Nearly every morning I scan the headlines of the New York Times. This morning's headline caught my eye: Schools Fight For Teachers Because of High Turnover. As a former teacher of 11 years, and the husband of a "lifer", in my mind, without reading further, I felt I knew what I was about to read.
Turns out, I was incorrect, but I will advance my own theories before I am finished.
The photo displayed is of Rebecca Rheinheimer at Oak Hill Elementary in High Point, North Carolina. Her district's recruiters have been advertising nationwide in an attempt to fill their ranks. Excerpts from the NY Times story:
GREENSBORO, N.C. — The retirement of thousands of baby boomer teachers coupled with the departure of younger teachers frustrated by the stress of working in low-performing schools is fueling a crisis in teacher turnover that is costing school districts substantial amounts of money as they scramble to fill their ranks for the fall term.
Superintendents and recruiters across the nation say the challenge of putting a qualified teacher in every classroom is heightened in subjects like math and science and is a particular struggle in high-poverty schools, where the turnover is highest. Thousands of classes in such schools have opened with substitute teachers in recent years.
Here in Guilford County, N.C., turnover had become so severe in some high-poverty schools that principals were hiring new teachers for nearly every class, every term. To staff its neediest schools before classes start on Aug. 28, recruiters have been advertising nationwide, organizing teacher fairs and offering one of the nation’s largest recruitment bonuses, $10,000 to instructors who sign up to teach Algebra I.
“We had schools where we didn’t have a single certified math teacher,” said Terry Grier, the schools superintendent. “We needed an incentive, because we couldn’t convince teachers to go to these schools without one.”
Guilford County, which has 116 schools, is far from the only district to take this route as school systems compete to fill their ranks. Kate Walsh, president of the National Council on Teacher Quality, a nonprofit policy group that seeks to encourage better teaching, said hundreds of districts were offering recruitment incentives this summer.
Officials in New York, which has the nation’s largest school system, said they had recruited about 5,000 new teachers by mid-August, attracting those certified in math, science and special education with a housing incentive that can include $5,000 for a down payment.
New York also offers subsidies through its teaching fellows program, which recruits midcareer professionals from fields like health care, law and finance. The money helps defer the cost of study for a master’s degree. The city expects to hire at least 1,300 additional teachers before school begins on Sept. 4, said Vicki Bernstein, director of teacher recruitment.
Los Angeles has offered teachers signing with low-performing schools a $5,000 bonus. The district, the second-largest in the country, had hired only about 500 of the 2,500 teachers it needed by Aug. 15 but hoped to begin classes fully staffed, said Deborah Ignagni, chief of teacher recruitment.
In Kansas, Alexa Posny, the state’s education commissioner, said the schools had been working to fill “the largest number of vacancies” the state had ever faced. This is partly because of baby boomer retirements and partly because districts in Texas and elsewhere were offering recruitment bonuses and housing allowances, luring Kansas teachers away.
“This is an acute problem that is becoming a crisis,” Ms. Posny said.
In June, the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, a nonprofit group that seeks to increase the retention of quality teachers, estimated from a survey of several districts that teacher turnover was costing the nation’s districts some $7 billion annually for recruiting, hiring and training.
Demographers agree that education is one of the fields hardest hit by the departure of hundreds of thousands of baby boomers from the work force, particularly because a slowdown in hiring in the 1980s and 1990s raised the average age of the teaching profession. Still, they debate how serious the attrition will turn out to be.
In New York, the wave of such retirements crested in the early years of this decade as teachers left well before they hit their 60s, without a disruptive teacher shortage, Ms. Bernstein said.
In other parts of the country, the retirement bulge is still approaching, because pension policies vary among states, said Michael Podgursky, an economist at the University of Missouri. California is projecting that it will need 100,000 new teachers over the next decade from the retirement of the baby boomers alone.
Some educators say it is the confluence of such retirements with the departure of disillusioned young teachers that is creating the challenge. In addition, higher salaries in the business world and more opportunities for women are drawing away from the field recruits who might in another era have proved to be talented teachers with strong academic backgrounds.
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Here's my two cents worth. I bailed because as far back as 1976 when I gave my notice, I was aware of the fact that as a teacher, you are hung out to dry by your administrators, receive no support from parents, and absolutely no respect from your community, including the board of education.
