The Great Escape
by Lance Helgeson
The statistics are sobering. Nearly half of all new teachers leave the profession after five years. Add in normal attrition for retirement and other reasons, and schools lose 23 percent more teachers each year than they gain through recruiting and hiring.
Educators, researchers, and policymakers are grappling with what some consider the biggest challenge facing our education system today: a near-chronic rate of attrition among elementary, middle- and high-school educators. These experts argue that without a more systematic approach to retaining educators, our school systems will struggle to meet federally mandated goals for ensuring quality educators and adequately prepared students.
Why the outflow? According to a new report by the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future (NCTAF) entitled, "No Dream Denied: A Pledge to America's Children," teachers who leave the profession early cite poor administrative support, lack of faculty input, poor salaries, inadequate time, and class discipline issues as the chief reasons for their decision to change careers. The report aims to cut teacher attrition in half by 2006.
"A lot of the problem comes down to leadership," says Richard Ingersoll, who quit teaching after seven years, and is now an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania, researching educator retention issues. He notes, in schools where administrations emphasize transitioning new teachers into their jobs through induction and mentoring, the attrition rate runs about one-third lower than at schools that don't offer such assistance.
Who's Doing What to Achieve Results
NRTA is launching a major new initiative addressing educator
retention through its Educator Support Network campaign. Its
chief goals are to elevate the needs and status of America's
educators to a national priority and to create civic community
engagement in support of education, says Megan Hookey, the
program's national coordinator.
The NCTAF report suggests a three-pronged approach for addressing educator retention—organizing schools for teaching and learning success; insisting on quality teacher preparation and accreditation, and developing rewarding career paths that include mentoring and acknowledgements for accomplished teaching.
On the teacher preparation front, more schools are emphasizing the compensation and career development benefits that National Board Certification provides teachers, says Art Wise, Ph.D., director of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE). In addition, NCATE is working to create professional development schools in hard-to-staff urban areas; these would provide a model of mixing and mentoring between veteran and new teachers.
The National Association of Secondary School Principals, meanwhile, is investigating studies that link effective leadership practices with high student achievement, says Dick Flanary, director of the association's Center for Principal Development. That project is intended to ease the frustration educators feel when test scores are seen as the sole evaluator of their teaching success.
How will the renewed focus on retention affect you? Observers say more resources and attention will be given to using veteran and retired educators in mentoring, career development, and retention programs for teachers. These efforts will help meet the need for respect, recognition, and rewards that most educators seek when they join the profession and require in order to stay in it. "For most people who go into teaching, money isn't the highest priority," Ingersoll says.
