Teacher Retention

According to McKinsey & Company's report, Closing the Talent Gap (Auguste, Kihn, & Miller, 2010), 14 percent of American teachers leave teaching after only one year, and 46 percent leave before their 5th year. While the statistic is alarming, the majority of teachers who leave cite the same issues we've heard about for years—burnout, lack of professional respect, and difficult working conditions.

Why teachers leave

So much to do, so little time

Today's teachers have an increasing number of demands on their time. In addition to state, district, and parental demands, teachers must manage parent conferences; attend staff meetings; and monitor busses, hallways, bathrooms, and cafeterias, among other tasks (Fisher, 2011). New teachers, especially, may struggle with time management because they are expected not only to create their own lesson plans and develop teaching and classroom-management strategies for a full schedule of classes but also to quickly learn administrative tasks, including taking attendance and reporting truancies, communicating with parents, and navigating the schools' computer network—all in relative isolation. The result: "New teachers must weather a frazzling first year that many veterans come to view as a rite of passage" (Graziano, n.d.).

Even though the to-do list is long, teachers are not necessarily given the appropriate time to accomplish these tasks. Molly Fisher from the University of Kentucky researched teacher burnout and concluded that the "time constraints on teachers were significant predictors of the burnout components" (Fisher, 2011). But lack of time to plan, teach, and assess doesn't just affect teachers' stress level; it also diminishes the quality of instruction (The Center for Comprehensive School Reform and Improvement, 2007).

Another item on the list: the increased pressure of student testing. The majority of teachers who responded to a National Center for Education Information survey (Hill & Barth, 2004) were strongly opposed to the focus on student testing. In addition, when researchers Hill and Barth (2004) examined connections between No Child Left Behind (NCLB) requirements and issues in teacher retention, they found that the high-stakes testing component of NCLB puts extreme pressure on teachers and negatively impacts morale.

Lack of competitive compensation, societal prestige, peer-group appeal

In a speech to the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards in July 2011, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said that teachers should earn between $60,000 and $150,000 a year (Resmovits, 2011). In reality, however, teachers earn an average of $39,000 a year (Smollin, 2011). In fact, trends in weekly earnings show that public school teachers in 2010 earned approximately 12 percent less than other workers with comparable education and responsibility (Allegretto, Corcoran, & Mishel, 2011). Marquerite Roza (2010), in her book, Educational Economics, cites a study of teachers in Washington State who said they preferred a $5,000 raise over class size reduction (83%), a teacher’s aide (88%), and more preparation time (69%).

In addition, the American Education Research Association (Guarino, Santibanez, & Daley, 2006) conducted a meta-analysis of 46 studies that showed the relationship of salary to teacher recruitment and retention and found:

• Higher salaries were associated with lower teacher attrition.
• Teachers were responsive to salaries outside of their profession.
• Dissatisfaction with salary was associated with higher attrition and decreased commitment to teaching.

Because salary is often indicative of the value society places on the profession, the emphasis on salary may point to another issue. According to the McKinsey & Company study, the top-ranked education countries in the world—Singapore, Finland, and South Korea—“bestow enormous social prestige on the profession” (p. 5) and, therefore, 100 percent of their teachers were also in the top third highest-performing college students. By contrast, the United States only recruits 23 percent of the top third highest-performing college students into the teaching field. When researchers asked U.S. college students what it would take to attract and retain them in the teaching field, they responded that prestige, peer-group appeal, and compensation are the most important job attributes to them (Auguste, Kihn, & Miller, 2010).

Lack of support and resources

When teachers enter the field, they have high expectations of making a difference. Too often, however, they realize quickly they don’t have the professional support, feedback, or demonstration of what it takes to help their students succeed; instead, teachers are “teaching to tests and fighting bureaucracies rather than experiencing the thrill of opening young minds” (Omer, 2011). To compound the issue, according to the U.S. Department of Education, new teachers are frequently placed in low-performing, high-needs schools where they are under-prepared for the challenges they encounter (Graziano, n.d.), which leads to high turnover and fewer veteran teachers in schools where they are needed the most.

The relationship between administration and teachers is also a strong indicator of teacher turnover. A report from the Center for Comprehensive School Reform (2007) cites a South Carolina study in which leadership was identified by more than one-quarter of teachers as the most crucial issue in making their decisions about whether to stay in a school. Other studies in this report showed that when comparing schools with high and low turnover rates, they found that the reason given for turnover was often leadership and empowerment. Some teachers in the study commented that they derive greater satisfaction from their work when they are empowered by school leaders to make decisions about scheduling, selection of materials, and professional development.

A report from the National Clearinghouse for Education and Families (Buckely, Schneider, & Shang, 2004) shows that a lack of resources can also contribute to teachers’ job dissatisfaction. In interviews with New York City public school teachers, a large percentage of new teachers said they did not have basic supplies and had to use their own money to purchase them. Also, because they often do not have enough textbooks, photocopying often becomes an unwelcome part of their job.

