem and reached the same conclusions as other studies: Most teachers leave because they do not feel respected, and because they feel that working conditions are not conducive to good teaching. Oakland has a challenging student population, but teachers interviewed seldom mentioned difficult students as the cause of their leaving, says OEA President Betty Olsen Jones, who serves on the committee. “The district says it wants to do something about the shortage and the high turnover rate, and some really are interested in making a difference,” says Jones. “They always use the same excuse — they just don’t have the funds. I’m hoping this time might be different.” Palacios has attended the district’ s meetings and hopes some of the recommendations will be implemented. She is now a BTSA coach, trained to help other first- year teachers in a way that nobody helped her. (As an emergency credential teacher, she was not eligible for BTSA.) “My view is that it’s pretty simple,” she says. “You need to give people basic support. You need to provide them with what they need in the way of materials and books for students. And, on top of that, you have to treat them as professionals. “I’ve seen so many creative teachers who loved teaching and said, ‘I’m outta here,’ ” says Palacios. “I was almost one of them. But I’m so glad I stayed in a place where I can really make a difference.” http://www.cta. org/media/publications/educator/current/0208_feat_01 .htm |
| SAN DIEGO EDUCATION REPORT |
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Why Teachers Leave
by Cynthia Kopkowski
April 2008 issue
NEA Today
Why They Leave
Lack of respect, NCLB, and
underfunding in a topsy-turvy
profession, what can make today's
teachers stay?
By Cynthia Kopkowski
One afternoon, the public address
system at Janet Griggs' school where
administrators have done away with
paper memos crackles with the
announcement that staff heading to
impending team meetings should refer
to the room assignments listed in the
e-mail they received that day.
Confused teachers wander the halls
confirming with one another that
nobody got the e-mail. The PA system
stirs to life again, informing teachers
that administrators just realized they
never sent it. The disembodied voice
then starts giving instructions about
the meetings, sending teachers
scrambling for paper to write it all
down. Administrators later send the
e-mail after most of the meetings have
adjourned.
If it were a Dilbert comic strip, readers
would chuckle. But when what's at
stake is the professionalism of
educators like Griggs, a 61-year-old
communication arts teacher in St.
Louis, Missouri, and the quality of
instruction for the children they want
so desperately to teach, well, it's no
laughing matter. Yet every day,
workplace conditions are sometimes so
surreal they make leaving the
profession seem like their best or only
option.
Nationally, the average turnover for all
teachers is 17 percent, and in urban
school districts specifically, the number
jumps to 20 percent, according to the
National Center for Education
Statistics. The National Commission on
Teaching and America's Future
proffers starker numbers, estimating
that one-third of all new teachers leave
after three years, and 46 percent are
gone within five years.
Their departure through what
researchers call the "revolving door"
that's spinning ever faster the
commission estimates teacher attrition
has grown by 50 percent over the past
15 years costs roughly $7 billion a
year, as districts and states recruit,
hire, and try to retain new teachers.
"There is this idea that we can solve
the teaching shortage with
recruitment," says commission
President Tom Carroll. "What we have
is a retention crisis." Likening it to
continually dumping sand into a bucket
with holes in the bottom, Carroll says,
"as fast as [the districts] are moving
teachers into schools, they're leaving."
Marta Nielson, an elementary school
teacher in Vista, California, is leaving.
Her current classroom is packed with
up to 38 students. There are no aides
and the obsessive focus on cramming
for standardized tests means "an
atmosphere of constant stress and
fear," she says. The result? She's
leaving at the end of the year for a
small private school.
Teacher Exits - The Devils in the
Details What's the real story behind
the statistics?
While Baby Boomer retirement is a
factor in the current turnover rates, it is
dwarfed by those leaving for troubling
reasons like Nielson's. Take the U.S.
Department of Education's 2005
examination of departures. Thirty
percent of teachers left in 2003-04
because of retirement, but 56 percent
left citing job dissatisfaction and a
desire to find an entirely new career.
"The whole retirement thing has been
consistently exaggerated," says
University of Pennsylvania researcher
Richard Ingersoll. Policymakers and
administrators blame retirement in a
case of "wrong diagnosis and wrong
prescription," he says. "You can't do a
whole lot about retirement, but you can
do something about the way schools
are organized, operated, and
managed."
