Top 5 Reasons Why Teacher Turnover Is Rising

Just as high school dropout and graduation rates are a persistent issue of concern in the education arena, teacher turnover rates are similarly troubling.

Almost half of teachers leave the field after just five years, according to the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, and the debate surrounding how to keep teachers in the profession is still evolving.

This in-and-out filtering of educators creates discontinuity and costs school districts across the country $2.2 billion annually, according to social action network Take Part.

So why are all these teachers packing up their desks and leaving the classroom? Here are the top five reasons, from our friends at Take Part. To read more about each, visit TakePart.com.

5. Burnout

• • • • • Researchers think that extended hours are wearing out educators.

Comments

[Larkin31]

10:30 PM on 08/29/2011

Most of the young teachers who leave from my home district do so because of layoffs or because they make major moves in location or profession. Last hired is first fired. The average American changes jobs something like 7 times, and the young are particularly prone to this. Turnover is not all a bad thing, but a 40% rate in any district is not good. It is nowhere near that in my district (suburban).

[Chipper1]

05:31 PM on 08/24/2011

I believe that the teaching profession is now under such virulent attack partly because it is a field predominately of women who are seen as weak and easy targets for bullying. As all good ulta-conservatives know, women shouldn't be paid the same wages as men. Teaching is right next to babysitting or child care in their eyes and deserves the same kind of compensation. After all, the Constitution literally says "All MEN are created equal" not "All men and WOMEN"! So let's get rid of those uppity, over-educated, overpaid gals. Let's have a constant turn-over of young, inexperienced college girls as teachers and let's make the job so absolutely unbearable and impossible, they ditch it in three or four years. We'll save lots of money. Who cares if the students suffer.

[roycekimmons]

04:52 PM on 08/16/2011

I don't know how TakePart.com ranked these reasons, because there doesn't seem to be any criterion in their article (e.g. number of times mentioned in a research study, etc.), but several empirical studies suggest that the most prominent reasons for turnover are related to bureaucracy and classroom management, which include issues of too much top-down control, too little parental support, and unmanageable student behavior. Why these are left off of the list, I don't know, other than that perhaps these findings do not fit well within the neat narrative of "pay teachers more and get rid of standardized testing, and all will be well."

[happyblackman]

03:18 PM on 08/15/2011

For me, it was all five of those reasons! There should be another category too, Parents! I discovered that bad, neglectful parents come in all shapes, colors and sizes!

[been2there]

02:26 PM on 08/15/2011

Teachers are underpaid, overworked, denied the tools needed to do the job well, blamed for the failings of other people (parents and adminsitrators as well as students), and constantly scapegoated. Their 55 to 60 hour workweeks take a huge toll on their own families and their expertise and professionalism are constantly denigrated. When corporate CEOs want huge paychecks, it is a sign of healthy competitiveness; when teachers want a living wage, it is pure greed. And, now that the best and brightest women have other options, more teachers are not the best and brightest, which makes the stresses of poor support etc. even worse.
Of course teachers leave the field! You have either be a saint, like my husband, or an idiot, like legislators.

[James Lestat Buynar]

10:47 PM on 08/14/2011

couldn't agree more with every reason. i have been dealing with all 5 for the last 5 years.

[castlemike]

08:02 PM on 08/14/2011

Interesting there are No comments on the original blog and the highest turnover is at charter schools.

At the 163 charter schools studied, teacher turnover hovered around 40 percent, compared to 15 percent at traditional public schools.

http://www.google.com/search?q=number+of+teachers+in+the+usa&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

In fall 2010, nearly 49.4 million students will attend public elementary and secondary schools. Of these, 34.7 million will be in prekindergarten through 8th grade and 14.7 million will be in grades 9 through 12 (source). An additional 5.8 million students are expected to attend private schools this fall.

