Some do's and don'ts on keeping teachersElizabeth DuffrinWhat Tolstoy found true of families may also be said of schools: The happy ones are all alike; every unhappy school is unhappy in its own way. At schools where teachers have a voice, moral support, quiet hallways and enough chalk, they tend to stay put. At schools where one or more of the elements of a well-functioning school are lacking, frustration mounts, eventually pushing some teachers out. Of those who leave, some will quit teaching altogether. Burroughs elementary in Brighton Park is among the Chicago public schools that keep their teachers. For the past two years, its average... > Read More |
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TV special investigatesCatalyst"False Alarm," an investigative look at the country's widely touted teacher shortage, will be broadcast on Sunday, September 12 at 1 pm on WTTW-TV, Channel 11. Focusing on schools in Georgia, Texas and California, documentary film-maker John Merrow suggests that the shortage may be less a "problem of recruitment than retention."
He looks at "administrative malpractice;" for example, assigning a physical education teacher to a math class. He also examines "administrative incompetence." In Oakland, Cal., for instance, school officials claimed they couldn't find qualified teachers to... > Read More |
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Mentoring program going citywideElizabeth DuffrinMentoring for new teachers isn't a new idea—just one that's catching on. In an effort to reduce attrition, many districts are doing it, and some states require it. Research says it can work. Chicago's mentoring program, launched as a pilot project in 1997, included over 200 schools last year and is now poised to go citywide. So far, the effort has drawn mixed reviews from teachers and uneven support from principals.
Newly hired teachers are paired with a mentor at their school, and receive 30 hours of training on everything from record keeping to building rapport with co-workers.... > Read More |
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Why two Chicago teachers leftElizabeth DuffrinFrom Lake View High to Evanston Township High
When Richard Kaplan was chair of the math department at Lake View High School, the school had a larger portion of its seniors enrolled in calculus than almost any other high school in the country. But in 1998, after 12 years there—four as department chair—Kaplan resigned in frustration and headed for Evanston Township High School.
In 1995, his department lost its autonomy under a new principal who was following a new school board's policies. Kaplan, who saw his department progressing on its own accord, felt the restrictions... > Read More |
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What high-turnover schools have in commonCatalystAfrican-American schools on probation with new principals are the top candidates for high teacher turnover, according to an analysis by the Consortium on Chicago School Research.
Conducted at Catalyst'srequest, the analysis looked at teacher turnover in the Chicago Public Schools from April 1997 to April 1999. The Consortium found that:
Landing on academic probation added 5 percentage points to a school's teacher turnover rate.
Having a brand new principal added 3 percentage points to a school's turnover rate.
Race also had an impact, after controlling... > Read More |
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Many reasons for leavingElizabeth DuffrinAbout 30 percent of teachers new to Chicago's public schools leave within the first five years, according to a Catalyst analysis of School Board data. At least some of the turnover is inevitable, and not all of it has to do with the working conditions in particular schools.
According to a study conducted in the early 1990s, 45 percent of teachers who left teaching—and 33 percent who switched teaching jobs—did so at least in part for personal reasons such as child-rearing, a family move or illness.
Others teachers simply leave in search of new opportunities. In many... > Read More |
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New teachers rate their first yearCatalystIn June, Catalyst mailed a survey to 1,548 teachers hired by the Chicago Public Schools in 1998-99 to see if they intended to return to the same school next year; 428, or 28 percent, responded. Of those,
84% said Yes
13% said No
3% were undecided
Of those planning to leave:
54% might transfer to another Chicago public school
25% might leave for another school district
12% might leave teaching
12% gave no response
4% were moving away
3% might teach at the college level
3% might seek an advanced degree ...> Read More |
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Tackling the teacher dropout rateElizabeth DuffrinIn August 1997, Michelle landed her first teaching job at a West Side Chicago elementary school. "I was ambitious and ready," she says. "I was fresh out of school. I was totally excited."
In October, she discovered that if a fist-fight broke out in her classroom and she hit the emergency button, nobody would come. In November, she still had no reading textbooks for her students. By December, she had spent $800 of her own money on classroom materials.
Her parents advised her to think about quitting. "I was crying to my parents almost every day 'This is insane. There's no... > Read More |
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