What is it about the day-to-day
experiences of teachers that has so
many heading for the door each year?
Researchers across the country
devoted much time during the past two
years polling the group they call "the
leavers." Last year's report from the
National Center for Education Statistics
outlined a series of reasons why that
group is swelling, based on interviews
with more than 7,000 current and
former teachers. Some states have
conducted their own polling of tens of
thousands of members.
What they're hearing from educators is
at times surprising and disheartening,
but it's also spurring efforts to improve
the system.
http://www.nea.org/neatoday/0804/whytheyleave.html
by Cynthia Kopkowski
April 2008 issue
NEA Today
Why They Leave
Lack of respect, NCLB, and
underfunding in a topsy-turvy
profession, what can make today's
teachers stay?
By Cynthia Kopkowski
One afternoon, the public address
system at Janet Griggs' school where
administrators have done away with
paper memos crackles with the
announcement that staff heading to
impending team meetings should refer
to the room assignments listed in the
e-mail they received that day.
Confused teachers wander the halls
confirming with one another that
nobody got the e-mail. The PA system
stirs to life again, informing teachers
that administrators just realized they
never sent it. The disembodied voice
then starts giving instructions about
the meetings, sending teachers
scrambling for paper to write it all
down. Administrators later send the
e-mail after most of the meetings have
adjourned.
If it were a Dilbert comic strip, readers
would chuckle. But when what's at
stake is the professionalism of
educators like Griggs, a 61-year-old
communication arts teacher in St.
Louis, Missouri, and the quality of
instruction for the children they want
so desperately to teach, well, it's no
laughing matter. Yet every day,
workplace conditions are sometimes so
surreal they make leaving the
profession seem like their best or only
option.
Nationally, the average turnover for all
teachers is 17 percent, and in urban
school districts specifically, the number
jumps to 20 percent, according to the
National Center for Education
Statistics. The National Commission on
Teaching and America's Future
proffers starker numbers, estimating
that one-third of all new teachers leave
after three years, and 46 percent are
gone within five years.
Their departure through what
researchers call the "revolving door"
that's spinning ever faster the
commission estimates teacher attrition
has grown by 50 percent over the past
15 years costs roughly $7 billion a
year, as districts and states recruit,
hire, and try to retain new teachers.
"There is this idea that we can solve
the teaching shortage with
recruitment," says commission
President Tom Carroll. "What we have
is a retention crisis." Likening it to
continually dumping sand into a bucket
with holes in the bottom, Carroll says,
"as fast as [the districts] are moving
teachers into schools, they're leaving."
Marta Nielson, an elementary school
teacher in Vista, California, is leaving.
Her current classroom is packed with
up to 38 students. There are no aides
and the obsessive focus on cramming
for standardized tests means "an
atmosphere of constant stress and
fear," she says. The result? She's
leaving at the end of the year for a
small private school.
Teacher Exits - The Devils in the
Details What's the real story behind
the statistics?
While Baby Boomer retirement is a
factor in the current turnover rates, it is
dwarfed by those leaving for troubling
reasons like Nielson's. Take the U.S.
Department of Education's 2005
examination of departures. Thirty
percent of teachers left in 2003-04
because of retirement, but 56 percent
left citing job dissatisfaction and a
desire to find an entirely new career.
"The whole retirement thing has been
consistently exaggerated," says
University of Pennsylvania researcher
Richard Ingersoll. Policymakers and
administrators blame retirement in a
case of "wrong diagnosis and wrong
prescription," he says. "You can't do a
whole lot about retirement, but you can
do something about the way schools
are organized, operated, and
managed."
What is it about the day-to-day
experiences of teachers that has so
many heading for the door each year?
Researchers across the country
devoted much time during the past two
years polling the group they call "the
leavers." Last year's report from the
National Center for Education Statistics
outlined a series of reasons why that
group is swelling, based on interviews
with more than 7,000 current and
former teachers. Some states have
conducted their own polling of tens of
thousands of members.
