Becoming High Turnover Rates Among Teachers

Fifty percent of new teachers quit with in the first five years of teaching (NEA, 2015), with this number being so alarmingly high it begs the questions: Why do so many teachers leave after going through years of college for this profession? Were teachers not prepared for the job, through college training, what should colleges teach in order to better prepare teachers?

Teachers today face a number of challenges that contribute to a lack of job satisfaction, leaving schools for other professions that are more lucrative, low comparative compensation, and poor working conditions:

The issue of teacher shortage today is continuing to grow. The effects of the achievement gap are reaching the teachers, not just the students: “...good administrators and teachers, who are doing their best under difficult circumstances, will be driven out of the profession…,” (Boyd-Zaharias 41). The achievement gap is part of the reason teachers feel they are underpaid, which happens to be one of the leading cause in teacher shortage considering, “Teachers were paid two percent less [than comparable workers] in 1994, but by 2015 the wage penalty rose to 17 percent,” (Long). Being a teacher requires passion in order to stay in the field, especially if the money in teaching is decreasing. Money is an important aspect for people when it comes to their careers, therefore, fewer people want to become teachers. This lack of teachers and the lack of college students studying to become a teacher leads to unqualified teachers and larger classroom sizes (Ostroff). Both of these causes are eventually affecting students’ learning environments. I chose this issue in education for my project because I have personally felt these effects, and I know others who have as well. As a future educator, I want to see better wages and better benefits, but this can only happen with qualified, passionate teachers. I plan on being one of them, and I plan on sparking a change. I am a future educator fighting to end teacher shortage.

Many have voiced their concerns over the many issues within the teaching profession. Heather Voke of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum responds to one issue, the teacher shortage, by researching the nature of the shortage, its probable causes, problems resulting from the shortage, and frequently recommended policy changes. According to Voke (2003), 42 percent of all teachers leaving depart for lack of job satisfaction, to pursue another career, or better career opportunities. Low salaries and lack of public respect also impacts teacher retention. Policy recommendations to retain teachers include: salary increases, high quality induction programs, prohibit out-of-field teaching, include teachers in decision making, developing current teachers, collaboration with universities to attract and train teachers, and reduce class size. Voke suggests that policy makers and educational leaders do not understand the nature of the teacher shortage. Moreover, developing programs to attract candidates and not properly train them risks wasting valuable resources.

There is a consensus among the concerned stakeholders that the quality of teachers is the leading factor in determination of student performance. In the case of United States, the student performance can only be given an impetus by the efforts which the state can make, under all costs, to develop and retain high quality teachers. The measures undertaken determine the level of turnover of the school teachers. Lazear (2009) similarly argues the length of employment is a critical factor in averse risks of employment a trend contrary to teachers treatment. The turnover of public school teachers will refer to the rate at which the state, which is the teacher’s

As a professional in a field that is predominately white, Anglo- Saxon, females the social constraints were prevalent in differentiating between the dominate class and others with respect to how well one was capable of

For people who have a heavy influence on the engagement of young people, you would think teachers would be more engaged in their jobs. Yet nearly seven in ten are not emotionally connected to or are dissatisfied with their workplaces, according to a new Gallup Report (April 9, 2014). Teacher engagement appears to drop off within the early years of teaching. According to the report, teachers with less than a year on the job are most likely to be engaged, when thirty-five percent were enthusiastic about and committed to their jobs. The numbers continue to slip to a low of twenty-eight percent for those with between three and five years of teaching experience. ( Gallup Repor

According to data gathered by the National Center for Education Statistics in 2015, there are about 50.1 million public school students and 3.1 million teachers in the United States. When the number of teachers is not enough to meet the demand for teaching, the student/teacher ratio will rise. In order to recruit teachers more effectively, we need to improve the training programs and the teachers ' rights. In the early 19th century, the National Education Association introduced tenure. Before tenure, teachers could be fired for religion, race, political standing, personal reasons, and for voicing their opinions. Tenure is simply a contractual right to protect teachers from unfair expulsion for arbitrary or unjustified reasons (Robertson 465). Furthermore, tenure is only granted to teachers after a reasonable working period. We shouldn’t eliminate the tenure system because it protects teachers from unfair dismissal, helps school administrators work more effectively, and attracts people to the teaching profession.

