Turnover of public school teachers in the United States Introduction 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 employer, gain or loses teachers. This is determined further by how long the teachers tend to stay in the teaching profession before moving to other professions or locations. This paper will attempt to evaluate the level of turnover of public school teachers in the United States. Fundamentally, the first question one should seek an answer is; what factors would need to be studied in order to answer the question of whether teacher turnover is too high or too low? Many people would quickly hypothesize that retirement is the major cause for teacher attrition. However, a close scrutiny of the situation on the ground has it that this is not true. According to the analysis done by the US department of education, 2000 to 2001, teachers give other reasons rather than retirement when leaving and the most common include job dissatisfaction and search for other positions in other professions. For those teachers who transfer schools, 65 percent move because of lack of planning time, 60 percent move because of wo... ... middle of paper ... ...r Turnover’ the turnover cost in the US is very high and require to be contained. References National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future. “Policy Brief: The High Cost of Teacher Turnover,” prepared for the, undated, page 1, http://www.nctaf.org/resources/demonstration_projects/turnover/documents/NCTAFCostofTeacherTurnoverpolicybrief.pdf. October 5 2011. U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Teacher Follow-up Survey, Washington, DC, 2001. . U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Teacher Attrition and Mobility: Results From The 2008-2009 Teacher Follow up, http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2010/2010353.pdf. October 5 2011. TitlePersonnel Economics in PracticeAuthorsEdward P. Lazear, Michael GibbsEdition2, illustratedPublisherJohn Wiley and Sons, 2009
Birman, Beatrice F., et al. "State And Local Implementation Of The "No Child Left Behind Act." Volume VIII--Teacher Quality Under "NCLB": Final Report." US Department Of Education (2009): ERIC. Web. 31 Mar. 2014.
Salary schedules for public school teachers are almost a common feature in public school districts. These schedules largely determine the salaries for the teachers. A single district schedule sets the pay for hundreds of thousands of teachers in thousands of schools (Besharov 1). The key factor that influences the pay for the teachers in the salary schedules include experience in terms of years and the total number of graduate course works that a teacher has completed. This paper will look at the cons and pros of the salary schedules in terms of an economic point of view.
"Issue Brief." Teacher Attrition: A Costly Loss to the Nation and to the States (2005): 6. Web. 27 Sep 2009. .
I spent my volunteer experience with Dr. Geis’ special needs classroom at County Elementary School; and throughout my participation, the most defining observation was that of the teachers and staff members. Naturally, some employees are better than others at fulfilling tasks. However, as time passed, I noticed that certain employees had difficulty starting each day fresh, free of the pressure and tension that may have accumulated from the previous day. I only volunteered a couple of times a week so my ability to wipe the slate clean was easier. Nevertheless, I can understand how taxing and repetitive the process can be for the full length of a school year. According to the National Commission on Teaching about, “one-third of all new teachers leave after three years, and 46 percent are gone within five years” (Kopkowski). The relatively high attrition rate of teachers is known as teacher burnout. Teacher burnout can be attributed to both physical and emotional factors which may include, “classroom disruptions, inadequate salaries, oversized classes, overbearing parents, excessive paperwork, cutbacks in supplies or materials, threats, harassment, assaults, violence, or problems with co-workers or with administrators” (Campbell). The National Commission on Teaching estimates costs up to, “$7 billion a year, as districts and states recruit, hire, and try to retain new teachers” (Kopkowski). Teacher burnout is financially and socially affecting schools, communities, and society. The purpose of this paper is to identify factors that may lead to teacher burnout, acknowledge the effects of the issue, and provide solutions to better manage the stress of teaching.
One factor is underperforming teachers. An ineffective teacher will cover only 50% of the learning material compared to 150% with an effective teacher (Birtel et al., 2010). If a teacher is not teaching a student successfully, why are they not being fired? Teacher tenure is a reason. Teachers who have tenure are guaranteed employment, thus making it hard to dismiss ineffective teachers (Birtel et al., 2010). To put this into perspective, “1 in 57 doctors lose their medical license and 1 in 97 attorneys lose their law license, but only 1 in 2,500 teachers lose their teaching credential” (Birtel et al., 2010). When a teacher does not effectively teach the learning material, their actions can negatively impact a student. Therefore, it may explain why the United States has a low
In the documentary, “Waiting for Superman,” Geoffrey Canada, an educator, discusses the damage the public school system is doing on our kids. Canada pins the blame on tenured teachers who cannot be taken out of the system. Tenure is automatically granted to teachers if they have taught for 2-5 years depending on the school district (Waiting for Superman). Each district has different requirements for their own tenure teachers. Tenure allows security for a teacher’s job for life and can only be taken away if certain guidelines are broken. Tenure started in universities to protect professors for political and arbitrary reasons. On average, only one out of every 2,500 teachers loses his or ...
