The problem is not a shortage of prepared teachers, but rather the exodus of teachers from the classroom once they get there. (Thornton, 2004)

Energy, creativity, smiles, and innovations greet me daily. As a professor in a preparatory teacher education program, I have the pleasure of working with student-teaching seniors full of great ideas, grand intentions, and the energy and devotion to make them realities. Imagine my despair at the knowledge that of the 27 eager faces that fill my classroom, 13 of them will leave the teaching profession within their first five years (North Carolina Department of Public Instruction [NCDPI], 2003). Who will it be, and why will they go? The prediction that more than 2,000,000 new teachers will be needed over the next 10 years has prompted a national flood of solutions from signing bonuses to alternate accreditations (Archer, 1999), but is the answer to our shortage in the hiring process or in the retention process?

The Facts

Teacher education programs in our nation’s colleges produce more than enough teachers to fill the vacancies that occur each year due to natural attrition. Data collected from the Integrated Postsecondary Educational Data System indicates that in the 1998-99 academic year, over 220,000 undergraduate and graduate students completed education degrees, yet only 86,000 new degree recipients were hired to teach the following school year (Ingersoll, 2003). The 61 percent of graduates not entering the teaching profession cited as their reasons for not teaching a desire to pursue different occupations or the desire to stay in school and earn higher degrees (TalkBack Live, 2003).

In a typical year, some 14 to 15 percent of our nation’s teaching force abandon their positions (Ingersoll, 2003). Approximately half of these teachers are movers—teachers relocating from one school or school district to another—and the other half are leavers, teachers leaving the profession altogether. Whether filling the mover’s or the leaver’s position, school administrators are still faced with the problem of finding a competent, qualified person to take over a classroom.

Surveys of those who join the profession and then leave reveal that an astounding 49 percent cited either dissatisfaction with their jobs or the desire to pursue another career as their rationales for this professional exodus (Archer, 1999). Both these movers and leavers noted classroom behavior management problems as a top reason for turnover, along with poor student motivation, lack of input in decision making, and low salaries (Ingersoll, 2003). Taking a critical hit are beginning teachers, of whom 50 percent will leave within their first five years of classroom experience (NCDPI, 2003). A study released in October of 2003 by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction reveals an even more despairing outlook. Approximately one-half of all lateral entry teachers (qualified individuals outside the public education system who are allowed to begin teaching while working to obtain a license) leave the profession within the first two years of teaching, while 30 percent of all beginning teachers who come straight off of college campuses will leave within those critical first two years in the classroom. Delving deeper into the data, it appears that new teachers who leave during their first years of teaching will most frequently leave during the first three months of the school year. It is also clear that if teachers make it to their third year of teaching, the turnover rate slows dramatically (TalkBack Live, 2003).

Why Do They Leave?

Research shows that many teachers leave the classroom due to school leadership and school culture. School structure varies greatly, from top-down leadership models—wherein teachers have little input in decision making—to bottom-up, site-based management models wherein decision making is shared and collective. Data shows that schools in which teachers have input in student behavioral and discipline issues, as well as in key decisions affecting their classrooms, experience far less turnover than schools where teachers are not included in“the process” (TalkBack Live, 2003). Teachers who have left the profession have identified inflexible administrators who discourage teacher interaction, limit creativity, and support parents over teachers as reasons for not wanting to continue on their chosen career paths (National Retired Teachers’ Association [NRTA], 2003).

Former educators also voiced that successful teaching greatly depends on strong relationships; not only with students, but with colleagues and administrators (NRTA, 2003). A recent survey by MetLife Insurance Co. found a definite link between teachers’ career satisfaction and their relationships with their principals (Rebora, 2004). The survey found that 74 percent of teachers who are satisfied with their jobs are also satisfied with their relationships with their administrators. Additionally, those teachers not satisfied with their jobs were less likely to have positive contact with their administrators (Rebora, 2004). It is clear that school leadership makes a difference in teacher retention rates. Therefore, our first step to teacher retention is to ensure that we have responsive school leaders who positively impact a school’s culture and who give teachers control over key decisions that affect their daily lives. Secondly, behavior management was in the top five causes of job dissatisfaction among all teachers leaving their positions (Ingersoll, 2003) and the top concern noted by new teachers still in the classroom (Survey, 2003). We’ve all seen the contrived image of the classroom with students zooming paper airplanes, leaving tacks on the teacher’s chair, and ignoring attempts by the teacher to partake in educational activities. Unfortunately, this is not happening only in the movies. If teachers don’t feel confident with classroom management, quality teaching does not take place. Concurrently, rookie teachers often draw the most difficult schedules, numerous preparations, and complicated students (Stern, 2003). This“sink or swim” model of induction does not assist in classroom management, nor does it assist in keeping novice teachers. School leaders must provide the structure and support necessary to quell disturbances and discipline issues that make teaching a secondary function behind classroom management.

Beginning teachers still in our schools cited the need to learn more effective methods of delivering the curriculum as the second biggest need in their classrooms (Survey, 2003). With the introduction of new teaching strategies and methods as well as changes in the curriculum, veteran teachers need support in this area, too (Brockman, 2004). Teachers do participate in training sessions—usually crammed into after-school hours, summer days, or weekends—but to effectively manage this information and effect change, teachers need collegial support and opportunities to reflect and to receive feedback (Brockman, 2004). School leaders need to fill the role of “instructional leader,” providing support and feedback for classroom issues (Rebora, 2004) as well as provide opportunities for professional, collaborative reflection (Brockman, 2004).

