Turnover of Public School Teachers in the United States Essay

Across the United States, schools are facing a major teacher shortage as they try to fill positions in science, math, special education, bilingual education, and other fields. The shortage mainly lies in the schools serving low-income or colored students. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the student population will increase by about three million in the next decade. While the number of students is multiplying, teacher enrollment in preparation programs is down remarkably, falling 35 percent nationwide in the last five years (Long 2). Not only are more people not entering the teaching profession, multiple teachers are reaching retirement age. Because of the shortage, several states have been loosening their certifications

importance of their jobs, and the fact that the quality of teachers are reducing due to the salary.

Fifty percent of new teachers quit with in the first five years of teaching (NEA, 2015), with this number being so alarmingly high it begs the questions: Why do so many teachers leave after going through years of college for this profession? Were teachers not prepared for the job, through college training, what should colleges teach in order to better prepare teachers?

Many states across the country are experiencing teacher shortages. Without enough teachers, we can not successfully educate our children. According to Glori Chaika “Forty-two states issue emergency credentials to people who have taken no education courses and have not taught a day in their lives. Many teachers are hired based solely on their experience leading church or camping groups.” (Chaika) Due to the shortages, States are allowing those who are not even qualified to teach. One can not believe that children are being educated as best as they can be, if those teaching them have no experience or training before hand. Another problem is that teachers are not being place in the fields were they can perform at their best, Glori Chaika also states that “One-fourth of new teachers -- if they are licensed -- are not licensed to teach in the field they are teaching.” (Chaika) Many teachers have very little knowledge on the subject they are teaching, “About 55 percent of students taking physics in the United States, for example, are taught by someone who never majored or minored in the subject.” ( Asimov) As a result of the current teacher shortage, the quality of America’s educational system has gone down. People are being hired with no teaching experience and teachers are being forced to teacher subjects that they are not familiar with. Adding to the current teacher shortage is the problem of teacher

past decade or so since the demand for teachers far increases the number of qualified applicants. The career of teaching has become less desirable for college educated students - Many teachers are aging and leaving behind many turnover jobs, and benefits from unions and tenure simply do not draw in potential educators like they did before the Great Recession of 2008. According to Valerie Strauss of the Washington Post,

According to the Maryland Teaching Staffing Report, the annual attrition percentage continues to decrease, going from 13.3 percent in 2010-2011 to 11.1 percent in 2012-2013 and 9.3 percent in 2013-2014. Although the total attrition percentage is improving, PGCPS continues to have the greatest percentage of attrition compared to neighboring districts as well as the greatest number of teachers that exit the district with less than one to five years of experience. These data confirm that teacher retention is a major problem that significantly impacts PGCPS. These data also support Ingersoll (2003) and Perda (2013) studies regarding the significant number of teachers that leave the profession within their first five years of teaching.

There are many contributing factors to low teacher turnover, however, the main issue is a lack of support and respect for our teachers. Instead of working on maintaining and providing support for our current educators, the conversation usually surrounds expensive and often ineffective recruitment programs. The harsh fact is that it is very expensive to live in our valley and the current teacher salary/benefits are not enough to attract top talent. We need to have a serious conversation with our teachers in order to learn what incentives they need to be successful in their roles as well as to maintain a comfortable living. Teachers are the one profession that truly molds the future of our

“The Teacher Retention Program is committed to supporting the development and retention of Arizona top teachers increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of Arizona’s school, and improving educational opportunities for all students” ("Teacher Retention Project," n.d., para. 1) . By retaining exciting dedicated educators who achieve in their field of expertise, the residents of Arizona will bring stability into the classroom which will result in higher academic test scores, increase graduation rates, and a positive school experience for our future citizen of the state of Arizona. This initiative will address the disastrous deterioration within the Arizona school district due to increasing numbers of teachers either relocating or vacating the teaching profession all together by providing a mentor program between effective teacher in high achieving schools with those in lower academic settings. As teachers leave the profession a void between seasoned experienced teacher and those beginning their career becomes noticeable, particularly in the low income school districts. By putting forward this initiative the residents of Arizona will comply with Brown vs. Board of Education ruling which address the issue of segregation in tangible

