Education Resource - Teacher Retention

Unraveling the "Teacher Shortage" problem: Teacher Retention is the Key	Download	View	PDFtoTEXT
We Need To Balance Quality Teacher Preparation With. Strong Retention Strategies. THE CONVENTIONAL WISDOM IS WRONG ... recognize that the teacher retention problem crosses all communities and all sectors of. education (see Figure 3) ...
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Minority Teacher Recruitment, Development, and Retention	Download	View	PDFtoTEXT
Completion of Minority Teacher Recruitment, Development, and Retention was made possible by the ... teacher recruitment, retention, and development, there is still a need to gather and synthesize promising ...

Making the Case for Teacher Retention	Download	View	PDFtoTEXT
planning, implementing and evaluating a high quality teacher retention. initiative that will keep the best teachers in the hardest to staff disciplines and ... Teacher retention initiatives are most often based on this recognized need. to keep in classrooms those teachers who are ...

PHASE I REPORT	Download	View	PDFtoTEXT
The Georgia Teacher Retention Study – Phase I is reported by the Division for Educator Workforce Research ... the Georgia Teacher Retention Study. Study findings presented as graphs in this summary report are presented in the full report as tables only. ...
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Improving Teacher Retention in California Public Schools	Download
Improving Teacher Retention in California. Public Schools. California public schools face a number of challenges, including low academic performance and a shortage of fully ... Increasing teacher retention, then, helps not only to. raise test scores and school quality in general but also to ...

IISME Teacher Retention and Program Impact 1985-2000	Download	View	PDFtoTEXT
issues of IISME teacher retention in the field of education and of long-term program. impact. ... IISME Teacher Retention and Program Impact 1985-2000. The most important outcome for this study is an estimate of the percentage of IISME ...

EIGHT FACTS ABOUT TEACHER PAY AND TEACHER RETENTION IN TEXAS PUBLIC SCHOOLS	Download	View	PDFtoTEXT
proved teacher retention. Retaining Qualified Teachers. ó. Fact 7: The problem of teacher reten- tion must be solved by ... Fact 8: Teacher retention is declining. and, if unchecked, will precipitate a. broad-scale shortage of teachers in all. Texas public schools within the decade. ...
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Retention of New Teachers in California	Download	View	PDFtoTEXT
teacher retention for the provision of quality education in California. The. authors recognize the importance of experienced teachers—experienced ... In sum, the authors conclude that certain policies improve teacher. retention. BTSA, in particular, has enjoyed substantial, positive results. ...

2001 FTB 3505, Teacher Retention Credit	Download	View	PDFtoTEXT
Teacher Retention Credit. YEAR. 2001. Social security number. CAUTION: ... Teacher Retention Credit. Do not make permanent entries on. these forms until after you have computed the allowable. credit. The credit is the lesser of: ...

Who Stays in Teaching and Why:	Download	View	PDFtoTEXT
broadly speaking, teacher retention can be affected positively or negatively by factors that influence ... ture on teacher retention, the topics and studies that we have chosen are intended both to draw ...
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TEACHER RETENTION STRATEGIES – RESOURCES

Education Resource - Preschool Teachers Rentention

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Question 8

At least since the publication of A Nation At Risk in 1983, there has been widespread recognition by policymakers, educators and the American public that all children do not have the top-notch teachers they need to realize their full potential as learners. While even children who attend the highest-performing schools have, from time to time, teachers who simply don't measure up, the situation for children from low-income families is often reprehensible. High-poverty, low-performing schools suffer from severe teacher turnover, which increases the atmosphere of failure; they have far fewer accomplished, veteran teachers; and the qualifications of their faculty, especially in science and mathematics, are often marginal at best.

Addressing these problems requires (1) a thorough and accurate understanding of the characteristics of the teacher workforce and the impact those characteristics have on teachers' decisions to enter and remain in teaching and their success in the classroom; and (2) a repertoire of effective strategies for recruiting, supporting and retaining an adequate supply of good teachers and deploying them to every classroom in the nation.

What follows is a summary of the findings of a report by the Education Commission of the States (ECS) designed to do just that: Help policymakers gain a better understanding of both the nature of the teacher workforce and of promising recruitment and retention strategies.

To that end, ECS reviewed 91 studies on teacher recruitment and retention in search of answers to eight questions that are of particular importance to policy and education leaders. While empirical research is not the only important source of information and is not by itself a sufficient basis for policy, policies that are not grounded in the best research are likely to miss the mark and fall short of solving the problems they were intended to address.

The full report, available at http://www.ecs.org/trrreport, provides a detailed look at what the research says in response to each of the key questions and what that response implies for policy, and includes summaries of all 91 studies reviewed.

Eight Questions on Teacher Recruitment and Retention: What Does the Research Say? is the second in a series of three reports on teaching quality supported by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education. The first, an in-depth review of research on teacher preparation, was published in summer 2003. The final report, to be released in October 2005, will focus on what the research says about teacher licensure and certification.

Question 1:

What are the characteristics of those individuals who enter teaching?

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Related Questions:

How do the characteristics of individuals who are currently teaching differ from the characteristics of those who are not? What accounts for the demographics of the current population of teachers? What are the characteristics of the reserve pool of licensed teachers who currently are not teaching?
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The nation's teacher workforce continues to be predominantly white (86%) and female (79%). Although that trend has changed little over the last 30 years, there are several nuances worth noting. The research provides moderate evidence that a larger percentage of the most intellectually able women decide to enter careers other than teaching now that more career opportunities are open to them. But there is also moderate evidence that one of the reasons for women's strong interest in teaching as a profession is — and likely will continue to be — the opportunity it affords to take time out to raise a family. With regard to the low percentage of minorities in the teaching profession, there is limited evidence that one of the reasons is the barrier that teacher certification examinations pose to minority teacher candidates.

Much has been made in recent years of the issue of the intellectual ability of teachers in comparison with other college graduates. The research provides strong evidence that those college graduates with the very highest demonstrated intellectual proficiency are less likely to go into teaching than other college graduates. There is also limited evidence that poor hiring practices may be, in part, to blame for this.