Lastly, only 17 percent of newly hired teachers who participated in full mentoring and induction programs left their classrooms as opposed to 40 percent who did not participate in any such programs. This tells us that organized mentoring programs, paired with induction, support, and structure, can help stem teacher turnover rates (Smith & Ingersoll, 2003), but only with strong local leadership. The State of North Carolina instituted a formal beginning teacher induction program in 1998. Even so, a survey of initially licensed teachers (ILTs) in Johnson and Harnett Counties in North Carolina (2003) indicated that only 82 percent of ILTs met regularly with mentors. A state-level mandate does not necessarily equate to good practice in the local schools. Local administrators must ensure that the program is being followed. Furthermore, mentors need the training and experiences necessary to provide guidance and support for new hires.

What Can Be Done?

Given that a school’s leadership sets the tone and climate of the organization, a school’s leader clearly can be a valuable weapon in keeping quality teachers. So, as a school leader and the one responsible for these new hires, what can be done to stop the revolving door of teaching abandonment? Following are some suggestions:

• Create a community of learners, providing time for reflection and dialogue in professional cohort groups.
• Empower teachers to become advocates for change, giving them a professional voice.
• Provide opportunities for staff development on topics requested by staff members (Thornton, 2004),
• Give all teachers continuous feedback, involve them in decision-making processes, and provide opportunities for professional collaboration (Rebora, 2004).
• Provide exemplary support for school-wide and classroom discipline management.
• Assign schedules and difficult children equitably, accounting for the novice teacher’s lack of experience and need for a positive teaching experience.
• Assign each new hire a mentor who teaches in a similar area of the curriculum and who is in close proximity to the new hire’s classroom.
• Protect the planning times of your mentors and your new hires, giving them opportunities to assemble and learn from one another.
• Provide time and substitutes for new hires to visit the classrooms of veteran teachers (Survey, 2003).
• Ensure that your mentors are well trained and knowledgeable about the role of a mentor teacher.
• Create formal mentoring teams consisting of both veteran teachers as well as colleagues who are new teachers.
• Create online forums for beginning and experienced educators to offer encouragement and to share resources (NRTA, 2003).

Conclusion

If we as a nation hope to alleviate our teacher shortage, we must attend to the attrition rates of teachers—those fresh from the college classrooms; those seeking alternative licensures; and those who have been in our schools, who are experienced, and who choose to leave. It is heartbreaking to see teachers who enter the profession with enthusiasm, drive, and a sense of purpose, leave—many within five years—burned-out, exhausted, and disgruntled. As school leaders, we control the culture and climate of our organizations, and in many instances, the satisfaction levels of those on our campuses. If we can stop the revolving door from spitting out our teachers, we can solve our teacher shortage while retaining committed, experienced professionals.

References:

Archer, J. (1999, March 17). New Teachers Abandon Field at High Rate. Education Week (18), (27).
Brockman, V. (2004, Winter). Supporting the Veteran Teacher. Teachers as Leaders: A Celebration of Teaching (5).
Ingersoll, R. (2003, September). Is There Really a Teacher Shortage? Center for the Study of Teaching and Policy. University of Washington: Research Report.
NRTA (2003, September). Exodus: A Study of Teacher Retention in America: 50 Who Stayed•50 Who Left. Retrieved on May 13, 2004 from the World Wide Web: http://research.aarp.org/general/exodus.pdf.
North Carolina Department of Public Instruction [NCDPI], (2003, October). Retention of Beginning Teachers in North Carolina. Unpublished report. Division of Human Resource Management, Raleigh, NC.
Rebora, A. (2004, March). Principals & Teacher Retention. Education Week. Retrieved on May 9, 2004 from the World Wide Web: www.edweek.org/jobs/jobstory.cfm?slug=03retention_tr.h03.
Smith & Ingersoll, (2003). Reducing Teacher Turnover: What Are the Components of Effective Induction? Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, IL.
Stern, S. (2003, October 7). The great escape. The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved on May 13, 2004 from the World Wide Web: www.christiansciencemonitor.com/2003/1007/p13s01-lecl.html.
Survey of Johnson & Harnett Counties’ ILTs (2004). Unpublished survey. Buies Creek, NC: Campbell University.
TalkBack Live, (2003, December 9). A Highly Qualified Teacher for Every Classroom: Teacher Recruitment and Retention. Education Week on the Web. Retrieved from the World Wide Web: www.edweek.org/ew/tb/tblive/transcript_12-09-2003.htm.
Thornton, H. (2004, March). What Can We Learn About Retaining Teachers from PDS Teachers’ Voices? Middle School Journal, 35(4).

Resources for Further Study:

• Is There Really a Teacher Shortage? Downloadable free copy available at www.ctpweb.org in the Publications section.
• Exodus: A Study of Teacher Retention in America: 50 who stayed•50 who left. A report sponsored by NRTA: AARP. Available at http://research.aarp.org/general/exodus.pdf.
• For more information on the impact of locus of control on teacher satisfaction, read Richard Ingersoll’s Who Controls Teachers’ Work? Power and Accountability in America’s Schools. Published by Harvard University Press (2003). IBSN: 0-674-00922-3
• To follow the efforts of the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, read the report No Dream Denied, available at www.nctaf.org.
• For Education Week’s annual Quality Counts report (2003), If I Can’t Learn From You: Ensuring a Highly Qualified Teacher for Every Classroom. Available at www.edweek.org under Special Reports.
• For state initiatives to improve teacher retention, read Strategies for Teacher Retention, by Patricia Gonzalez, Ph.D. Published by The National Association of State Directors of Special Education, Inc.

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Lorae Roukema is a former principal with the Moore County School system in North Carolina. She is an assistant professor of education at Campbell University in Buies Creek, NC. She can be contacted at roukema@campbell.edu.