Let me give you examples. Did you know that principals made it clear that you cannot fail a student? Hell, no. that would screw up everything from class size to your board of education's image in the community. An "F" was a No-No. "D's" became honorary "F's".
Another example of no respect or at least no comprehension of a teacher's role was class size. I taught 8th graders and it was the norm to have anywhere from twenty seven to thirty one students per class. With all those hormones in gear it took me, with a whip and a chair, the first 10 minutes just to get them settled. My fourth hour class had lunch midway through their session, so that class would fall further and further behind as you would have to multiply the above 10 minutes by two.
The first inklings I had that I was on a sinking ship was the call to a parent during a unit on speech. We were well into the third week. The student was supposed to deliver a short speech once a week. He had delivered none. When I told the mother on the telephone this fact, her reply was: "Does he have to take speech?"
Thanks, mom, for your support. Maybe she knew I couldn't give him an "F"?
I was once on the teachers salary negotiating team in meetings with the board. There's a reality check. I still remember a board member who was an attorney saying: "Teaching is women's work. If you want a man's wage, get a man's job."
It always galled me that we had no money to hire teachers to whittle class size down to manageable, but we had plenty to hire more administrators and give those we already had big raises every year. I have a vivid pictue in my mind of our assistant principal standing amidst the cooks at noon, ladling out food, joking with students.
I am certain that he, if confronted, would say he was getting to know the student populace, but all I could think of was: with the wages he's making, shouldn't he be in his office doing SOMETHING??
Ask any teacher and they will tell you how often they are disrespected by people who tell them that they have a cushy job because they only have to work nine months a year, get huge Christmas vacations, and are overpaid.
My answer to that was "You are right! Why is it that you aren't a teacher?"
Probably for the same reason that you are pissed about summer vacations -- you have to deal with your own progeny 24/7. Just because your sex appartus works doesn't mean you should use it to fill the world with more of your ilk!
* * * * * * * * *
1.) Take a 10-30 minute walk every day. And while you walk, smile. It is the
ultimate antidepressant.
2.) Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day. Buy a lock if you have to.
3.) Buy a Tivo (DVR), tape your late night shows and get more sleep.
4.) When you wake up in the morning complete the following statement, “My
purpose is to___________ today."
5.) Live with the 3 E's -- Energy, Enthusiasm, and Empathy.
6.) Watch more MOVIES, play more games and read more books than you
did last year.
7.) Always pray and make time to exercise, practice meditation, yoga, Tai
Chi, qigong, etc.
8.) Spend more time with people over the age of 70 and under the age of six.
9.) Dream more while you are awake. (Stay healthy Brett Favre, we are going to the Big One)
10.) Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is
manufactured in plants.
11.) Drink green tea and plenty of water. Eat blueberries, wild Alaskan
salmon, broccoli, almonds & walnuts.
12.) Try to make at least three people smile each day.
13.) Clear your clutter from your house, your car, your desk and let new and
flowing energy into your life.
14.) Don't waste your precious energy on gossip, energy vampires, issues of
the past, negative thoughts or things you cannot control.
Instead, invest your energy in the positive present moment.
15.) Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are
simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away
like algebra class ......but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.
16.) Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a college kid
with a maxed out charge card.
17.) Smile and laugh more. It will keep the energy vampires away.
18.) Life isn't fair, but it's still good.
19.) Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
20.) Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
21.) You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
22.) Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.
23.) Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their journey
is all about.
24.) Ladies - Go on and burn those "special" scented candles, use the 600
thread count sheets, the good china and wear your fancy lingerie now.
Stop waiting for a special occasion. Everyday is special.
25.) No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
26.) Frame every so-called disaster with these words: "In five years, will
this matter?"
27.) Forgive everyone for everything.
28.) What other people think of you is none of your business.
29.) Time heals almost everything. Give time, time!
30.) However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
31.) Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will.
Stay in touch with them.
32.) Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.
33.) Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
34.) The best is yet to come.
35.) No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
36.) Do the right thing!
37.) Call your family often.
38.) Each night before you go to bed complete the following statements:
"I am thankful for __________."
Today I accomplished _________.
39.) Remember that you are too blessed to be stressed.
40.) Enjoy the ride. Remember that this is not Disney World and you
certainly don't want a fast pass. You only have one ride through life so
make the most of it and enjoy the ride
You are not coming back to do it again
41]. Take that trip you always wanted to go on.
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