The reserve pool of teachers also is the subject of much discussion. The research reviewed for this report indicates that between 25% and 37% of those who leave teaching wind up returning at some point. This seems to suggest that the attrition rate of new teachers from teaching is mitigated by the fact that a large percentage of dropouts are only temporarily lost to the profession.

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Policy Implications

The research suggests that policymakers should, first of all, intensify their efforts to recruit capable minorities into teaching and to discover what accounts for their underrepresentation in the profession, although the likelihood of increasing minority representation significantly in the profession is small. Similarly, although it seems unlikely that teaching ever will attract a large percentage of the most academically talented individuals, policymakers should continue to seek to attract as able a teacher corps as possible. Finally, policymakers and educators should exploit the reserve pool of licensed teachers as fully as possible.
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Question 2:

How do those individuals who remain in teaching compare with those who leave?

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What relationship do the following characteristics have to retention in teaching: age and teaching experience; gender, family and socioeconomic status; race and ethnicity; academic qualifications; intellectual proficiency; demonstrated teaching ability; subject taught; and beliefs, values and attitudes? How does the turnover rate in teaching compare to that in other professions?
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Research reveals some consistent patterns that confirm statistics commonly cited in contemporary discussions. There is strong evidence that teacher attrition is most severe among beginning teachers but the likelihood of a teacher leaving declines significantly after he or she has been in the classroom for four to five years, and then increases again markedly after 25-30 years in the profession. Roughly 50% of teachers leave their initial assignment — but not necessarily the profession itself — in the first five years of their career. There is limited evidence that younger beginning teachers are more likely to leave than those who were slightly older.

The literature also indicates younger women are the most likely to leave teaching, and there is moderate evidence that pregnancy and childrearing are key reasons why. This means it is possible a significant number of women who quit to raise a family return to teaching once their children are older, a possibility consistent with the limited evidence. Consistent with this possibility, several studies provide limited evidence that women who enter teaching at a more mature age are much less likely to leave than those who begin teaching when they are much younger.

The literature reviewed also provides moderate evidence that white teachers have greater rates of attrition than either African American or Hispanic teachers, and it offers limited evidence that minority teachers are more likely than white teachers to remain in schools with higher proportions of minority students.

With regard to the relationship between academic qualifications and teacher attrition, the literature reviewed provides limited evidence that teachers teaching in a field in which they have subject expertise or certification are less likely to leave than teachers with less appropriate qualifications. It provides strong evidence that attrition is greater among middle school and high school teachers than among elementary school teachers, and it provides moderate evidence that science and mathematics teachers are more likely to leave their jobs than secondary school teachers of other subjects.

With regard to the impact of intellectual proficiency, the literature provides limited evidence that teachers with high intellectual proficiency are more likely to leave teaching than teachers with significantly lower intellectual proficiency.

On the relationship of several other teacher characteristics — academic degree; socioeconomic status; and beliefs, values and attitudes — to attrition, the literature is inconclusive.

Finally, the literature is inconclusive on the issue of how attrition in teaching compares with that in other occupations, and there is no consensus on what a reasonable rate of attrition in teaching might be.

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Policy Implications

In view of the difficulty of significantly increasing minority representation in the teaching profession, it is important to examine more closely the reasons why white teachers leave schools with high percentages of minority students, and to develop strategies that may curb that tendency. Of particular importance is stemming the attrition of teachers — whether white or minority — who teach mathematics and science. Also worthy of study are the reasons for the higher rate of attrition among the more intellectually capable teachers and appropriate policy responses. Some of these many involve fiscal considerations, which will be discussed in Question 5.
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Question 3:

What are the characteristics of schools and districts most likely to be successful in recruiting and retaining teachers?

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Related Questions:

Do schools differ in their success at recruiting and retaining teachers based on the following characteristics: geography — urban, suburban or rural; grade level; school type — elementary schools, middle schools and high schools, public versus private? Do student-body composition and performance have an impact on the ability of schools to recruit and retain teachers?
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The research reviewed for this question provides a stronger basis for some conclusions than for others. It provides strong evidence that attrition is greater among secondary school teachers than among elementary school teachers. With regard to the more specific issue of middle school attrition in comparison to high school or elementary school attrition, the literature is inconclusive.

Consistent with common perceptions, the research literature provides moderate evidence that teacher turnover is greater in schools with relatively higher proportions of low-income, minority and academically low-performing students. The literature also provides limited evidence that the qualifications of teachers in such schools tend to be inferior to the qualifications of teachers in other schools.

Finally, the literature provides limited support for the conclusion that teacher turnover is greater at private schools than at public schools, and — somewhat surprisingly in light of the current wave of interest in creating smaller schools — that turnover is also greater in small schools, both public and private, than in larger schools.

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Policy Implications

One of the implications of the research literature is clearly that educators and policymakers must focus particular attention on stemming teacher attrition in secondary schools, and especially in mathematics and science. The literature also confirms the importance of addressing the issue of teacher recruitment and retention in schools with high percentages of low-income and minority students.

Finally, although the reasons are not clear, the fact that attrition in smaller schools is greater than in larger schools and greater in private schools than in public schools should raise a caution among those who advocate for reduction in school size and those who advocate for greater school privatization. While either of these might, all things considered, be reasonable policy alternatives, it is important to try to determine with greater confidence what impact moving in either direction would likely have on the supply and persistence of our nation's teachers.
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Question 4:

What impact do the working conditions in schools have on their ability to recruit and retain teachers?

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How important are teacher autonomy and administrative support? How important is class size? How important are student characteristics and attitudes?
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On the whole, the research literature is not sufficiently robust or fine-grained to support more than the most general observations as to the impact of various factors associated with working conditions on teacher recruitment and retention. The research does provide limited support for the expected conclusion that schools with greater administrative support and teacher autonomy have lower teacher attrition. The research also provides limited evidence that the higher the minority enrollment of a school, the higher the rate of teacher attrition — at least among white teachers. Similarly, there is limited evidence that attrition is greater in schools with higher levels of student poverty and also in schools with low student achievement.