What they're hearing from educators is
at times surprising and disheartening,
but it's also spurring efforts to improve
the system.
http://www.nea.org/neatoday/0804/whytheyleave.html
The key to retaining teachers:
Listening to their suggestions
Volume 12, Issue 5 - February 2008
As CTA has maintained for years,
improving conditions at public
schools is critical to retaining
teachers, says Ken Futernick. His
study, “A Possible Dream: Retaining
California Teachers So All Students
Learn,” was released in 2007 by the
Center for Teacher Quality at CSU-
Sacramento.
Giving teacher a say in curriculum
decisions will lower turnover rates,
says fifth-grade teacher Craig
Bailey.
“California should be following the
lead of North Carolina, Arizona,
Nevada, Kansas and other states
by surveying teachers about their
teaching and learning conditions
and fixing what is wrong,” says
Futernick, a member of the
California Faculty Association.
“States that improve conditions are
finding that fewer teachers are
leaving before retirement age.”
Futernick conducted a Web-based
survey of thousands of teachers
and included the following retention
strategies in his report:
Conduct regular surveys and focus
groups with teachers — and other
school staff — to assess the quality
of the teaching conditions in the
school and the district. If conditions
are poor, fix them.
Elevate California’s student funding
to adequate levels and increase per-
pupil expenditures. The state
currently ranks 43rd in the nation in
per-pupil spending.
Have school administrators in place
who support teachers, include them
in decision-making, and treat them
like professionals.
Refocus school leadership on
instructional strategies, create
Professional Learning Communities,
and provide a positive working
environment.
Establish statewide standards for
school environments that promote
teacher retention and student
learning.
Assess and address specific
challenges in retention of special
education teachers, including
workload, overly burdensome IEPs
and related paperwork, insufficient
support, and isolation from
colleagues.
Ken Futernick
Implementing the above
recommendations could have a
huge impact in keeping teachers
from leaving and possibly
encourage others to return to the
classroom, believes Futernick. “By
reducing the rate of attrition by 30
percent and increasing the number
of teachers re-entering the
profession by 30 percent, California
could reduce its projected annual
teacher shortage by nearly a third.”
In the face of the growing teacher
shortage, retaining teachers has
taken on a new urgency, says CTA
President David A. Sanchez. And
that means improving the conditions
at schools that are driving teachers
out of the classroom.
“CTA has led the charge to change
the climate that has been created
under No Child Left Behind, and
bring back the joy of teaching,” says
Sanchez. “Hopefully, that can
happen when No Child Left Behind
is reauthorized under a new
president.”
Increasing salaries would also help
retain teachers. Teacher salaries in
the U.S. have remained stagnant for
the last decade, according to an
NEA study.
However, letting veteran teachers
transfer to low-income schools
could help retain teachers and
offset the imbalance of having too
many new teachers working in the
most challenging schools, say some
CTA members. About a quarter of
new classroom teachers in
California are interns working on
their credentials, and about half of
these inexperienced teachers work
in districts with the most challenging
students. Studies show that having
a majority of inexperienced teachers
in the most challenging schools
contributes to the shortage.
“They say that experienced
teachers don’t want to work in
challenging, low-performing
schools, but it’s not true,” says Rick
De Francesco, a member of the
Sequoia District Teachers
Association. “But when veteran
teachers want to transfer to a new
school district, they often come up
much shorter on the pay scale than
where they are, because they can’t
transfer all their years of
experience.”
“I would love to work with low-
performing kids and go somewhere
where I am needed more,” adds De
Francesco, who has raised this
topic at CTA’s State Council of
Education. “But if I did, I would
probably go down quite a bit on the
pay scale. I would like it to become
law that teachers who transfer to
low-performing districts are paid for
all their experience.”
Cindy Crawford, a member of the
San Lorenzo Teachers Association,
believes that pensions should also
be a consideration. “My pension
covers years of service and the
highest level of pay I receive during
my last few years of service. If I go
to a low-performing district and get
less pay, it lowers my overall
retirement dollars.”
