Teacher Retention
Takeaway:
Teachers leave their schools due to a dissatisfaction with administrative support, lack of training and preparation, and less competitive salaries and benefits.
Guiding Questions:
What are the costs of failing to retain teachers?
Which teachers are least likely to stay in their current school?
Who should you be hiring?
How can districts and principals increase retention rates?
Summary:
In the US, 16% of all teachers will leave their school each year. Of this, 8% move to a different school and 8% leave the profession altogether (math, science, special education, and foreign language teachers have the lowest retention rates). Evidence is clear that teachers make the biggest impact on student achievement and being unsuccessful in retaining teachers profoundly harms this. Replacing departing teachers costs schools on average $20,000 per teacher, a massive investment.
Regionally, the South and West struggle the most with retaining teachers, while the Northeast ranks the best. The two biggest factors that cannot be controlled by schools that influence this is student race and the socio-economic background of the families that are served. These two factors directly correlate with the compensation provided for teachers and the level of readiness that teachers are hired with. In short, due to teacher shortages, schools that are less competitive in compensation are much more likely to hire teachers who are on an alternative path (think career-changers), which turnover at a rate of 25% nation wide.
How can we fix this?
To start correcting this problem, we need to identify what factors school districts can control, at least in some measure. The three areas that play the biggest role in teacher retention are compensation, teacher preparation, and supportive leadership. Let’s take a look at each one of these.
Compensation
Having higher or more competitive entry salaries is necessary to attract teachers and retain them in the short term (five years or so). For long term retention, having a high ceiling for teacher earnings is required. Teachers entering their careers with at least $40,000 in annual income and able to earn at least $78,000 later in their career have the best retention. Other factors such as benefits, debt forgiveness, and financial support (for professional development and classroom materials) also play a large role.
Locally, teachers who are earning a salary competitive to professions that require a similar amount of expertise, licensure, and education is beneficial. This last statement should be duly noted for schools in areas with a higher cost of living.
Teacher Preparation
Teachers who have been educated in teacher preparation colleges and had student-teacher mentorships have significantly higher retention rates over career-changers. What is more, schools that have supportive induction programs and yearlong mentorships after hiring
have even higher retention. Those few schools who offer residency programs, similar to what doctors experience, tend to have the highest levels of readiness and retention. Investing heavily in those who are hired into your schools really does pay dividends.
Interestingly, while there is a strong correlation between the youngest and oldest teachers being most likely to leave, there is no significance between middle aged teachers with more experience and middle aged teachers with less experience. It is possible that with increased needs of financial stability (necessary for independence and for having a family) this causes higher rates of retention.
Administrative Support
The highest levels of work dissatisfaction are tied directly to perceptions of working for a non-supportive leader. The three biggest influences that come from administrators are their “ability to encourage and acknowledge staff, communicate a clear vision, and generally run a school well” (source at top). Having rigorous standards for principal certifications as well as training on how to be an empathetic leader are strongly encouraged.
Unexpectedly, when teachers rated their principals on a number of categories with the following qualifiers - Strongly Agree, Somewhat Agree, Somewhat Disagree, Strongly Disagree - the first three had very similar effects on teacher loss (10.5-13.3%). However, teachers who rated their leaders with Strongly Disagree are 77% more likely to leave compared to leaders that were rated Somewhat Disagree. Meaning, teachers are likely more forgiving of leaders that are struggling compared to those who are perceived as incompetent or negligent.
In summary, it may seem that principals have little influence on teacher retention and that districts are more responsible. This is only partly true. While principals may not be able to increase salaries, they can push to provide robust induction, mentoring, and residency programs for new teachers and demonstrate competence as a leader. This competence transcends the education sector into all sectors as people wish to be encouraged, acknowledged, have a clear vision, and be a part of an organization that runs well.