High Rates Of Teacher Turnover Essay

Education is the most vital part of man’s existence. The concept of education started in the ancient days and continues to the modern age. Education has existed before this current age, but modern education has been labeled as the most significant part of any possible profession. This assumption is not making waves in the United States of America only, but in the whole world wide. Despite the unique and distinct languages that exist throughout the world, young and developing minds still seek education and new knowledge as technology keeps changing. Education is the backbone and the platform in which we build and develop our own unique ideas that has become

The main arguments in this ERIC Digest article is that there is an increasing need of teachers of color, but the there are not enough minorities going into the teaching profession. The point of this article is to highlight the the unbalanced increase of minority students and the decrease of minority teachers in schools, and how the decrease of minority teachers affects both minority and non-minority students. The article goes on to highlight data about the number of minorities and whites who enter the education profession compared to the number that drop out of the profession after five years or so and their reasons for leaving.

The state of Arizona is facing a serious education crisis in the retention of qualified teachers. Personally, my school in Yuma, Arizona encountered an average of seven new teachers every year. Yuma High School District allowed for a teacher to teach chemistry when his/her Bachelor’s degree was in mathematics. According to the ‘No Child Left Behind Act’ enacted in 2001, schools are required to provide “highly qualified” teachers to teach at all times (Educator Excellence). Having quality, long-term teachers is imperative to develop students in becoming productive members of society. Unfortunately due to federal budget cuts directly affecting education, Timothy L. Ogle, executive director of the Arizona School Boards Association, says, “Arizona has faced the most dramatic cuts to K-12 education spending of any state in the nation” (Lopez). As a result, administration is forced to have teachers make up for the lack of a certain subject by teaching it without qualifications. Due to this, out-of-state teachers leave within the first 5 years, and 25% all leave within the first year. Some reasons for this include a

There are many contributing factors to low teacher turnover, however, the main issue is a lack of support and respect for our teachers. Instead of working on maintaining and providing support for our current educators, the conversation usually surrounds expensive and often ineffective recruitment programs. The harsh fact is that it is very expensive to live in our valley and the current teacher salary/benefits are not enough to attract top talent. We need to have a serious conversation with our teachers in order to learn what incentives they need to be successful in their roles as well as to maintain a comfortable living. Teachers are the one profession that truly molds the future of our

Like leadership turnover in other professions, turnover rates at more challenging schools are on the higher end of that spectrum (Beteille, Kalogrides and Loeb 2011, Boyd, et al. 2008, Clark, Martorell and Rockoff 2009). For instance, large, urban districts have similar turnover rates: Miami-Dade County Public Schools (MDCPS) is 22%, Milwaukee is 20%, San Francisco 26%, and New York City is 24% (Beteille, Kalogrides and Loeb 2011, Boyd, et al. 2008, Clark, Martorell and Rockoff 2009). However, within MDCPS, the turnover rate is higher for the district’s highest-poverty schools (28%), versus lowest-poverty schools (18%) (Beteille, Kalogrides and Loeb 2011). New York City school findings were similar (Clark, Martorell and Rockoff 2009). Low-performing, low-SES schools that lose an effective principal, often struggle due to having a replacement that is less-experienced and less-effective (Beteille, Kalogrides and Loeb 2011, Branch, Hanushek and Rivkin 2012).

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?

Another answer to the problem was described earlier, which is in the administration of school districts towards their less skilled, underperforming teachers. According to the report by Arne Duncan, “The Irreplaceables,” the rate at which teachers are leaving the field is the same for both high performing teachers and underperforming teachers. The percentage of the teaching population is similar between both sides of this, about 20% of teachers are considered high performing and 20% underperforming. While it may not be practical now to mandate that the school district become stricter on the performance of its teachers, if financial incentives are given to the high performing teachers, a larger population of them would stay and, possibly, a larger amount of them would come to the city of Detroit. If this were to happen, then it would suddenly be practical for Detroit to have its schools be stricter on underperforming teachers, producing a sort of snowballing effect of improvement on Detroit’s school system.

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.

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

According to the state report card, Salem Elementary School’s socioeconomic status of students is strongly high in poverty. Correspondingly, all of the students enrolled in Salem also have some type of economic disadvantage. As discussed in our EDTE 2020 class, high poverty areas tend to have teachers “with less experience”, who do not have “proper certification”, or who have a “high turnover rate”. This is the complete opposite at Salem, as it’s stated on the report card that all teachers have a bachelor and a master’s degree, with over 72% of teachers being

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

Assistant Superintendent Denise Bartlett reviewed a report, containing results of the district’s teacher retention survey that was administered to certified staff during 2014-2015. Also included for the board’s information was the Arizona Department of Education Teacher Retention and Recruitment Report. Dr. Bartlett informed the board that the survey had several goals, which included 1) ascertaining what attracted teachers to the district, 2) why teachers continued to work in the district, 3) what factors might influence teachers to seek employment outside of the district, and 4) what factors provides job satisfaction. Dr. Bartlett also reported that there was a 90% rate of return from the survey with 280 of 311 teachers responding. The district

Educators have recently understood that low income schools do need the money and that extra support. They have realized that too many places policies for assigning teachers and allocating resources are perpetuating the problem rather than solving it. The breakdown of data that researchers have found out on 2008-09 school-level spending proves that most of the high-poverty schools collect less than what they are supposed

The research linking instructional coaching with teacher retention is not large and the findings are contradictory. One conclusion Kline, Colton, Altemus, and Killion (2011) drew from their study of the effectiveness of instructional coaching in five large school corporations was that all districts experienced increased teacher retention, with Springfield Public Schools realizing a decline in teacher attrition from 31% to 13% over a six-year period and netting a savings of $914,954.

Negativity and low teacher retention rates are a product of teacher isolation. Collaboration and involvement with other components of the school outside the classroom leads to an increase in job satisfaction on the behalf of teachers. Jennifer Waddell, professor at the University of Missouri, states that, “Teachers highlighted both the personal and professional nature of the relationships, often commenting that the coworkers were their source of energy and strength as they met the challenges of teaching in urban environments. The teachers commented that their fellow teachers helped them experience a sense of belonging, ownership, and satisfaction in their jobs, even when district mandates and bureaucratic pressures were mounting” (Waddell, 2010). This feeling of satisfaction impacts teacher’s behavior in the classroom and leads to a higher retention of