CTA President Sanchez hopes that
the CTA-sponsored Quality
Education Investment Act (QEIA) will
have an impact on teacher retention
in the 488 schools that will share
$2.9 billion over the next seven
years. The money is earmarked for
such reforms as smaller class sizes,
more counselors, and better
training for teachers and principals.
“This is a historic opportunity for
positive changes at these
disadvantaged schools,” says
Sanchez of the money that resulted
from the settlement of a lawsuit CTA
filed against Gov. Schwarzenegger.
“We expect that at those schools
there will be an increase in teacher
retention.”
Administrators can also spell the
difference between retaining and
losing a teacher, according to Jan
Richards, a National University
professor in teacher education. He
studied teachers in their first five
years of teaching and found that
new teachers need emotional
support, but are often treated coldly
instead.
“New teachers need reassurance
that they are doing a good job and
that they are showing professional
growth,” states the report, “What
New Teachers Value Most in
Principals.”
“A principal’s willingness to offer
suggestions and encouragement
(and sometimes comfort) may be an
undervalued commodity.”
A follow-up study of the same
teachers after they had been in the
profession six to 10 years found the
same principal behaviors were still
the most valued:
Respecting and valuing teachers as
professionals.
Having an open-door policy and
being accessible, available and
willing to listen.
Being fair, honest and trustworthy.
Supporting teachers dealing with
parents.
Supporting teachers in matters of
student discipline.
In some schools, a high turnover of
principals contributes to a high
turnover of teachers, says Nikita
Gibbs, a teacher at Lockwood
Elementary School in Oakland.
“The first year I had support, but
after that it was a revolving door of
administrators,” says the Oakland
Education Association member. “It
makes some people want to leave.”
Retaining teachers is a far larger
problem than recruiting new ones —
and a key to solving teacher
shortages, says Linda Darling-
Hammond, a professor at Stanford
University’s School of Education.
She estimates it costs $15,000 on
average per recruit who leaves —
at least $2 billion annually in
California.
“These funds should be spent
strategically on stronger teaching
supports, rather than wasted on a
fast-spinning revolving door.”
http://www.cta.
org/media/publications/educator/current/0208_feat_05
.htm
Listening to their suggestions
Volume 12, Issue 5 - February 2008
As CTA has maintained for years,
improving conditions at public
schools is critical to retaining
teachers, says Ken Futernick. His
study, “A Possible Dream: Retaining
California Teachers So All Students
Learn,” was released in 2007 by the
Center for Teacher Quality at CSU-
Sacramento.
Giving teacher a say in curriculum
decisions will lower turnover rates,
says fifth-grade teacher Craig
Bailey.
“California should be following the
lead of North Carolina, Arizona,
Nevada, Kansas and other states
by surveying teachers about their
teaching and learning conditions
and fixing what is wrong,” says
Futernick, a member of the
California Faculty Association.
“States that improve conditions are
finding that fewer teachers are
leaving before retirement age.”
Futernick conducted a Web-based
survey of thousands of teachers
and included the following retention
strategies in his report:
Conduct regular surveys and focus
groups with teachers — and other
school staff — to assess the quality
of the teaching conditions in the
school and the district. If conditions
are poor, fix them.
Elevate California’s student funding
to adequate levels and increase per-
pupil expenditures. The state
currently ranks 43rd in the nation in
per-pupil spending.
Have school administrators in place
who support teachers, include them
in decision-making, and treat them
like professionals.
Refocus school leadership on
instructional strategies, create
Professional Learning Communities,
and provide a positive working
environment.
Establish statewide standards for
school environments that promote
teacher retention and student
learning.
Assess and address specific
challenges in retention of special
education teachers, including
workload, overly burdensome IEPs
and related paperwork, insufficient
support, and isolation from
colleagues.
Ken Futernick
Implementing the above
recommendations could have a
huge impact in keeping teachers
from leaving and possibly
encourage others to return to the
classroom, believes Futernick. “By
reducing the rate of attrition by 30
percent and increasing the number
of teachers re-entering the
profession by 30 percent, California
could reduce its projected annual
teacher shortage by nearly a third.”
In the face of the growing teacher
shortage, retaining teachers has
taken on a new urgency, says CTA
President David A. Sanchez. And
that means improving the conditions
at schools that are driving teachers
out of the classroom.
