Teacher Retention Project

America has encountered a change within the teaching profession: concerning, experience, age, credentials, and ethnic background (Feistritzer, 2011). It is almost as if the year of 2005, overturned the trend of older employed teachers (Feistritzer, 2011). A six-year survey shows that the amount of teachers under the age of thirty has increased drastically, and that most teachers have earned master degrees. Also, although teaching has been a predominately white profession, more Hispanic and African American teachers were hired between the years of 2005 and 2011 (Feistritzer, 2011).

* The data was collected through questionnaire. The responds from the respondents may not be accurate.

The teachers do so much for us spending hours upon hours invested in our future. There are about nine hundred trillion teachers on this earth. Ample knowledge being passed down generation to

Haberman tries to justify that failing urban schools is one of the main reasons for the shortage of minority teachers and in order for urban schools to succeed, the schools need to hire a population of teachers that represents the population of the children it serves. The point of the article was to inform readers how colleges and universities could work together to better attract and retain African American students to their teacher education programs by using four realistic approaches to recruiting and preparing more minority teachers and claiming if used together, there would be a genuine impact on both the quality of schools in urban districts and on the number of qualified minority teachers for urban, suburban, and small-town schools (Haberman, 1988, p. 40).

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.

Oftentimes, new teachers are provided with little to no professional guidance, and because of that, nearly fifty percent of teachers leave the classroom within the first five years. This turnover rate not only has an impact on kids, since they lose the person they were connected with, but it also costs the nation roughly 7.4 billion dollars a year. This video, which focuses on the Hillsborough County Public School System, in Tampa, Florida, brings to light the importance of mentor teachers for first and second year teachers. Through the gathering of evidence and classroom observations, these mentor teachers provide the passion for new teachers and help to unlock their potential. Since the implementation of the mentor program their retention of new teachers has gone from 72% to 94%.

In the article “Education at Crossroads part 3” Vicki Viotti discusses improvements regarding retention with new teachers. “An emphasis on mentoring teachers in their first three years has been credited with more of them staying beyond five years in the profession, a proportion that’s now up to 60 percent”(Viotti pg.3 par.1). Teacher retention is when teachers decide to continue following their path as teachers. The rate of teacher retention was low due to teachers transferring to other schools. However, after being a persistent matter in schools, it has recently increased to 60%. In addition to teacher retention, resources for fundings also seem to be a problem. “...resources aren’t where they should be”(Viotti pg.3 par.3). The DOE believes

After reading the article by Owen Phillips, I find that there are several things I can do as a special education director to support teacher retention. First, special education teachers under my leadership would have a voice. For instance, when the school board or higher officials decide that a new program or method of instruction is needed, our team will collaborate to create a course of action and timeline for these changes to be made. They would also have a voice in decision-making and discipline. Secondly, I would be available to my special education teachers as much as possible. I want them to feel supported and heard during their time under my leadership. I would send out anonymous surveys quarterly to my staff to find out how they

As education continues to evolve teachers must be prepared to evolve with it, educators must participate in programs that will enhance their abilities to educate their pupil’s. Furthermore, an educator must continue to work on their craft and new techniques to keep their students engaged in their daily lesson. However, if the federal government continues to provide funding for each state public education, state will continue to provide incentives and mentorship programs for educators in their state. These invectives have proven vital to educator’s overall success in their classroom. Each state should develop a mandatory mentorship program which requires new teachers to participate in for the first few years of their career. As far as the more

and Papay (2011) demonstrate that the conditions that matter most in deciding to stay include the school’s culture, the principal’s leadership, and the relationships among peers. Ladd (2009), also using TELL data, documents that teaching and learning conditions predict plans to stay or leave a school, independent of school demographics.

(citing Darling-Hammond & Sykes, 2003, and Ingersoll & Smith, 2003). Beginning teachers have the highest rates of turnover of any group of teachers. The attrition of beginning teachers has been widely reported since the late 1980s, but it was only a rough estimate using cross-sectional national data. Recently, using national longitudinal data, Perda (2013) was able to more accurately document rates of cumulative beginning teacher attrition. Perda found that more than 41 percent of new teachers leave teaching within 5 years of entry. Moreover, he also found that these already high levels have been going up since the late 1980’s. Rates of leaving for first year teachers rose from 9.8 to 13.1 percent from 1988 to 2008, a 34 percent increase (Perda, 2013).

In my analysis of the elementary school principals’ role in reducing teacher attrition in the large urban district, I will use a qualitative method approach to gather and analyze data. This approach requires that the researcher "centers on the attempt to achieve a sense of the meaning that others give to their own situations" (Smith, 2005). According to Maxwell, qualitative research allows for the understanding of processes, as opposed to outcomes, and is focused on people and situations (Maxwell, 2005). Additionally, “qualitative research seeks to probe deeply in the research setting to obtain in-depth understandings about the way things are, why they are that way, and how the participants in the context perceive them”

Teacher retention is a serious problem in the United States. So many teachers leave after their first few years as a teacher. In regards to teacher retention, Tennessee has the highest because they have a bonus pay for any high-level teachers who decide to teach in the low-performing schools.

The education system has been established in order for all members of the communities to receive a fair and equal education opportunity. However, there are many variables that take place and all students receive the same opportunities. The students who live in poor areas tend to struggle more in school because it carries on to the school grounds. Those schools seem to have more difficulty keeping students engaged and on track. For some reason, the students at a low performing school are usually minorities and the school environment is not considered a place for them to thrive. Many teachers may find it difficult to teach in those schools because there is a lot of chaos at times. Therefore, keeping competent teachers is not always possible and that negatively affects the students education as well. Trying to close the gap between low performing schools and those that do well is not an easy task. The effort of school administrators to bring programs to help low performing schools and educating those families who’s children are affected is important because it can help enhance their opportunity to succeed educationally.

While we have been able to accomplish some progress with our recruitment efforts, we have identified several other areas of need to sufficiently expand our reach for the hiring push this spring. Thousands of young people attend our schools each day with no teacher; few are lucky if a substitute can be provided, but many are in danger of losing hours of critical instruction unless we drastically change our approach to recruiting great teachers. The strategies outlined on the following pages are but one step in the right direction, but we need your help to accomplish our goals. We are making our schools great. Won’t you join us?