According to data gathered by the National Center for Education Statistics in 2015, there are about 50.1 million public school students and 3.1 million teachers in the United States. When the number of teachers is not enough to meet the demand for teaching, the student/teacher ratio will raise. To the recruiting more effectively, we need to improve the training programs and the teachers ' rights. Moreover, we also have to enhance the quality of working environment together with the academic freedom for the teaching profession. In the early 19th century, the National Education Association introduced tenure. Before tenure, teachers could be fired for personal, religious, race, political reasons, or the
Researchers approaching the study of teacher retention using a cost-benefit theoretical framework from the field of economics believe teachers make choices to stay in their current positions, migrate to new positions in different schools either within or across districts, or leave the profession altogether by weighing opportunity costs. These researchers envision teachers comparing the costs, both overt (salary and benefits) and hidden (working conditions, family ties to the community, etc.), with the benefits of staying in their current positions (Grissom, 2010). When costs outweigh benefits, teachers choose to migrate to new positions or leave the profession.
Public education in the United States of America continuously faces many challenges – diverse student body, overcrowded classrooms, and lack of resources. Besides, many think that in order to provide quality of education for all students we need to improve effectiveness of our teachers. It is necessary to evaluate existing school teachers routinely. However, it will not be sufficient for improving the teacher body overall. Not only have we needed to evaluate existing teachers. It is especially important to ensure that young inexperienced teacher candidates are prepared to educate all students and meet their academic needs. Ravitch points out that “we don’t need to hire bad teachers” ( 69??? ) Thus, we need to ensure that prospective teacher candidates upon their graduation possess necessary skills to support student learning and take charge of their classrooms from day one. That is why New York and 25 other states are currently in the process of changing the way they give their initial certification. The new legislation is expected to take place in New York State beginning May 1, 2014. All candidates graduating at that time and thereafter will be subjected to the new Teacher Performance Assessment or edTPA.
The article also confirms that two-thirds of all teachers need to work outside of the classroom just to “make ends meet” (Calegari 3). Most professionals in the education field would agree that living pay check to pay check is not what they signed up for when going into this profession. Nearly half of the teachers in urban districts quit before their fifth year due to long hours, low pay, and lack of respect and support. Because teachers are treated this way, many respond with as much respect as they receive by poor grading and putting less effort overall into what was probably once their passion. These push factors cause some of the best educators in the profession to leave, having a devastating effect on the schools and the success of the students, especially in urban
“High School Teachers.” Occupational Outlook Handbook. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, 2014-2015 Ed. Web. 20 March 2014.
Many states such as New England have begun to experience the effects of teacher shortages in the areas of Math and Science (Fowler, 2009). The teacher attrition rates have become a problem to many administrators and educators with teachers leaving at twice the rate of nurses and five times the rate of lawyers. Prior work by Ingersol and Perda, have revealed that the annual attrition rate has risen by 19-26% (Jennifer, 2010). As a result, educators spend more money in fast track programs that many researchers believe do not solve the problem. Instead, they contribute to the issue by bringing more inexperienced teachers into the classroom. Despite the promising results of professional developmental programs, these programs can be very costly and can take time to determine their full usefulness. The author believes there are alternatives that do not require costly techniques but instead models and actions that education administration can adopt to increase teacher retention. Instead of focusing on the reasons teachers leave the field, the author takes a different approach by examining the dynamics that cause teachers to stay in the field pass their five year mark.
Some teachers are better than others. This is a simple and, I hope, obvious fact. But the culture of American schools is not friendly to it. Particularly in our hiring of public school teachers, we tend to avoid notions of serious discernment, of picking the very best in our society to become our teachers, and we accept that the most talented of our young people will gravitate to other fields. Overcoming this acceptance of mediocrity in teacher recruitment and retention represents the greatest opportunity to bring a quantum improvement to our schools.
Novice teachers, or those in their first five years of teaching, have an exceptionally high turnover rate. Ingersoll found that half of all teachers leave within their first five years of service (2003). It is over this span of time that teachers learn the most about the art of teaching (Ingersoll, 2003). Districts many times spend the most money on teachers during this five year phase. Those teachers that aren’t able to create a sense of success with students are less likely to find teaching a rewarding profession and have a higher rate of turnover (Johnson & Birkeland, 2003). While the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future (NCTAF) has created a cost calculator to estimate the actual teacher turnover costs to schools and districts, the calculator doesn’t include the largest cost which is lost teacher quality and effectiveness (2007).
Turnover is one of the most imperative issues to organisations. Turnover is representing the movement of teachers out of the school to seek out a replacement job with another employer. When new job draws in representatives and pulls them to leave the old one. So, each school ought to endeavour to draw in and hold the best and right quality of the teachers. There is various factors impact the movement of teachers within and out of the job. This study thus specifically looked at factors for accrued teacher turnover within the school.