“CTA has led the charge to change
the climate that has been created
under No Child Left Behind, and
bring back the joy of teaching,” says
Sanchez. “Hopefully, that can
happen when No Child Left Behind
is reauthorized under a new
president.”
Increasing salaries would also help
retain teachers. Teacher salaries in
the U.S. have remained stagnant for
the last decade, according to an
NEA study.
However, letting veteran teachers
transfer to low-income schools
could help retain teachers and
offset the imbalance of having too
many new teachers working in the
most challenging schools, say some
CTA members. About a quarter of
new classroom teachers in
California are interns working on
their credentials, and about half of
these inexperienced teachers work
in districts with the most challenging
students. Studies show that having
a majority of inexperienced teachers
in the most challenging schools
contributes to the shortage.
“They say that experienced
teachers don’t want to work in
challenging, low-performing
schools, but it’s not true,” says Rick
De Francesco, a member of the
Sequoia District Teachers
Association. “But when veteran
teachers want to transfer to a new
school district, they often come up
much shorter on the pay scale than
where they are, because they can’t
transfer all their years of
experience.”
“I would love to work with low-
performing kids and go somewhere
where I am needed more,” adds De
Francesco, who has raised this
topic at CTA’s State Council of
Education. “But if I did, I would
probably go down quite a bit on the
pay scale. I would like it to become
law that teachers who transfer to
low-performing districts are paid for
all their experience.”
Cindy Crawford, a member of the
San Lorenzo Teachers Association,
believes that pensions should also
be a consideration. “My pension
covers years of service and the
highest level of pay I receive during
my last few years of service. If I go
to a low-performing district and get
less pay, it lowers my overall
retirement dollars.”
CTA President Sanchez hopes that
the CTA-sponsored Quality
Education Investment Act (QEIA) will
have an impact on teacher retention
in the 488 schools that will share
$2.9 billion over the next seven
years. The money is earmarked for
such reforms as smaller class sizes,
more counselors, and better
training for teachers and principals.
“This is a historic opportunity for
positive changes at these
disadvantaged schools,” says
Sanchez of the money that resulted
from the settlement of a lawsuit CTA
filed against Gov. Schwarzenegger.
“We expect that at those schools
there will be an increase in teacher
retention.”
Administrators can also spell the
difference between retaining and
losing a teacher, according to Jan
Richards, a National University
professor in teacher education. He
studied teachers in their first five
years of teaching and found that
new teachers need emotional
support, but are often treated coldly
instead.
“New teachers need reassurance
that they are doing a good job and
that they are showing professional
growth,” states the report, “What
New Teachers Value Most in
Principals.”
“A principal’s willingness to offer
suggestions and encouragement
(and sometimes comfort) may be an
undervalued commodity.”
A follow-up study of the same
teachers after they had been in the
profession six to 10 years found the
same principal behaviors were still
the most valued:
Respecting and valuing teachers as
professionals.
Having an open-door policy and
being accessible, available and
willing to listen.
Being fair, honest and trustworthy.
Supporting teachers dealing with
parents.
Supporting teachers in matters of
student discipline.
In some schools, a high turnover of
principals contributes to a high
turnover of teachers, says Nikita
Gibbs, a teacher at Lockwood
Elementary School in Oakland.
“The first year I had support, but
after that it was a revolving door of
administrators,” says the Oakland
Education Association member. “It
makes some people want to leave.”
Retaining teachers is a far larger
problem than recruiting new ones —
and a key to solving teacher
shortages, says Linda Darling-
Hammond, a professor at Stanford
University’s School of Education.
She estimates it costs $15,000 on
average per recruit who leaves —
at least $2 billion annually in
California.
“These funds should be spent
strategically on stronger teaching
supports, rather than wasted on a
fast-spinning revolving door.”
http://www.cta.
org/media/publications/educator/current/0208_feat_05
.htm
Teacher Retention
Teacher Exits—The Devil’s in the
Details
The April NEA Today cover story
focuses on how lack of respect, NCLB
mandates, and underfunding are
driving teachers from the profession.