While there remains a good deal of interest in class-size reduction as a means of improving teacher working conditions and thus, presumably, increasing teacher retention, the literature in support of such a strategy must be judged to be inconclusive. Several studies do indeed suggest that class-size reduction stems teacher attrition, but the actual impact reported is extremely small. A reduction in teachers' workload also is often touted as a measure that will increase teacher satisfaction and thereby reduce attrition, but here, too, the literature in support of this contention is inconclusive.

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Policy Implications

The research evidence in support of the impact on teacher recruitment and retention of any single factor or set of factors related to working conditions is modest, at best. Still, there is sufficient research to indicate the working conditions of teachers should be an important policy concern, especially in at-risk schools. One measure that seems important in view of the overwhelming percentage of white teachers in the workforce is to provide effective training for white teachers — either preservice or inservice — in handling student diversity. Another measure likely to be helpful, though not discussed robustly in the research literature, is to provide teachers with strong administrative support and adequate autonomy. The fact that "adequate autonomy" is a somewhat subjective determination suggests the importance of considering teachers' perceptions of their working conditions, as well as more objective measures, in setting policy.

Finally, although the research literature provides no guidance on the issue of class size, it seems reasonable to suppose that larger classes are less negative a factor if working conditions are otherwise conducive to teacher satisfaction. This may imply that policymakers should attempt to determine which measures to increase teachers' job satisfaction are most cost effective and most feasible given demographic realities, labor market considerations and the availability of various resources in their particular state or district.
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Question 5:

What impact does compensation have on the recruitment and retention of teachers?

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Does offering higher salaries increase the quality of teachers who are recruited and retained? How important is teacher compensation in teacher recruitment and retention as compared to other factors?
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The research provides strong support for the conclusion that compensation plays a key role in the recruitment and retention of teachers. Not surprisingly, the research indicates that increasing compensation tends to increase the rate of teacher retention, but this relationship is not a simple one. Compensation has a varying impact on retention depending on other factors such as teachers' gender, level of experience and current job satisfaction. There is moderate evidence that working conditions may, in some cases, trump salary as a factor in teacher retention, and it is the relative salary between districts that is the important consideration. The research evidence is inconclusive as to whether limited career-advancement opportunities in teaching contribute to attrition.

With regard to teacher recruitment, there is limited evidence of a positive correlation between recruitment and various financial incentives, including compensation. With regard to teacher quality, the research is inconclusive as to whether financial incentives have an impact.

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Policy Implications

Given the complexity of the issue of compensation and the interaction of compensation with other factors such as working conditions and general job satisfaction, drawing the implications of the research for policy is not an easy matter. The clearest recommendation that can be made is for policymakers to ensure teacher salaries in their state or district are comparable to those in neighboring states and districts. The research does not provide any guidance on the issue of differentiated teacher pay or on across-the-board salary increases. It does indicate clearly, however, it is the local labor market that is the determining factor and not national trends.
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Question 6:

What impact do various strategies related to teacher preparation have on teacher recruitment and retention?

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Is there any significant difference between alternative route and traditional route programs in retention rates of the teachers they prepare? What impact does raising preparation program entrance or completion requirements have on the recruitment and retention of teachers?
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The research provides limited support for the modest conclusion that the retention rates of alternative route graduates can be comparable to, and even exceed, that of traditional route graduates. Given the great variation within both types of preparation programs, however, larger generalizations about their relative success cannot be made. The research also provides limited evidence that some alternative programs are successful in recruiting a constituency into teaching that is more diverse ethnically and in age than the profession as a whole.

As far as the impact of imposing more stringent requirements for entrance into teacher preparation, the research literature is inconclusive.

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Policy Implications

These modest findings support the equally modest policy recommendation that efforts to develop high-quality alternative route teacher preparation programs are worthy of support.
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Question 7:

What impact do induction and mentoring have on teacher retention?

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Related Question:

What are the characteristics of effective induction and mentoring programs?
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The research reviewed for this report provides limited evidence that induction and mentoring can increase teacher retention. The diversity among the induction and mentoring programs discussed in the literature, however, and the difficulty of distinguishing between the specific effects of induction and mentoring and those that might be attributed to other factors means the literature is inconclusive as to what precisely makes such programs successful. Thus, those who are considering implementing such programs will have to rely on the consensus of expert opinion.

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Policy Implications

Although the literature reviewed for this report does not provide enthusiastic research-based support for this strategy, it does suggest that induction and mentoring may indeed be worthwhile. It is important to recognize, however, that the impact of induction and mentoring programs on beginning teachers is contextual, and likely to be a function of the nature of their preparation program and of the school and district in which they are working. In other words, induction and mentoring may be of much greater benefit, and thus be much more cost effective, for some populations of beginning teachers than for others. Clearly, a good deal of additional research is needed to provide more definitive guidance for educators and policymakers. In the meantime, they must rely on the consensus of experts.
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Question 8:

What is the efficacy of particular recruitment strategies and policies in bringing new teachers into the profession, including specifically targeted populations?

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Related Questions:

Are programs that seek to recruit middle school, high school or community college students into teaching effective in increasing the number of students who enter teaching or the subsequent success of these teachers and their rate of retention in the profession? How effective are programs that offer scholarships or forgivable loans to college students who commit to going into teaching? What kinds of recruitment policies and programs are particularly successful in recruiting minority teachers?
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Except for teacher preparation-related policies discussed in Question 6, there were simply no adequate studies available on the great majority of specific recruitment strategies that have been employed by states and districts. Thus, the research provides no answers to any of the questions asked above. This is unfortunate given the importance of finding effective strategies for recruiting well-qualified individuals into the teaching profession and the significant resources that states and districts currently spend on recruitment efforts.

