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Small high schools, once heralded as a way to build stronger relationships between teachers and students, have some of the highest rates of teacher turnover in the district. This is one of the more interesting findings from the report The Schools Teachers Leave, released today by the Consortium on Chicago School Research.
Linking teacher personnel data, survey data and information about schools and communities, researchers found that Chicago’s one-year turnover rate is similar to that of other schools in Illinois and across the nation: about 80 percent of teachers stay at their school from one year to the next. But within five years, most CPS schools lose about half of their teachers.
At both the elementary and high school level, small schools had higher turnover than larger schools. Elementary schools with more than 700 students retained 83 percent of their teachers from year-to-year, compared to just 78 percent at schools with fewer than 350 students. Similarly, larger high schools retained 83 percent of teachers; small high schools, just 73 percent.
Another interesting finding: CPS teachers are less likely to move from school to school over a four-year period, but they are more likely to leave the district.
Researchers identified 100 schools with the highest turnover, and these schools are found mostly in poor black communities.
Still, the fact that half of a school’s teaching staff changes over five years has negative consequences. Any new initiative or professional development winds up having little time to take root, and turnover forces principals to spend an inordinate amount of time on recruiting and hiring teachers.
Why teachers leave … or stay
Much of the report seeks to pinpoint why teachers leave.
At small high schools, researchers said that more intensive work may be required, as teachers are supposed to reach out and bond with students. Also, school conflicts might be more acute.
Although a teacher’s race had little correlation with turnover, the report did note that stability is declining for white teachers. And white and Latino teachers were found to be least likely to remain in predominantly black elementary schools.
Experience and age were found to be the strongest predictors of turnover. New, young teachers, and older teachers who are closer to retirement, are the most likely to leave.
How teachers feel about their experience has a big impact on whether they stay in schools. Teachers often reported that they leave because they don’t have strong relationships with parents and they have a hard time managing student behavior. Teachers tend to stay in schools where principals allow them to collaborate and feel as though they are working with other teachers as partners.
Clarissa Williams, a special education teacher at Altgeld Elementary, reiterated many of the points from the study. Recalling her first year teaching, Williams says she believes young teachers are overwhelmed by the demands of managing student behavior, the challenges in the community and the difficulties of navigating a massive school system. When the upper-level administrators don’t inform teachers of what is going on, she adds, teachers sometimes feel alienated.
Williams also says teachers sometimes don’t feel safe in the surrounding neighborhood.
However, after three years, Williams says she’s sticking around. Many teachers and principals talk about their passion for the work and how that passion is a necessity for a successful teacher. For Williams, that rings true.
“I feel like I have a higher calling,” she says. “I feel like kids in this area need and deserve the best teachers.”
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MailI'm surprised you didn't mention that the Consortium report never even looked at charter schools or considered the impact Renaissance 2010 has had on teacher attrition and burnout. Also missing is anything on TFA, who's teachers last, on average, 4 years.
http://michaelklonsky.blogspot.com/2009/06/latest-on-chicago-schools-miracle.html
One of the primary factors is the explosion of charter schools where teachers' jobs are much less stable since they have no union and no contract to protect them from capricious administrators. Another is the concurrent destruction of dozens of neighborhood schools in Chicago's poorest neighborhoods by the draconian school closings that have abounded in the last five years. How do those teachers feel about CPS? Do they find it easy to get jobs in other schools? Do they feel appreciated and welcomed for the challenging job they have performed to the best of their ability?
Another factor is that a large number of new teachers are from Teach for America. While many of these young people are fabulous, enthusiastic teachers, they are less prepared for what the classroom holds than regularly certified teachers. Also, many of them view this as a two year interlude of public service before returning to grad school or entering other, perhaps more renumerative, fields of work.
Last but not least, what about the over-full classrooms? The lack of resources? The inadequate disciplinary backup? Could these be factors affecting turnover???
I've been teaching 4 years, and I'd be a fool if I wasn't looking for "greener pastures." The difference between what I make now and what I could make is easily $7,000 to $12,000 annually. I could drive 2 minutes away, 15 minutes away, or stick with my standard 30 minute commute. Instead of a 7.5 hour work day, I could have a 7.25 or 7 hour work day. By changing my school, I could easily save 45 minutes a day in travel and another 30 minutes of being at work.
You see, no matter where a teacher works, the same bull is going to occur. I'm still going to bust my hump to make sure I do the best job I can do, regardless of it being a 6 hour day or a 10 hour day; a low paying job or a high paying job. I'm still going to do what I do best: teach.
The students aren't that much different. As much as we like to stereotype our students, they are still people and, deep down, they are a lot more alike than they are different. Suburbs versus city -- it's a different circus, but the same clowns are there. Before anyone chokes on their coffee, it's called dry humor. I love my students, but there are days where I'd like to throttle them. City or suburbs, teenagers will find a way to inflict the desire to pull out one's hair.
What I'm getting at is this: Ted, you think young teachers simply lack loyalty towards the school. Instead, you might want to realize that their schools aren't loyal to them.
To me, it doesn't matter where I teach. I love teaching. But love doesn't pay the bills. If it does, please contact my landlord. If I'm going to come home totally exhausted and mentally fried, I could at least have a shorter commute or a better salary. Not that a few hundred bucks will make me less fried, but it'd definitely allow me to go get a massage! :-)
Typically, people who claim teachers are disloyal to the school are the same people who are busy trying to sucker the teachers into doing everything while getting paid nothing. "Oh Jane! I'm so glad I ran into you. I was wondering if you would coach softball with no stipend. You know how much the kids just adore you -- you'd be perfect for it. Sadly our former coach quit; she just wasn't as true to the school as you are." You can't burn out your teachers or treat them like crap, then wonder why they leave.
I'll go back to munching on my slightly burnt, more or less green grass...
CPS will never have the success it wants unless it can keep its highly qualified teachers. Small schools are not the answer to keeping teachers, nor are charter schools. Little good education will take place unless teacher retention becomes a priority. CPS has a highly educate workforce and treating them like people with less than a room temperature IQ is not helpful. We can all go somewhere else and get a job and it seems from the study many are doing just that. Other districts are happy to have CPS teachers. Why isn't CPS?
New teachers are entering a system that is worse than it used to be. Veteran teachers (like one above) who claim that turnover is a lack of loyalty are forgetting that the school system has changed drastically in the last 10 years; teachers don't know whether their school is going to be open the next year. They don't know what type of weird restructuring is going to happen next school year, or if the school is going to purchase a whole new curriculum without any consultation of its direct line staff. Yes, things like this have happened over the last few decades, but not to this extent. Who wants to stay in a school that is unstable, untrusting, and in danger of closing?
Secondly, tenure is not what it used to be. Ren10 and Turnaround programming have usurped some of the stability that used to come with tenure. Five tenured teachers just got let go at my CPS school this June. They are given the option to cadre sub, but what the heck is that?
Why would someone stay at a school with limited resources that is bleeding from the inside out? Many kids are leaving to charters, many principals are coming from previous careers in business and have no idea how to be an education leader, and many teachers are making choices that keep them sane.
But most importantly, many teachers are trying to find schools that still let them do what they do best: educate. Read and write and discuss and deconstruct with their students. Choose books that matter, and give assignments (and tests) that matter.
Honestly, the grass isn't necessarily greener in the suburbs. But, my options are much greater. As my husband seeks higher paying work (someone has to pay the bills) and we seek the schools that best fit our children's needs, I can seek employment in a school district that makes sense for our family; without concern for lost pensionable years.
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