About 1,094,000 children are expected to attend public prekindergarten this fall. Enrollment in kindergarten, at approximately 3,693,000, is projected to be at an all-time high (source).
Public school systems will employ about 3.3 million teachers this fall, resulting in a pupil/teacher ratio of 15.3, which is lower than in 1999, when the ratio was 16.1. Approximately 0.5 million teachers will be working in private schools this fall, where the pupil/teacher ratio is estimated at 12.8 (source).

[chatnuptime1]

07:37 PM on 08/14/2011

Personally in my opinion as a homeschool teacher.. I think that young kids 1-10 should only be in school sitting and learning for no more then three hours.

Our society its like a factory.. If parents have to work 8 hours the kids have to be at school 5 of those hours. We litterally undo both the parents and the student by rigging up so much time apart. Secondly children aren't robots they all don't learn alike and when they struggle to keep up or struggle to stay interested because they have already grasped the material they get bored and drop out because kids don't care to be around if htey don't think its worth their time. Kids can learn anywhere just like adults.

Why are we cramming 2 thousand kids in one building? Why not smaller complexes with more technology close to employees work so that they kids can have access to parents and learn too? We could employ many more workers if the working day demand was divided up between workers in shifts with higher quality of pay. Its amazing what a few hours can do for a kid to learn then break off and come back to it again later in the day. If we keep up with the pulling the family in different directions very little education is going to happen and those teachers aren't the problem. The machine education structure is the problem.

[Seeitmyway]

12:08 AM on 08/15/2011

you can make kids 1-10 sit and learn for 3 hours? what's your secret? leather straps? What's math like for 1 year olds in your house? just curious

[chatnuptime1]

12:42 AM on 08/15/2011

lol seeitmyway... your funny.. by kids 1-10 I don't mean in years old.. I mean in grades 1-10.. Although my kids did know how to count at one as they both used sign-language because I am deaf. So they had a better grasp of communication then they would by speaking after 2.

[ThomasPaine1776]

04:26 AM on 08/15/2011

There is no such thing as a "homeschool teacher". Teaching your kid at home means you are a parent. You are not a teacher. Don't use that title. You don't deserve it. You are in no way equal to me or my colleagues. You are totally unqualified to even attempt to do what I do. You do not have a credential. If I tried doing what you do, i'd be asked to leave the campus.

I interviewed for a job -- a sweet history job nearby my house -- while I was in teacher credentialling school. I did not get the job. It was given to someone who had just graduated a couple of weeks before me. Difference? Credential. I've been seeething about that ever since. So don't throw around the title "teacher" you are nothing more than a parent.

You should have you child taken away from you and you should be in jail for non-compliance of the most important law in our history: Compulsory education.

To put it nicely, homeschool kids are weird.

To be more accurate, their social skills are retarded.

Homeschooling kids is child abuse.

[been2there]

02:28 PM on 08/15/2011

If your critical thinking skills are this low in all areas, that may be why you did not get the job! A homeschooling parent IS a teacher, not all homeschooled children are weird, the average achievment is high, and it is not usually child abuse. It is hard work.

[chatnuptime1]

12:29 AM on 08/16/2011

I am sorry that you feel offended by my seeming lack of credentials. I have Masters Degree in Special Education. A Doctoral in Psychology and 35 years of experience in general education. That I choose to educate my kids both adopted as I have educated my natural children many years ago is my choice.

The reason I do so is because public and private schools try passing a cookie cutter education on children when no two children learn alike or at the same pace.
Now to address your lack of understanding about homeschooled children, painting such with a broad brush and calling them weird demonstrates your own bias. It is not bias on my part that I do this. I beleive if I can give my kids the best there is in education I will stop at nothing to do so, especially since I am a teacher albeit retired from the proffessional end of it.

As for having my children taken away from me. Thats not going to happen. First of all because they are not neglected in any way shape or form. Secondly homes schooling is legal in my state and we have a large network of parents that pool together to give the children the best they deserve which is much. As for the issue of association they don't associate with gangs, drug addicts, kids bringing guns to school to kill their teachers and are not into hating on people because they are different.