How to get them to stay

Schedule creatively and realistically

One way for schools to create more non-instructional time is to adjust school schedules. For example, a school can lengthen the regular school day to generate time for early release days or additional planning days for teachers. Also, with a relatively small amount of additional funding, schools can employ paraprofessionals who can assist with administrative tasks, lead small-group activities, or cover class periods (The Center for Comprehensive School Reform and Improvement, 2007).

Perhaps acknowledging unrealistic expectations for student performance or school turnaround, and to alleviate some pressure on teachers from student testing, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) is offering a flexibility package that allows qualifying states to waive 10 of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) requirements. This includes the 2014 deadline for having all students proficient in reading/language arts and mathematics. To receive the waiver, State Education Agencies must meet four criteria: 1) adopt college- and career-ready expectations, 2) implement a differentiated accountability system, 3) implement a teacher and principal evaluation system, and 4) remove burdensome reporting requirements. Most states applying for this waiver have been successful implementing the above criteria more effectively than reaching the testing requirements (Dunlap, 2011). ED also is encouraging states to increase supports to schools and teachers and to suggest ways of reducing burdensome reporting requirements, thus easing the overall stressful environment surrounding NCLB that many experience.

Address the compensation gap

Pay-for-performance models have received increasing attention in recent years as one way to better compensate teachers. However, many studies make it clear that pay-for-performance is not the same thing as better salaries. In an issue brief from the Economic Policy Institute (2011), the authors stress that “if the goal is to improve the quality of the entire teaching workforce, then raising the level of teacher compensation is critical to recruiting and retaining higher quality teachers. Policies that solely focus on changing the composition of current compensation (e.g., merit or pay-for-performance schemes) without actually increasing compensation levels are likely to be ineffective. Simply put, improving overall teacher quality requires correcting the teacher compensation disadvantage in the labor market” (Allegretto, Corcoran, & Mishel, 2011).

Establish nurturing, supportive work environments

To create a supportive work environment, many studies point to the success of teacher mentor programs. Richard Ingersoll, an education professor and researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, concludes that “new teachers who receive no induction are twice as likely to leave teaching after the first year as those who receive supports,” such as having a mentor from the same field, collaborating regularly with other teachers in the same subject, and being part of an external network of teachers. INTIME (Integrating New Technologies into the Methods of Education) is another successful induction method, which provides teacher candidates with videos of accomplished teachers in the classroom. The teachers in the videos give lessons in a variety of contexts, such Perhaps more solutions to the teacher retention problem can be found by examining the common characteristics McKinsey & Company found among the highest-performing school systems in the world: Selective college admissions to teacher training Government-paid teacher training Government regulation of supply of teachers to match demand Professional working environment Competitive compensation Cultural respect for teaching Elevated status of teaching career Robust opportunities for teacher advancement Performance pay for teachers It is by creating a balance between high selectivity and attractive working conditions that these countries are able to attract and retain high-quality teachers.  

References

Allegretto, A., Corcoran, S., & Mishel, L. (2011, March). The teaching penalty. Retrieved from http://secure.epi.org/page/-/old/Issuebriefs/IssueBrief298.pdf?nocdn=1

Auguste, B., Kihn, P., & Miller, M. (2010). Closing the talent gap: Attracting and retaining top-third graduates to careers in teaching. Retrieved from http://mckinseyonsociety.com/closing-the-talent-gap/

Buckely, J., Schneider, M., & Shang, Y. (2004). The effects of school facility quality on teacher retention in urban school districts. Retrieved from http://www.ncef.org/pubs/teacherretention.pdf

The Center for Comprehensive School Reform and Improvement. (2007, June). Improving teacher retention with supportive workplace conditions. Retrieved from http://www.centerforcsri.org/files/TheCenter_NL_June07.pdf

Dunlap, A. (2011). ESEA flexibility: Department of Education criteria and state responses. Denver, CO: Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning.

Fisher, M. H. (2011). Factors influencing stress, burnout, and retention of secondary teachers. Current Issues in Education, 14(1). Retrieved from http://cie.asu.edu/ojs/index.php/cieatasu/article/download/658/165

Graziano, C. (n.d.). Public education faces a crisis in teacher retention. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/schools-out

Guarino, C. M., Santibanez, L., & Daley, G. A. (2006). Teacher recruitment and retention: A review of the recent empirical literature. Review of Educational Research. Retrieved from http://www.aera.net/uploadedFiles/Publications/Journals/Review_of_Educational_Research/7602/04_RER_Guarino.pdf

Hill, D. H., & Barth, M. (2004). NCLB and teacher retention: Who will turn out the lights? Education and the Law, 16(2−3), 173–181.

Omer, S. (2011). Classroom ‘crisis’: Many teachers have little or no experience. Retrieved from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44505094/ns/today-education_nation/t/classroom-crisis-many-teachers-have-little-or-no-experience/

Resmovits, J. (2011) Arne Duncan Boosts Merit Pay At Teaching Conference. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/29/duncan-boosts-merit-pay-a_n_913608.html

Roza, M. (2010). Educational economics. Washington: DC: The Urban Institute Press.

Smollin, M. (2011, August). Five reasons teacher turnover is on the rise. Retrieved from http://www.takepart.com/article/2011/08/09/five-reasons-teacher-turnover-rise