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Policy Implications

Clearly, there is a need to undertake and support more research on, and more rigorous evaluation of, early recruitment efforts, loan-forgiveness programs and the many other specific kinds of strategies that have been employed. Such research should enable policymakers and educators to determine, with confidence, (1) whether less of the target population would have gone into teaching had the programs and strategies in question not been in place and (2) whether any other specific program goals, such as recruitment into underserved schools or a minimum length of stay in the teaching profession, have been met.

On the other hand, given the significant expense and complexity involved in conducting an adequate impact study, it may be advisable to pursue certain low-cost strategies even in the absence of a full-blown study — as long as there is some evidence of a positive impact and no evidence of a negative impact.
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It is clear the research on teacher recruitment and retention is thin in many areas. Far too few questions permit being answered with the kind of confidence that would provide secure guidance for policy. To some extent, this may be a result of the difficulty of gaining access to studies on various recruitment and retention-related programs. Much more, however, it reflects the paucity of solid research on these questions.

Guarino et al. identified a number of implications from their review of the literature. What follows includes their suggestions for improving the research on teacher recruitment and retention, some of the suggestions and implications drawn from Ingersoll and Kralik, and some additional comments provided by the author of this ECS report:

1. The data used by researchers must be more recent.

Most of the research available uses data from the 1970s and 1980s. Especially since so many of the considerations related to teacher recruitment and retention are economic and thus subject to the vicissitudes of the more general labor and employment market, research based upon economic conditions that existed even more than several years ago may have only limited relevance today. Guarino et al. note that the new Schools and Staffing Survey, which was conducted in the year 2000, is a welcome source of new data that undoubtedly will generate a number of new studies. The Schools and Staffing Survey, however, does not provide longitudinal data on individuals, which tracks them over a period of time and which, where available, provides important insights regarding longer-term trends and impacts.

2. Better data on the movement of teachers through the entire career pipeline and from position to position, as well as data on teacher performance, need to be collected by the districts and states.

   Recruitment and retention is all about the movement of teachers. Many researchers have found, however, it is very difficult to obtain accurate and detailed data about teacher movement. Much of the available data is based on teachers' survey responses, which are often unreliable and incomplete. Large national data-collection efforts, such as the Schools and Staffing Survey, are expensive and impractical to do on an annual basis. Moreover, as large as these databases are, they still are not large enough to permit generalizations about teachers in different subfields in different regions.

   Thus, Guarino et al. suggest individual states hold the greatest promise for providing the data necessary for the kinds of studies that are indicated. In particular, Guarino et al. call upon states to collect data from schools and districts annually and to ensure such data include detailed information about teacher education, experience, compensation, as well as information about teacher vacancies, turnover and recruitment efforts. Especially important, and often omitted, are (1) information about the movement of teachers in and out of districts, and in and out of the education system; and (2) information about the quality and performance of individual teachers.

   Unfortunately, data that tracks actual changes in teacher assignments from school to school, district to district or state to state is extremely difficult to find. Once teachers leave employment in a particular district or state, it is often impossible to determine whether they have left the profession or taken a new teaching position elsewhere. It is vital to track teachers' entire career paths to gain a full picture of teacher employment patterns and responses of teachers to various kinds of outreach, incentives and working conditions.

   Echoing Guarino et al., the State Higher Education Executive Officers (SHEEO) have published a report that explores in detail the kinds of data states need to collect to track teacher movement and develop a more complete picture of the nature of their teacher workforce, in general. The 2003 report, Data Systems To Enhance Teacher Quality, offers five recommendations:

   1. States should develop comprehensive data systems that provide information on teacher supply, teacher quality and teacher mobility. This includes information about teacher preparation, licensure and employment history, and the achievement of teachers' students.
   2. Key state players must work together to develop the kind of integrated system necessary. This includes policymakers, higher education institutions, local districts, state employment agencies and retirement systems.
   3. States must commit the financial and human resources necessary to develop and maintain such a system.
   4. States must develop a system that involves unique identifying numbers for each teacher to provide accurate longitudinal data.
   5. States should make the data collected available for analysis (with appropriate safeguards to ensure confidentiality) and should share the results of the analysis with policymakers, education leaders and the general public.

Although the movement of teachers from one state to another is still a relatively rare phenomenon, it is likely to become more common as our society grows increasingly more mobile. Thus, for administrative as well as research purposes, it will become increasingly important to be able to track the movement of teachers between states, tracking that requires much more cooperation among states than is currently the norm.

3. Rigorous evaluation research of specific policies must become a greater priority.

Although the education literature includes many articles that discuss particular education policies, it contains few empirical studies of those policies. To remedy this and obtain reliable data on the effect of specific policy interventions, policymakers at all levels — school, district, state and federal — must make it a priority to provide adequate resources to undertake rigorous evaluations of the policies they develop and implement. Without such rigorous evaluation, it is impossible to know the true impact and lessons of policies that have been enacted.

4. More rigorous research in general must be conducted in the area of teacher recruitment and retention, especially research that employs control or comparison groups.

While it may be extremely difficult to employ control groups in large-scale studies of the patterns of teacher employment or the effects of various teacher compensation policies, it is certainly reasonable to conduct studies of induction and mentoring or of programs designed to recruit or retain specific populations of teachers that use a comparison group and a treatment group. In some cases, it should even be possible to set up experimental studies or quasi-experimental studies to determine with much greater accuracy and confidence whether a particular strategy designed to enhance teacher recruitment or retention truly has an impact or whether any differences in the behavior or outcomes of the two groups is due to other considerations.

Education Resource - Teacher Retention

Improving Teacher Retention With Supportive Workplace Conditions

Source: The Center for Comprehensive School Reform and Improvement

Topics: Middle Years (5-9), Teacher Quality and Compensation, more...