[mydangself]

03:29 PM on 08/14/2011

Reading through this thread is much like anything else anymore, it seems there is no room for any common ground. If someone says 'yes, the current way we run schools is a problem' it means they hate teachers and hate the children. It's either blame them for everything, or teachers are beyond reproach.

So yes, the structure of employment is part of the problem. To make a decent living means the best teachers teach the least challenging students, move up into administration for a raise even if they aren't a good manager, etc... At the same time, the ability of teachers to actually make a difference is undermined by well intended "new methods" such as spending millions on creating "open schools" or whatever the latest fad is (or whatever some politically motivated school board demands) that is then changed a few years later in a never ending cycle.

Let's get back to letting teachers teach, then lets track students year over year at the beginning and end of each year to see which teachers are actually doing a good job. Let's find that middle ground, stop wasting money on trying to force religious education and social conservatism into school, hire managers to manage and pay teachers for teaching and pay them more to teach where it is needed most. How radical is that really?

[jp90]

06:59 AM on 08/15/2011

Fanned and faved. A calm, logical response, particularly your last paragraph. Thank you!

[Lisbeth35]

01:09 PM on 08/14/2011

Teachers leaving the classroom within 5 years is NOT a new phenomenon. It comes down to respect...society's lack of respect of educators, it comes in many forms...parents, students, administration etc. They are not viewed as knowledgable professionals in this country.

Watch ANY "special" on education, very rarely is there a classroom educator on the panel as a knowledgable source on the subject.

[Protocolor]

05:59 PM on 08/14/2011

As an educator who teaches in Asia (where teachers are almost revered), I can assure you that the respect and deference with which I am treated is worth more to me than a $20,000 pay raise would be. Being able to tell the class to shut up and pay attention because I'm going to explain the problem to them... and then actually having the class shut up and pay attention! It's amazing. I can then devote almost the entire class period to teaching and learning activities.

You want to know one reason the Chinese and Japanese kids academically stomp all over American kids? They spend more time learning because the teacher doesn't have to waste half the period with making certain that all the kids (high school kids here) have a functioning writing implement and a notebook, getting them seated (no joke! This can be a challenge in an American high school) and then getting their attention. In China, you can say (in English, no less!) "Sit down, shut up, and take out your notebooks and a pencil." and in ten seconds you're ready to start the lesson. You don't have to spoon feed Chinese kids. They try at least to meet their teacher half way with regards to effort.

How much is that worth? I don't think you could put a dollar figure on it. It is simply beyond value.

[djo2013]

10:32 PM on 08/14/2011

Wow! I'm almost retired but maybe I need to teach two years in, say, Korea, and then retire from my profession with two years of mutual respect ingrained in my brain. ACTUALLY, I am fortunate that my community has been supportive of our district throughout my 31+yrs, and so I think I've lived a charmed life in US ed for which I am VERY thankful. Taxpayers supported my training and have supported my schools forever. Thank you.

[ThomasPaine1776]

04:35 AM on 08/15/2011

No one ever wants to state the obvious: bad kids destroy classroom learning on a regular and deliberate basis, and nothing is ever done about it.

That is the number one problem.

In fact, that is the ONLY problem.

If the kids would ZIP IT , then everything would be fine.

Can't blame the kids, though; no, the PARENTS might complain, and then the OFFICE PHONE would ring. Then, maybe someone might have to pick it UP!

Then TALK to a PARENT!

And, to be honest, that can be scary. The craziest parents are the ones that call the most.

EXPEL the bad kids EARLY in the year, and learning would happen more than it does. WAY more.

That's the only difference between Asian kids and American kids: American kids are coddled and allowed to do whatever they want.

[chatnuptime1]

07:43 PM on 08/14/2011

No they aren't because they are working for the Government. They are a warm body a utility that the gov hires and then dictates what level of education they should provide. If you see the way private teachers are treated you would understand the there is a higher level of instruction, more flexability and more education on the part of the teacher. They are treated as Professionals because they have more then a B.A in education. Sad to say I think that the corporate america should chip in some of that 18 trillion dollars and start schools to educate the new workers of the next generation and not have cheaply funded schools by the goverment that doesn't even cover the expense of a real education.