“I don’t know how they can still be in the classroom!” “Can’t they just fire them?” “Why do they have so many chances?” These are often the words that come out of many teachers, parents, and students’ mouths when having an unpleasant encounter with a lackluster teacher. Unfortunately, these lackluster teachers seem to walk a fine line where they perform just enough duties to stay employed but never go beyond average. Many of these cases involve educators who refuse to implement new strategies, leave students unsupervised, verbally degrade students’ abilities, have a lack of collaboration and communication skills, and an inconsistent sense of responsibility to perform contractual duties. While, these negative behaviors are not exposed in the media like other situations that require immediate teacher dismissal, they are unfortunately, everyday occurrence in most school districts or educational institutions, and affect students in a negative way. According to Educational Law (2016) teacher dismissals refers to “…the termination of employment contracts either during academic years for just cause or, for teachers with tenure, at the end of a given school year.” However, teacher dismissal has become extremely difficult due to lack of time for proper administrative documentation, union language, and shortage of new qualified teachers.

The burnout is a significant issue in elementary education that has not been discussed enough. In the article “A Study of the Relationship Between Demographic Factors and Elementary School Teacher Burnout: The Iranian Case,” the authors M. Mazidi, F. Khoshbakht, and M. Alborzi discussed the relationship between the teachers’ burnout and their demographics. The article was published in the journal Educational Research Quarterly on September 2017. The authors of the article did a great job explaining the main points and aspects of a burnout for elementary education teacher and I think they did an incredible job drawing awareness to this important issue.

Teacher burnout emerged as an important concept in the 1970s, and it captured something very critical about people’s experience with teaching. It was first defined by Freudenberg in 1974, and it symbolizes feelings of failure and being worn, resulting from an overload of

Teacher turnover and students’ performance are the two main issues in the United States. The studies show that the American education spends more than a billion dollars to provide the value, quality and excellence for teachers in education. The reasons for teacher’s leaving the school it might be in the school district, funding, school condition in the area and the leadership system (Love & Kristina’s). The teachers turnover can effect on students’ performance or change their achievement includes the student 's goal. To decrease this issue, the suggestion depends on the compositional relationship between the teachers and principal, teachers with other school staff and teacher with students. According to Guin (2004) studied in the urban district, he did the research in 66 elementary schools to know the nature of the relationships between students’ performance and teacher turnover. He realized that the rate of students following the standards estimates in reading and math. The average in cons and pros, that schools with a low level in student’s achievement and performance have a high teacher turnover. The National Center for Education Statistics’ between the 2000 and 2004 school years, it was the most recent years for which is 84.9 % of teachers stay teach at the same school ,7.7% move to a different school, and 7.4 % teachers are leaving the school.

The importance of teacher’s wellbeing and their impact in the classroom, shaping and molding of the young minds that parents send with confidence to school every day of the week. (NSW Department of Education and Communities, 2015) The stress levels in the teaching profession are amongst the highest of any occupation across many countries. (Stoeber J & Renner D, 2008) The pressure associated with high student expectations and their demands, knowing their content of work to engage a classroom audience, their high workload levels, vulnerability due to responsibility, involvement in over 1000 interactive communications per day with students and their continuous deadlines for paperwork and admin duties, all

Several years back, some of the researchers carried out analysis that proven the ability to understand that ineffective teachers leave schools than effective teachers with intention to leave schools because of low achieving and the minority students. The argument that is likely to generate from this topic is to what extent will teacher turnover be beneficial?

In the first year of teaching, four out of ten teachers quit. An educators job is not a walk in the park. In Kansas, we are facing a shortage of teachers. The most areas that are facing these shortages are Special Education, Adaptive and Functional Special Education, Early Childhood Handicapped, and hearing and visual impaired. It has been reported that Fewer students have chosen to major in education. There are many reasons that are causing the shortages, lack of