Preteen Years (9-13), Teen Years (13-19)

Teacher retention is a persistent issue in school improvement. While it is true that some degree of teacher turnover in schools is both healthy and inevitable, the exodus of large numbers of teachers over time diminishes the overall capacity of a school to serve its students. In addition, it creates new problems related to recruiting and inducting new teachers. Statistics show that small schools, urban schools, and schools serving high-minority, high-poverty populations are particularly at risk of losing teachers (Marvel, Lyter, Peltola, Strizek, & Morton, 2007).

While states and districts are experimenting with various programs to encourage retention, one body of research highlights the importance of supportive working conditions. Factors such as time, leadership, professional development, access to resources, and teacher empowerment all exert a significant influence on the degree of satisfaction teachers feel in their jobs. Recent research indicates that “teachers with positive perceptions about their working conditions are much more likely to stay at their current school than educators who are more negative about their conditions of work, particularly in the areas of leadership and empowerment” (Hirsch & Emerick, 2007, p. 14).

Studies of Workplace Environment

Time

Teachers at all grade levels typically have less than an hour a day of designated planning time to prepare for multiple teaching periods. The majority of teachers surveyed in South Carolina report spending more than five hours per week outside the school day on school-related activities such as grading and parent conferences (Hirsch, 2005). Johnson (2006) writes that the lack of time to plan, teach, and assess not only creates stressful work conditions, it diminishes the quality of instruction.

By altering schedules, schools are finding creative ways to provide more instructional time for students and noninstructional time for teachers to plan and collaborate with peers. Practices that ensure productive and focused use of this time should also be implemented.

Johnson (2006) advises that administrators take care to ensure “fair and appropriate” teaching assignments. Responsibility for several different courses, split assignments between several schools, and excessive teaching loads all consume what limited time a teacher may have. These situations can contribute to diminished morale, effectiveness, and ultimately commitment.

Strategies for Time

• Lengthen the school day to generate time for early release or additional planning days.
• Employ paraprofessionals or permanent substitute teachers who can assist with administrative tasks, lead small-group activities, or cover class periods.
• Consult with teaching staff to ensure course and student loads are fair and reasonable.

Principal Leadership

Positive and supportive leadership by principals matters to teachers. Leadership in South Carolina, “identified by more than one-quarter of teachers as the most crucial working condition in making their decisions about whether to stay in a school, was significantly predictive of teacher retention” (Hirsch, 2005, p. 12). When comparing schools with high and low turnover rates, Hirsch & Emerick (2007) found the greatest variation in leadership and empowerment. More than half of those who left the teaching profession in 2004–05 indicated they receive better recognition and support from administration in their new jobs, as did 41 percent of teachers who left the classroom for a noninstructional position in the field of education (Marvel et al., 2007).

One recent survey highlighted the importance of trust between administrators and teachers and found it to be strongly correlated with teacher turnover. Among the attributes associated with trust were the communication of clear expectations to parents and students, a shared vision among faculty, consistent administrative support for teachers, and processes for group decision making and problem solving (Hirsch & Emerick, 2007). Administrative support for student discipline also is an issue of considerable importance to teachers. Surveys indicate student behavior is a reason teachers leave or seriously consider leaving the profession (Coggshall, 2006). Principals as instructional leaders can enhance workplace conditions by attending to teachers’ professional need for clear and consistent discipline policies, instructional support, and recognition.

Strategies for Principal Leadership

• Recognize teacher accomplishments; communicate support for and belief in the role of teachers as experts in instruction and learning.
• Work with teaching staff to devise and implement clear discipline policies and procedures.
• Regularly update the school community on policies and initiatives.

Empowerment and Professional Influence

Historically, teachers have been permitted to make instructional decisions within their classrooms but have experienced much less influence in other school functions. Teachers derive greater satisfaction from their work when they are able to contribute to decisions such as scheduling, selection of materials, and professional development experiences. Studies show that of teachers leaving the classroom, more than half report greater control over their own work and the ability to exert greater influence over workplace policies and practices in their new position (Marvel et al., 2007).

One avenue to engage teachers in a collaborative decision-making process is a school improvement team. Analysis of survey results in North Carolina suggests that the effectiveness of a school improvement team at the middle and high school levels has an effect on teacher retention (Hirsch & Emerick, 2007). Another avenue for teachers to expand their influence is through varied instructional leadership roles. Johnson (2006) claims there is “growing interest today in differentiated roles, which would provide teachers a chance to extend their professional influence” (p. 14). Some schools and districts have instituted positions allowing for a reduced course load while fulfilling other obligations such as peer review and coaching.

Strategies for Empowerment and Professional Influence

• Develop differentiated instructional roles in schools, such as assistants, mentors, coaches, and supervisors.
• Establish formal and informal opportunities to garner teacher input on the design and implementation of school and district policies and procedures.
• Engage school improvement teams in substantive and collaborative decision making.

Professional Development

Ensuring that teachers have continued opportunities to develop skills to meet the diverse needs of learners contributes to a positive and supportive working environment. In the first-year phase-in of the Arizona teacher working conditions survey, 55 percent of teachers rated “effectiveness with the students” as the most important factor influencing employment decisions (Hirsch & Emerick, 2006, p. 11).

Developing teachers’ abilities to educate students is at the core of successful professional development. School communities should analyze data and collaborate to identify and implement those practices that the data suggest could improve student achievement. Johnson (2006) notes that teachers increasingly are expecting to collaborate with peers. While a degree of autonomy is appreciated by teachers, isolation from the support of colleagues can have a detrimental effect on teacher satisfaction, effectiveness, and retention.

Strategies for Professional Development

• Engage teachers in determining the structure and content of professional development by using data to examine the needs of diverse learners and struggling students.
• Promote models of professional development, such as study groups, critical friends groups, and action research.

Curricular Resources

Teachers’ perceptions of their working environment are affected by the level of instructional resources available to them. A supportive workplace provides the curricular infrastructure teachers need to teach effectively. Material resources are needed to give life to curricular standards and to support instruction.