[daughterusmc]

08:35 PM on 08/14/2011

I have taught in both...and been the same teacher in both, but where the public schools are not perfect...I would rather teach there than in a private school any day of the week, the level of instruction is the same, it is just the public school educacates all comers, and private schools do not, and private schools do have a "pay and pass" dilemma. That is the difeerence...period....and btw...high school teachers have degrees in the subjects they teach, not in education ( although they may have those in addition to their subject degrees..the French teacher has a degree in French and so forth).

[broui]

01:46 PM on 08/15/2011

You are incorrect. I suspect you have little actual knowledge on this subject.

My wife has taught at both a private high school and a public high school.

Want to guess where the higher standards were? The public high school. It was really a trick question because most private schools HAVE NO SPECIFIC STANDARDS.

They also wouldn't take you. I read another of your posts. You are disabled. You wouldn't be welcome at most private schools so why defend them? We in public schools have the training and the ability to teach you and any other students of need, while teaching the so-called regular kids and the advanced kids and the English Language Learners, etc. all in the same building.

We do work for the Government which means YOU are my employer. Of course most folks sit back and complain without actively engaging their school boards so they along with the teachers and the students become victims of a system that increasingly works for fewer students effectively.

Corporate America involving itself in public schools does far more harm than good. I happen to teach and one of the first schools Bill Gates put his money into. We're a mess now. Corporations WANT a factory. We teachers believe in teaching the whole human being. We're in the human development profession.

Schools are NOT job training.

[dutch163]

12:00 PM on 08/14/2011

very sad state of affairs...I taught for 40 years...now my daughter is a teacher...teaches math and engineering to HS students..but came close to losing her job due to layoffs caused by budget cuts ..it is a Catch 22 since we need/want math teachers and want to encourage skills like engineeering..
They say education is priority but is sure doesn't seem like it is..
Perhaps she could get a job with her other degrees (mech engineering, arch. technology) but she loves teaching...

[Costa Singer]

12:14 AM on 08/14/2011

Arne Duncan may be correct in his assessment of proper teacher pay, but the reality is that, as a nation, we will not be willing to pay for it. If the average teacher pay were $110,000, the cost of public education, which is already the plurality of most state budgets, would be overwhelming. In California where we have somewhere in the neighborhood of 8,000,000 school-age children and 300,000 teachers, this would imply a $2,100,000,000.00 increase in school funding to simply stay where we are. Don't get me wrong, though. I've been in the profession for 12 years. I enjoy it and I've become quite good at it, but I already top out the steps and columns and have priced myself out of most teaching positions.

[Olderandwiser55]

04:24 PM on 08/14/2011

Interesting-I like to hear from teachers. My son is a 32 year old IT professional that disliked intensely most of his teachers after 4th grade.Many immediately gave up on him, said it was because I hadn't read to him enough as a child (I'm a voracious reader and hate that line).

My point is that thee are unfortunately bad teachers- and what do we do?

I read something I wondered about-what do you think? The idea was to pay good teachers more (like you) and have less teachers but more (inexpensive) teachers aides to help with more mundane tasks. I pictured it this way...one teacher has two classrooms and two teachers aides. He leaves one classroom reading an assignment and a teachers aide there-then goes to the other classroom to teach. I'm not sure whether that would be better or not.

