Teacher turnover

[proud2BlibKansan]

I am in a small school so even one teacher leaving is significant. At the end of the year, both of our secretaries are leaving. One is retiring and the other found a better paying job. That is our entire office staff.

One teacher is retiring. Another is getting married and moving out of town. Two others are leaving to teach in other districts.

Two of our young teachers are quitting teaching. They are both very good teachers. They are just burnt out.

We only have 25 teachers on our staff. 20% are leaving.

Anyone else seeing this at their school?

This is the largest turnover I have ever seen in one year. It's scary :scared:

[mihalevich]

1. I received my certification 2 weeks ago (science 9-12).

And as much as I would like to teach, I can not stand the system. I haven't even been looking for jobs. I'm lost in my mid 30's with no direction.

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. I wish I could give you reasons to look for teaching jobs

But the last couple years, since NCLB, have been so stressful. I really used to love my job . . . :cry:

[SomeGuyInEagan]

9. Perhaps tutoring?

This may be way-out-of-line and forgive me if it is ...

My sister-in-law has taught high school level history, economics, political science and related areas for about ten years now, including a bunch of honors and AP sections. In the job she had before her current position, she was getting frequent calls from parents who wanted to hire her to tutor their children outside of class. She was teaching in an affluent Twin Cities (Minnesota) suburb where the expectation is that children will attend college and parents were more than willing to pony up the money to help them compete to get there (she taught at a public school where the parents regularly raised huge amounts of money for the school, many times by writing checks).

She strongly considered taking a break from teaching to do this full or three-quarter time because it would pay quite well and offer her the flexibility she felt would help her in starting a family. She ended up taking a position with a different school district (more flexibility, five minute commute), but strongly considered it.

I guess what I am writing is that there may be an opportunity to stay in your profession but in a different way. I would imagine, given the emphasis placed on STEM education in k-12 (and the scholarships available for STEM), that there is a strong market for STEM tutoring, test prep, etc. Granted, that is taking a very broad look at things - I know it varies greatly community to community. But your experience and certification would be very marketable.

[Reader Rabbit]

3. In my school, we see that kind of turnover almost every year.

The district is mainly upper middle class, and our school is the red-headed stepchild. We have the greatest number and/or percentage of ESL, SPED, free/reduced meal kids of any other school in the district. Consequently, it's a pretty tough gig, and since there are usually "better" schools in the district with openings, we usually have a fair-sized migration at the end of the year.

Add to that mix our numbers-obsessed principal, for whom NCLB is a wet dream, and you've made a tough situation even worse. The wretched man and his data fetish have driven out a good number of the veterans who have enough experience to know that it doesn't have to be as bad as he is making it. This year, I'd say over half our staff are first or second year teachers. They're working their tails off, so who knows how long it'll be before many of them burn out. They haven't learned to pace themselves for the long haul, and there aren't enough veterans to explain to them that a successful teaching vocation is more like a marathon than a sprint.

Don't know where I'm going with this. Just wanted to let you know that you're know alone. In fact, the NEA magazine just had an article about teacher retention/attrition. Little to do with money, lots to do with environment, difficulties, and lack of respect/control.

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. Lack of respect

That's a huge issue. My principal isn't the worst I have ever had but she has really changed since NCLB was launched upon us. It's sad.

I have seen so many - too many - teachers leave the profession because of the way administrators treated them. I know one this year who is leaving, a great teacher. He says he isn't yet 30 years old and he wants time to get into another profession where he is treated with respect. I could tell so many stories of shitty administrators who drove teachers out of the business. I should write a book. LOL

I tell people all the time the stress doesn't come from the kids, it comes from the adults.

[dsc]

5. turn over at my school is hellacious

Our department has 14 teachers. One left mid year ( we have supposedly just found a replacement). We will, for sure, lose 3 teachers and likely lose 5. None of the ones we are losing are retiring or moving.

[ulysses]

6. in three years at my old school, the turnover was 80%.

The theory was that the state never reconstituted us because we reconstituted ourselves.

[Smarmie Doofus]

7. NYC is on the verge of a *mammoth* turnover.

Bloomberg, et al have decided to 'buy out' everyone 55 yrs of age + 25 yrs of service. Everyone who's eligible is taking it... at least everyone I know.

Apparently Bloomie ( the "Education Mayor") has crunched the #s and concluded this is cheaper than making people work til' age 62/30yrs service. When the exodus is complete the system system will be staffed overwhelmigly by newbies.

The newbies come, the newbies burnout, the newbies go. Main thing about newbies: they make no demands on the city's pension system. Not around long enough to qualify. Bloomberg gets to continue to run the system on the cheap. Also the newbies have little emotional connection to the teacher's union. Pesky work rules become easy for the city to ignore.

Unintended .... but predictable and totally unavaoidable... consequence: another generation of abysmal underperforming city schools forever in... as the educrats say... "transition".

No one cares. People with money use private schools. The human comedy rolls on.

[Reader Rabbit]

8. Los Angeles Unified wanted to do that a decade or so ago.

But then they realized they'd be losing over 2/3 of the district teaching staff, and there was no way they could get that many new hires in such a short time. I'd be really surprised if NYC didn't find themselves in a similar situation.

[proud2BlibKansan]

13. Our magic number is only 75 - age plus years of service

So I can go now if I want. But I am too greedy to live on my retirement. :)

[LWolf]

10. Yes.

The year before I left California, we lost 3 teachers to early retirement, 1 young teacher who just quit because, she said, "My husband makes enough money that I don't HAVE to work, and I'm sick of this shit," and 3 young teachers (2nd and 3rd year teaching) who went back to school, changed their major, and announced that as soon as they had another degree that would get them a job outside of public education, they were done.

Not because they weren't good teachers, but because "We're sick of this shit."

I, of course, did not leave public education. I fulfilled the requirements for a credential in another state, and took a massive pay and benefit cut to move there. Not because I wanted to leave teaching; it was a family issue. Still, I left the school I'd been at for 12 years, and the district I'd been at for 22, behind with few regrets.

[jody]

11. I encourage mobile teachers to consider Department of Defense Dependent Schools. I have several

friends who taught in DODEA schools, I met them at various duty stations. DODEA

That could be an excellent sabbatical for teachers who are mobile.

I don't mean this to be a recruitment for DOD, just an observation about teachers I've met in interesting places.

[proud2BlibKansan]

12. I have known a couple teachers who taught in DODEA schools

and loved it. Makes me wish I was younger and not tied down.

[MichiganVote]

14. Everything is so crisis driven in education now...its hard to stay with any of it.