Teachers generally support standards-based teaching and learning. However, many lack adequate material or support to successfully implement a standards-based curriculum (Johnson, 2006). A curriculum begins with standards but also includes pacing guides, outcome expectations, formative and summative assessments, rubrics, textbooks, unit and lesson plans, and supports such as instructional interventions for struggling students. Teachers new to the profession regularly spend many hours outside the school day locating or creating curricular materials—often at their own expense. These teachers operate in “survival mode,” staying just ahead of their students and scrambling to add flesh to the skeleton of standards. As instructional approaches are adopted by districts and schools, leaders must consider what new and veteran teachers will need in hand to effectively implement them and take steps to provide those resources.

Strategies for Resources

• Build a bank of locally developed standards-based lesson plans and assessments for all teachers to access.
• Engage community-based organizations, parent teacher associations, and school boards to identify how community resources can support student learning outside the school day.
• Train instructional staff on the implementation of texts and curriculum materials.

Conclusion

Teachers leave the classroom for a variety of reasons. Administrators have little control when teachers leave because of retirements, family responsibilities, or health issues, but administrators can positively affect workplace conditions. Research supports attending to workplace conditions as a means to retain teachers. When teachers are given adequate time to prepare, are respected as professionals, and are properly supported, they are more likely to remain in the profession.

References

Center for Teaching Quality. (n.d.). Teacher working conditions toolkit. Retrieved June 22, 2007, from http://www.teacherworkingconditions.org/

Coggshall, J. G. (2006). Prospects for the profession: Public opinion research on teachers. Washington, DC: National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality. Retrieved June 22, 2007, from http://www.ncctq.org/publications/October2006Brief.pdf

Hirsch, E. (2005). Listening to the experts: A report on the 2004 South Carolina teacher working conditions survey. Chapel Hill, NC: Southeast Center for Teaching Quality. Retrieved June 22, 2007, from http://www.teachingquality.org/pdfs/TWC_SCFinalReport.pdf

Hirsch, E., & Emerick, S. (with Church, K., & Fuller, E.). (2006). Arizona teacher working conditions: Designing schools for educator and student success. Results of the 2006 phase-in teacher working conditions survey. Hillsborough, NC: Center for Teaching Quality. Retrieved June 22, 2007, from http://www.teachingquality.org/pdfs/twcaz2006.pdf

Hirsch, E., & Emerick, S. (with Church, K., & Fuller, E.). (2007). Teacher working conditions are student learning conditions: A report on the 2006 North Carolina teacher working conditions survey. Hillsborough, NC: Center for Teaching Quality. Retrieved June 22, 2007, from http://www.teachingquality.org/pdfs/twcnc2006.pdf

Johnson, S. M. (2006). The workplace matters: Teacher quality, retention, and effectiveness. Washington, DC: National Education Association. Retrieved June 22, 2007, from http://www.nea.org/research/bestpractices/images/wcreport.pdf

Marvel, J., Lyter, D. M., Peltola, P., Strizek, G. A., & Morton, B. A. (2007). Teacher attrition and mobility: Results from the 2004–05 teacher follow-up survey. U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Retrieved June 22, 2007, from http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2007/2007307.pdf


Administered by Learning Point Associates in partnership with the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL) and WestEd, under contract with the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education of the U.S. Department of Education.

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Published April 14, 2008

Teacher Retention a Critical National Problem

• Written By: Delia Stafford-Johnson President & CEO of The Haberman Educational/ Columnist EducationNews.org
• Categorized in: Commentaries and Reports

Vicky Dill & Delia Stafford
Haberman Foundation

It is a commonly known that 50% of the new teachers leave the profession within the first five years of teaching. In addition, young people studying to be teachers rarely know if they will succeed as a teacher. There has been no effective way of predicting whether or not one individual will be successful in teaching and will remain a teacher for an entire lifetime.

As the number of able teachers continues to decline, there is a severe need for more teachers in many fields and geographical areas. Teachers are needed to meet the classroom needs of disadvantaged children and the accountability standards of various states in particular, teachers are needed to narrow the achievement gap between high and low socioeconomic students.

To further add to the critical need to retain teachers is the requirement of the federal "No Child Left Behind Act" that every classroom have a "a highly qualified" teacher by school year 2005-2006. Here we are in 2008 and the goal has not been achieved.This requirement applied to all teachers, including special education teachers.

The cost of teacher turnover is unusually high and deprives our schools of the needed personnel resources. The impact of the low teacher retention can be devastating to a school district. Example.1)Let's say between 1998 and 2001, a district lost 3,907 teachers.(2) At an estimated cost of 20% of the annual salary of a first year teacher,(3) or $7400. per teacher.(4) the district would have to spend nearly $30 million dollars to replace teachers who left between 1978 and 2001. More shocking is the fact that nearly a third of the these teachers could be new hires, costing the district more that 9.6 million.

The problem of teacher attrition is costly; it is even more damaging to the educational development of students, especially low income and minority students. In schools with75 % or more minority, economically disadvantaged, or Hispanic, the turnover rate exceeded 20 percent last year. In schools determined to be least effective the turnover rate was more than 40 percent.

The task of teacher recruitment and teacher retention is, therefore, a critical national problem. We not only need more teachers, we also need better teachers. Teachers must be selected not only on the basis of their academic credentials, but also on the likelihood that they will remain in the profession long enough to make an impact. A possible effective solution is the Haberman Star Selection Process.

Dr. Martin Haberman is a teacher educator who is committed to determining the attributes of successful teachers. He has studied teachers in school districts around the country for more than 30 years and has reached the conclusion that there is a third important attribute, in addition to content knowledge and pedagogy, which leads to success in the classroom. This area is the capacity to build relationships with children, parents and school leaders is the dimension that is the best predictor of teacher retention.

Dr. Haberman has developed an interview process that elicits responses regarding the following mid-range functions: (1) persistence, (2) organization and planning, (3) value of student learning, (4) theory to practice, (5) teaching at risk students, (6) approach to students, (7) surviving in a bureaucracy, (8) explaining teacher success and (10) fallibility. The responses of teacher applicants are compared with the responses of successful "star" teachers. The process, which has been researched and validated, can predict teacher success with a high degree of probability.