But I agree with Arne. Teaching is a profession that should be respected. We need to get that back. (And i just read an article about teachers cheating to get appropriate results on standardized tests-and was pretty shocked to find most educators defending that with "they had to" or "it's managements fault"

[chatnuptime1]

07:57 PM on 08/14/2011

The best way to get that back is to start training our culture to value education rather then hold it as a have and have not social latter. All children deserve a good education. I don't care if you make a 1000 a year or a 1000 million. We can't have private schools charging 15 to 20,K a Tuition and say. Ya thats about what it cost to educate a child today to provide quality teachers and to teach the teachers to do a great job. Then turn around and say those poor kids and most of the lower middle class kids are included in this bracket will get schooled but we don't pay out 10 k to 20 per pupil we pay out 2-5k per pupil. Because of this we cannot pay teachers the salary they would expect to recieve in the private sector so we will take teachers on the lower end of the grade scale thus pay them less. Give the kids what we as tax payers are told to give them because your state doesn't shell out.

Take funds from schools that don't perform only insures those kids that go to the schools will not get any better education. Frankly I gave up on the system and started homeschooling Thru Virtual Acadamies that teach the wealthy kids that move around alot.

[Costa Singer]

02:52 PM on 08/17/2011

Personally, I wouldn't be comfortable in the model that you described because it relies much too heavily on the quality of the teacher's assistants. I have found as much variability in skill, talent, and interest among the classified staff as I have found with administration and teachers. I am not against merit pay, though in my current position, none of the proposals that are on the table would work for me. I work in Watts with non-traditional students who are, for one reason or another, not able to succeed in traditional high school. The merit pay proposals on the table all have a heavy basis in state test scores which heavily test English and Math, touch on history (8th, 10th, and 11th grade only), and science but do not test 12th graders, art, business, foreign language, physical education, or other electives. Most of my students are seniors or super-seniors, so I would not be eligible for merit pay under most plans.

Merit pay based on test scores also emphasizes uniformity in approach and hyper-specific results which are not necessarily what's best for students.

No solutions from me on this one yet -- just problems with other people's solutions.

[JRNorwood]

09:36 PM on 08/13/2011

I have been a teacher for just about ten years now, and in those ten years I have seen a huge number of talented educators leave teaching for other careers or the unemployment line. The vast majority of those people who left were forced out due to layoffs that cut quite deeply and some of those teachers are still out of work. It is such a sad state of affairs that the really good teachers are shown the door and some of the really ineffective teachers are allowed to remain.

[Protocolor]

10:38 PM on 08/13/2011

Your post makes it sound like there are crowds of teachers standing in the unemployment line and just dreaming of a chance to get back into the classroom. What bunk. I have not taught in the States for over two years now and I still get email every week from schools telling me how awesome their district is and how great it is to be a teacher in East Flatrock North Carolina or inviting me to be a part of history in the making (lol!) in New Orleans. Here's a copy-paste from one weird one that came in today:

"I didn't need a math teacher before but now I do. I got your name from someone. Call me if you can teach".

That's it. No introduction. No identification of the school. Not even a phone number to call. What you read above is a verbatim copy of the entire body of the email. I tracked the sender's email address back to the principal of a charter school in Florida. Naturally, I am pretending that his pathetic request got filtered to my junk mail folder.

[prettyskeewee08]

09:44 AM on 08/14/2011

Thank you not teaching in the U.S. anymore!!!!!! There ARE teachers in the employment line. You don't know that because "you haven't taught in the States for two years". People are hurting and struggling. Where I live there has been a 4 BILLION DOLLAR CUTS in education alone! I happen to live in a state that has fared extremely well in the recession and it is STILL very skittish times in education here. Great teachers are being lost. The reasons listed above are only a microcosm of the problems. And finally, so what if the New Orleans or N.C. school asked for your help? They need it. Isn't that what teachers do? All you had to say was NO, THANK YOU. So again, I appreciate you leaving the profession, so that I could have your spot.

[Protocolor]

09:02 PM on 08/13/2011

This thread is soooo dead. Where are all of the Tea Baggerz claiming that the high turnover rate is due to the unions, or to wages being too high, or to there being too much vacation time? Where are all of the Friedman/Chicago School clerics expounding on how vouchers and The Market (blessed be its name) will solve the problem? Where are all of the school haters and the tax cutters and the 'teacher accountability' crusaders? Now that it is your turn to talk, there is nothing but deafening silence.