The United States is currently facing a difficult time with teacher shortages. In North Carolina alone, 14.8 percent of teachers left the profession in the school years of 2014-2015 according to the Public School Forum (Barth et al. 23). Teacher shortage is a crucial topic to keep at the forefront of discussion because it affects the quality of education that students receive and, subsequently, the future of the United States. It is crucial for the United States to enhance student performance in order for the economy and our technological industry to continue improving. One factor that causes the teacher shortage are the different qualifications needed in order to get certified to teach in a certain subject. However, even after completing these qualifications, there have still been cases in which teachers are not being hired because they are either over-qualified or under-qualified. In addition to these educational barriers, North Carolina has some of the lowest numbers for teacher salaries which has led to a decrease of people desiring to enter into this profession and, as a result, those people choose to not major in education or move to other states to teach instead. After all this, it is very clear that one has to be passionate about working in the education profession. Unfortunately, even those who power through these first few hurdles, there are many negative factors that come into the picture as a result of remaining a teacher. Two possible solutions that can help the

Another answer to the problem was described earlier, which is in the administration of school districts towards their less skilled, underperforming teachers. According to the report by Arne Duncan, “The Irreplaceables,” the rate at which teachers are leaving the field is the same for both high performing teachers and underperforming teachers. The percentage of the teaching population is similar between both sides of this, about 20% of teachers are considered high performing and 20% underperforming. While it may not be practical now to mandate that the school district become stricter on the performance of its teachers, if financial incentives are given to the high performing teachers, a larger population of them would stay and, possibly, a larger amount of them would come to the city of Detroit. If this were to happen, then it would suddenly be practical for Detroit to have its schools be stricter on underperforming teachers, producing a sort of snowballing effect of improvement on Detroit’s school system.

Many have voiced their concerns over the many issues within the teaching profession. Heather Voke of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum responds to one issue, the teacher shortage, by researching the nature of the shortage, its probable causes, problems resulting from the shortage, and frequently recommended policy changes. According to Voke (2003), 42 percent of all teachers leaving depart for lack of job satisfaction, to pursue another career, or better career opportunities. Low salaries and lack of public respect also impacts teacher retention. Policy recommendations to retain teachers include: salary increases, high quality induction programs, prohibit out-of-field teaching, include teachers in decision making, developing current teachers, collaboration with universities to attract and train teachers, and reduce class size. Voke suggests that policy makers and educational leaders do not understand the nature of the teacher shortage. Moreover, developing programs to attract candidates and not properly train them risks wasting valuable resources.

A common challenge for public education is the loss of new teachers during their first years as educators (Nelson, Duke, Hutchens, & Machell, 2014). Rural school systems have often battled with attracting and retaining teachers’ due to factors such as environment, resistance to change, student performance and administration (Goodpaster, Omolola, & Weaver, 2012). Other research has shown that urban school districts have a higher proportion of under-prepared teachers and have a need for retaining and recruiting qualified teachers (Nelson, Duke, Hutchens, & Machell, 2014). Addressing teacher attrition is important to decreasing the country’s ongoing teacher shortage crisis (Carver-Thomas & Hammond, 2017).

Did you know that 33% of teachers leave within within the first three years of beginning their careers and 46% leave within the first five. The number has been increasing since the late 1980s. The top five high paying high states for public school teachers in 2013 were New York, Massachusetts, District to Columbia, connecticut and california. The bottom five states that pay teachers less are South Dakota, Mississippi, Oklahoma, North Carolina and West Virginia. Also May 7 is Teacher Appreciation day .

School districts nationwide are facing a problem: While enrollment numbers are increasing, fewer teachers are becoming available. Coupled with a negative perception of teaching (thanks in part to overbearing education standards) as well as improvement made in other parts of the economy, fewer college students are becoming teachers. Even more damaging, teachers are leaving the profession for similar reasons.

Melanie, Email. "Five Reasons Teacher Turnover Is On The Rise". TakePart. N.p., 2011. Web. 5 June 2016.