Many testimonials from school districts that have employed the Haberman Star Teacher Selection Process are now coming forth.

Witness the following letter, dated October 21, 2001, from Dr. Fred Chesek, Manager of the Academy of Professional Development of the Teachers for Chicago .

. Have we been successful in our selection? Widely accepted national averages show between 60 and 70% of certified teachers after college never either begin teaching or quit within five years. The more challenging the school and the higher the need, the higher the teacher turnover. Using the Star Teacher Selection Interview exclusively, we have turned those percentages on their heads. Since 1991 we have had more than six thousand applicants, but have selected only a little over 900 that have passed the interview. Of these, 82% are still teaching in a Chicago school while 70% are still at the same school where they served their internships.

The Star Teacher Selection Process, if used along with traditional methods of reviewing teacher applicant data, can over time, reduce the time and money spent on teacher recruitment. If teacher retention can be increased from 60% to 85% the principal will be free to spend more time developing educational programs and will have to expend less time re-staffing the school.

The benefits of the Star Teacher Selection Process are many:

• Cost Advantages . The cost to replace a teacher in Texas is approximately 20% of the teacher's salary. Replacement cost include the cost of advertising, recruiting, processing applications, criminal background checks, interviewing, orientation and training. The cost of about $400.00 per teacher is already a significant savings on recruitment and it reduces or eliminates many of the other tasks required to replace a teacher.

• Time Advantages . Principals are already burdened by time constraints and do not have the time to conduct an aggressive recruitment campaign on their own. The Haberman Star Teacher Interview will dramatically limit the time necessary to review and interview candidates sine principals will need to review far fewer applicants.

• Scope . Because of the Haberman Foundation website and the on-line pre-screener is accessible to any applicant with internet access. This widens the applicant pool and allows school principals to consider applicant from anywhere in the world.Further,with teleconferencing , a principal could access a teacher candidate from anywhere in the US or abroad.

• Communication . The same advantages which allow the Haberman Star Teacher Recruitment Process to interview applicants from great distances can permit principals to communicate with applicants or new hires. Information, including orientation material can be provided far in advance. Pre-service activities can be done in advance. When the applicant arrives at the school site they will be prepared to start teaching.

We know what the problems are; the large numbers of teachers who leave the teaching profession and the prohibitive cost, both in financial and educational resources. Schools need a solution. The Haberman Star Teacher Selection Process can be a major component of that solution. It has shown itself to be a highly predictive of teacher retention as well as performance in classrooms all across America . It is a process that will assist school districts select teachers who will stay in teaching and work well with the student populations they serve, and save the limited financial resources.

The use of the Haberman Star Teacher Interview Process will go a long way to insure the "No Child is Left Behind" has meaning for those who need it most. America 's poor and disenfranchised children.

http://www.habermanfoundation.org

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A SYMPOSIUM of The National Commission on Teaching and America's Future and NCTAF State Partners
AUGUST 20-22 2002
Washington D.C.

UNRAVELING THE “TEACHER SHORTAGE” PROBLEM: TEACHER RETENTION IS THE KEY

THE CONVENTIONAL WISDOM IS WRONG 3
WE NEED TO ASK A BETTER QUESTION.... 3

A CLOSER LOOK AT THE NUMBERS 4
TEACHER TURNOVER AND ATTRITION RATES ARE HIGH.... 4
THE SUPPLY OF TEACHERS IS GENERALLY ADEQUATE TO MEET THE DEMAND.... 4
IS RETIREMENT A FACTOR? ..... 5

WHY DO WE APPEAR TO HAVE “SHORTAGES?” 6
DISTRIBUTION INEQUITIES ACROSS REGIONS, STATES, AND DISTRICTS.... 6
DISTRIBUTION INEQUITIES BY FIELD.... 7

HIGH TEACHER TURNOVER HAS SIGNIFICANT COSTS 8
PUTTING A PRICE TAG ON TEACHER TURNOVER.... 8
THE COST OF HIGH TURNOVER FOR STUDENTS.... 9

HOW CAN WE REDUCE HIGH TEACHER TURNOVER? 10
SALARIES .... 10
WORKING CONDITIONS .... 11
TEACHER PREPARATION .... 11
BEGINNING TEACHER MENTORING .... 12

WE NEED SCHOOLS DESIGNED FOR THE 21ST CENTURY 13

A THREE PART STRATEGY 14

NCTAF STATE PARTNERS 14




HOW CAN WE REDUCE HIGH TEACHER TURNOVER?
To fix the problem we need to understand the cause. Four major factors are especially prominent influences on whether and when teachers leave specific schools or the profession entirely:
· Salaries
· Working conditions
· Preparation
· Mentoring support in the early years of teaching

Figures 8 and 9 summarize the reasons for teacher dissatisfaction and the impacts this dissatisfaction has on teacher turnover. Working conditions and salaries are both significant reasons for leaving, but the relative importance of these features varies depending on the specific teachers’ experiences. For example, poor administrative supports are mentioned more often by teachers leaving low-income schools where working conditions are often more stressful, while salaries are mentioned somewhat more often by teachers leaving more affluent schools.

Salaries
There is substantial evidence that wages are at least as important to teachers in their decision to quit teaching as they are to workers in other occupations. Teachers are more likely to quit when they work in districts with lower wages and when their salaries are low relative to alternative wage opportunities. The effects of wage differentials are strongest at the start of the teaching career, but the effects of wages on retention persist at higher levels of experience as well. Teachers in high demand fields like mathematics and science are especially vulnerable to salary differences in their decisions to remain in teaching. Such fields have especially high opportunity costs for remaining in teaching given much higher salaries in alternative occupations, and as Figure 6 shows, the attrition rates in these fields are significantly higher than in other fields.

Higher salaries also appear to attract better-prepared and higher-quality teachers. Student achievement may be associated with increases in teacher salaries as well (along with teacher experience and education, which are rewarded in teacher salary schedules).