Determining definitively just how many
teachers that is has proven tricky for
researchers and they don’t always
agree.
In the story, we highlight that the
National Center for Education Statistics
puts the average annual turnover for
all teachers at 17 percent and at 20
percent for urban school districts. We
also point out that the National
Commission on Teaching and America’
s Future estimates that one-third of all
new teachers leave after three years,
and 46 percent are gone within five
years. That last number is cited
frequently, but it’s also often notched
up to “nearly 50 percent” or “50
percent,” says the University of
Pennsylvania ’s Richard Ingersoll,
whose research generated the figure.
“Those are rough estimates,” says
Ingersoll, a professor of education and
sociology. “The devil’s in the details.”
But between 2002 (when the
commission released its report using
Ingersoll’s numbers) and 2006 (when
he recalculated them based on the
most recent national Schools and
Staffing Survey) they haven’t changed
with any significance.
Critics of the 46 percent statistic
typically point to research done by
others in the field who use a different
approach and come up with a lower
number. They don’t count teachers
who leave and then return years later
to the profession. But Ingersoll says he
approaches his statistical analysis from
the perspective of an administrator
who must evaluate staffing shortages
on a year-to-year basis—not an
academic with the luxury of a five-year
look at the teaching pool landscape. “It’
s not that one data set is wrong and
one is right, it’s that they measure
things slightly differently,” he says.
The end result is the same, though.
Teachers are leaving in higher
percentages than in previous decades
and their departure through what
researchers call the “revolving door”
costs roughly $7 billion a year. [For
more on the consequences of the
departure and some of the solutions
offered by NEA read “Why They
Leave.”] “Those who want to argue it’s
all been exaggerated sort of miss the
point,” says Ingersoll. “Roughly a
million of these people in this job are in
transition every year and that has
consequences for those running the
show.”
As for Ingersoll? The controversy over
the numbers has provided enough
material for him to write a whole new
research paper on the matter.
http://www.nea.
org/neatoday/0804/teacherexits.html
Teacher Exits—The Devil’s in the
Details
The April NEA Today cover story
focuses on how lack of respect, NCLB
mandates, and underfunding are
driving teachers from the profession.
Determining definitively just how many
teachers that is has proven tricky for
researchers and they don’t always
agree.
In the story, we highlight that the
National Center for Education Statistics
puts the average annual turnover for
all teachers at 17 percent and at 20
percent for urban school districts. We
also point out that the National
Commission on Teaching and America’
s Future estimates that one-third of all
new teachers leave after three years,
and 46 percent are gone within five
years. That last number is cited
frequently, but it’s also often notched
up to “nearly 50 percent” or “50
percent,” says the University of
Pennsylvania ’s Richard Ingersoll,
whose research generated the figure.
“Those are rough estimates,” says
Ingersoll, a professor of education and
sociology. “The devil’s in the details.”
But between 2002 (when the
commission released its report using
Ingersoll’s numbers) and 2006 (when
he recalculated them based on the
most recent national Schools and
Staffing Survey) they haven’t changed
with any significance.
Critics of the 46 percent statistic
typically point to research done by
others in the field who use a different
approach and come up with a lower
number. They don’t count teachers
who leave and then return years later
to the profession. But Ingersoll says he
approaches his statistical analysis from
the perspective of an administrator
who must evaluate staffing shortages
on a year-to-year basis—not an
academic with the luxury of a five-year
look at the teaching pool landscape. “It’
s not that one data set is wrong and
one is right, it’s that they measure
things slightly differently,” he says.
The end result is the same, though.
Teachers are leaving in higher
percentages than in previous decades
and their departure through what
researchers call the “revolving door”
costs roughly $7 billion a year. [For
more on the consequences of the
departure and some of the solutions
offered by NEA read “Why They
Leave.”] “Those who want to argue it’s
all been exaggerated sort of miss the
point,” says Ingersoll. “Roughly a
million of these people in this job are in
transition every year and that has
consequences for those running the
show.”
As for Ingersoll? The controversy over
the numbers has provided enough
material for him to write a whole new
research paper on the matter.
http://www.nea.
org/neatoday/0804/teacherexits.html