Pathetic, but entirely predictable.

[randomelyawesome1969]

12:41 PM on 08/14/2011

Like always, EXCELLENT post.

[Seeitmyway]

12:10 AM on 08/15/2011

Well, they have to FIND the "Educaiton" section of HuffPost first. They get mired in "Politics" and post themselves past their bedtimes....

[Teacheronthemic]

02:08 PM on 08/13/2011

That first year of teaching can so easily break your spirit. I sometimes wake up in a cold sweat thinking about those days. If it were not for the support/faith of my colleagues & positive reenforcement/encouragement from our administrators, I would have surely quit the profession probably midway through that tumultuous first year.

Kids mocked, bullied, & harassed me the same way they abused their peers. I didn't have a clue about real classroom management & meaningful lesson planning. This was something I learned through experience, collaboration, and continued education--something that today's so-called reformers don't talk about.

Rumors of me being gay spread through the school like wildfire. Perhaps it was because I passionately attacked anti-gay slurs when I heard them in my classroom. Perhaps most disturbing/absurdly hilarious, one day when I was sweeping up at the end of the day and I found a paper tombstone amid Starburst wrappers and sunflower seeds . At the time students told me that one particular student was really out to get me; according to rumor, he was planning to kill me by stuffing a potato in the tailpipe of my car. Apparently I was such a horrible teacher that I deserved to die. The crude writing on the tombstone resembled that of a 3rd grader rather than a 7th grader

@teacheronthemic
1955-1999 (I was 23yrs old at the time)
Died of benning gay
He was to gay to live
"yes I am gay @teacheronthemic sayes"

[colonelsun68]

02:35 PM on 08/14/2011

This is a result of lack of administrative support. The behaviors seen in classrooms, combined with a lack of interest in education on the part of many students is a real drawback. Parental involvement is also key. I am coming to believe that we must demand more student accountability, and that education should be earned. Every student should have a fair shot at learning, but when they continue to be defiant they should be booted out and their parents can send them to private school or find them work. After a few sad case histories, maybe the message will sink in. Too cold? Maybe. But we have to try something effective.

[Protocolor]

06:15 PM on 08/14/2011

Bingo! We have a winner!

In Japan, the private high schools are for losers who can't make the grade in (or get kicked out of... not common but does happen) the public schools. America should learn a lesson from their betters here. If a kid's mouth is open and pointless sound is coming out while a teacher is trying to conduct a lesson, then that student should enjoy the sensation of a boot to the posterior. The parents should then be required (legally... garnish their wages if need be) to pay tuition for their loser child to a private McSchool who will accept any loser. No vouchers. No public subsidies for the losers.

Do this for a few years in the US and you will see a whole new attitude about education emerge.

[chatnuptime1]

08:27 PM on 08/14/2011

Parental invovlment is the largest weakness in the education system.. Drop your kid off atthe bus and drive off to work.. .. Well when they get home what does mom and dad do.. read paper and cook or do whatever while the kid doesn't do the homework, no one asked, no follow up.. Kids at home with a cell phone stuck in their ear. Come to school day after day with no work returned? Well fail him or her. Oh no, no, no said no child left behind. We pass them up the next grade we don't need any resets.

I agree about the accountability especailly in teens.. We should lower the work age to 14 for the hard head kids that want to constantly screw up in school. There should be jobs just for such.. hard jobs nothing fluffy. Rock quary like Fred Flinstone. Good back breaking, sweaty hard work.. A year of that treatment should help the child to realize that no education wins you the hardest labor in the industry. If you don't want a broken back by 30 you need to reconsider your career choice with a better effort in school.

And parents need to stop making excuses for the lack luster performance. The dog ate my homework only works in my house 10% because the dog eats paper like a goat.

[Olderandwiser55]

04:28 PM on 08/14/2011

How truly awful-I'm glad you survived! We truly need good teachers.