Working Conditions
Working conditions, including professional teaching conditions, play a substantial role in decisions to leave teaching in a particular school or district, and they contribute to decisions to leave the profession altogether. National survey data show that teachers' plans to remain in teaching are highly sensitive to their perceptions of their working conditions. The proportion of teachers who report that they plan to remain in teaching as long as they are able are strongly associated with how teachers feel about the administrative support, resources, and teacher voice and influence over policy in their schools There are large differences in working conditions that affect teachers in high- and low-wealth schools. Teachers in more advantaged communities experience much easier working conditions, including smaller class sizes and pupil loads, and much more control over decision making in their schools.

Some studies have found that teacher attrition seems related to the demographic characteristics of schools’ student populations: specifically, that teachers transfer out of high-minority schools into schools with fewer minority students. But other data suggest that much of this flight is due to the difficulties posed by the kinds of working conditions that often pertain in high-minority, low-income schools. For example, a California survey found that teachers in high-minority, low-income schools report significantly worse working conditions – including poorer facilities, less availability of textbooks and supplies, fewer administrative supports, and larger class sizes, and that
teachers are significantly more likely to say they plan to leave a school soon because of these poor working conditions. A subsequent analysis of these data confirmed that turnover problems are more strongly influenced by school working conditions and salary levels than by student characteristics in these schools.

Teacher Preparation
Several lines of research suggest that better prepared teachers stay in teaching at higher rates. For example, those who complete well designed five-year and four-year teacher education programs stay in teaching at much higher rates than teachers hired through alternatives that offer only a few weeks of training before recruits are left on their own in the classroom. These differences are so large that, taking into account the costs to states, universities, and school districts of preparation, recruitment, induction, and replacement due to attrition, the actual cost of preparing a career teacher in the more intensive programs is likely to be significantly less than that of preparing a greater number of teachers in shorter-term programs who are less likely to stay. (see Figure 10)

There are a number of alternative pathways for mid-career recruits that are high quality post-baccalaureate programs tailored to help candidates meet the same high standards as other recruits; they streamline preparation by interweaving coursework about learning and teaching with a well-supported clinical training experience. These successful alternatives, including some high-quality internship models in California school districts such as New Haven and Elk Grove, and mid-career training programs like Project Promise in Colorado and George Washington University’s DELTA program, typically have retention rates of 80% or higher.

But alternative approaches that bypass the student teaching and mentoring that enable recruits to learn from skilled veterans, and approaches that do not adequately support learning about methods for teaching challenging content to diverse learners, typically breed a sense of failure in their recruits. Lack of adequate preparation leads to discouragement and teacher burnout. An approach to recruitment that emphasizes ease of entry over quality preparation can be penny wise and pound-foolish. It contributes to the revolving door of teachers into and out of teaching, and undermines a school’s ability to sustain a stable teaching force.

New data confirm that there are large differences in plans to stay in teaching among first year teachers who felt well-prepared and those who felt poorly prepared in the key tasks of teaching when they entered the classroom. For example, nearly two thirds of those who felt well-prepared to design lessons, use a range of instructional methods, and assess students said they plan to stay in teaching as long as possible, while little over a third of those who felt poorly prepared in these areas said they are committed to staying.34 (see Figure 11)

Beginning Teacher Mentoring
There is also clear evidence that beginning teachers who have access to intensive mentoring by expert colleagues are much less likely to leave teaching in the early years. A number of school districts, including Cincinnati, Columbus, and Toledo Ohio, and Rochester, New York have reduced attrition rates of beginning teachers by more than two-thirds (often from levels exceeding 30% to rates of under 5%), by providing expert mentors with release time to coach beginners in their first year on the job. These young teachers not only stay in the profession at higher rates, but they become competent more quickly than those who must learn by trial and error.

Effective teacher induction programs pair new teachers with a more experienced mentor who provides support and assistance to help novices navigate the difficult early years of teaching as they perfect their teaching skills. Well-designed induction programs have proven their value in reducing attrition rates among new teachers. Over a five year period, for example, California’s Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment Program (BTSA) successfully reduced teacher attrition rates, among its participants by two-thirds.

The BTSA program encourages local school districts, county offices of education, and colleges and universities to collaborate in providing new teacher induction programs. These programs reported collective retention rates of 96 percent for first-year teachers; over five years, the program reduced the attrition rate to just 9 percent in contrast to percent for new teachers who did not participate in such programs.

Mentoring strategies to improve teacher retention and enhance teaching quality help boost student achievement. Connecticut’s Beginning Educator Support and Training (BEST) program, for example, which provides each new teacher with state-trained mentors during the first two years of teaching, has contributed to the state’s consistently high performance on NAEP assessments.

But the quality of teacher mentorship programs varies widely. In 2001, a total of 28 states reported that they have some form of mentoring program for new teachers, but only 10 states require mentoring programs and support the requirement with funding. As a result, not all teachers who participate in induction programs actually receive mentoring from a skilled veteran who has released time to coach them in the classroom.

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Teacher Retention in California's K-12 Public Schools

In 2007, the Center for Teacher Quality completed a comprehensive study of teacher retention in California's public schools. The findings and recommendations from this study, authored by Dr. Ken Futernick, appear in a report titled, A Possible Dream: Retaining California Teachers So All Students Learn.

To download files related to the report:

• Media Coverage with Links to Selected Articles
• Press Release (.pdf, 58KB)
• Key Findings from Report (.pdf, 131KB)
• Recommendations from Report (.pdf, 112KB)
• A Possible Dream: Retaining California Teachers So All Students Learn - Full Report (.pdf, 3MB)
• A Possible Dream: Retaining California Teachers So All Students Learn - Executive Summary (.pdf, 336KB)

For Printed copies of the report:

The Center for Teacher Quality
CSU, Sacramento
6000 J Street
Sacramento, CA 95819-6018
(916) 278-4600