How to Stem the Teacher Attrition Crisis

How can any education plan succeed when so many teachers - the lifeblood of schools - are brand new to the job? New drafts of No Child Left Behind could contain the best ideas in education history, but they won't work in the long run unless we address the biggest crisis in our schools today: recruiting and keeping quality teachers in high-needs urban schools.

A recent New York City Council study determined that 18 percent of New York City teachers leave after one year, and 25 percent are gone after two; that's nearly double the national average. A brain drain is dragging down our city schools, where 50 percent of new teachers leave within five years. In rural and suburban districts, the rate is around 10 percent.

The urban teacher "dropout" problem is fixable. Through better mentoring and in-school support for new teachers, smaller class sizes, and more competitive pay, the revolving door can be stopped.

As a rookie fourth-grade teacher in the Bronx, I was subject to an unofficial but common trial-by-fire, in which the administration loaded my class with problem-reputation children. In the first week of school, one disturbed child jumped on a desk during a 9/11 moment of silence, wildly screaming a string of expletives. My "dumping ground" room was a disaster zone from the first day and it took an incredible amount of time and effort to turn the year into a positive experience.

The combination of extremely high-needs students and my naive, rookie mistakes led to student fights and fractured lessons. At 22, I started losing my hair because of the stress. And many of my struggling students, lumped together all day in my room, were denied the individualized support and expertise they deserve.

Throughout my brutal initiation, I felt no satisfaction with the knowledge that I could possibly earn an easier set-up the next year, while the next newbie would have to twist in the wind the way I did. New teachers need protection from this ugly, unwritten practice. As things stand, it's no surprise that over a third of city teachers reported in a citywide 2007 Department of Education survey that they do not trust their principals.

Rookies require a lot of help to manage the taxing and seemingly endless list of tasks that running a classroom requires. Green teachers should be paired with quality veterans in "team-teaching" environments to experience good practices in action.

New teachers should also work with smaller classes, so that they - and the children - aren't overwhelmed. My classes had 25 to 28 students on average; the middle school classes I currently work with have no fewer than 30. A better number would be 20. And teachers aren't the only ones pleading for more intimate spaces; lower class size is the No. 1 recommendation among parents in the NYC Department of Education survey.

Smaller classes will keep teachers' workloads under control and allow for many more critical opportunities for individual and small-group attention. Strong personal relationships are an invaluable part of education, and giant classes make it difficult to foster these relationships with every student.

The top recommendation in the City Council report for attracting and retaining teachers is: "Increase salaries to more competitive levels." Coupling higher salaries with broader student loan forgiveness would draw many more talented teachers to the field.

This year, a first-year New York City teacher with a bachelor's degree will earn $43,362. Most rookie teachers around the country earn far less. There are some bonuses available for high-needs subject math and science teachers, but the majority of new teachers make do with pay in the low 40s and no help with New York City's hardest-hitting expense - housing. Recently, the United Federation of Teachers struck a deal to build 234 affordable housing units in the South Bronx for educators. This is a start, but it will help to stem the teacher attrition crisis only if it spreads much further than 234 apartments.

An uncountable number of excellent would-be teachers choose higher-earning jobs because they are saddled with student loan debt, or because earning a rookie teacher salary is financially prohibitive. Public servants deserve better.

New teachers must be supported in their professional environments and their pocketbooks. The prospect of walking away from teaching - a job that many enter for altruistic, good-hearted reasons - will be a lot less likely when it is solidified as a nurturing, competitive-salaried profession.

Supporting teachers has a price tag, but it can be partially offset by reducing New York Ciity's $115 million annual turnover expenses. Nationally, the annual turnover expense is in the billions. Let's spend our money on offense, not defense.

Parents and students deserve continuity and excellence from schools. Unless we make more of a front-end investment in teachers, we will continue to hemorrhage good people, and scramble every year to replace them with well-meaning but under-prepared rookies.

Dan Brown is the author of the memoir, "The Great Expectations School: A Rookie Year in the New Blackboard Jungle." He currently teaches at a middle school in East Harlem.

A version of this essay originally appeared in the New York Post.

Comments

[yappnmutt]

until the stigma against being a smart student and the low position teachers fill on the respect scale are reversed the US public school system will continue to deteriorate. its not a pay issue. its a cultural issue.

[feelfree]

Urban schools are problematic because urban life is problematic. Simply sending these students to another school environment doesn't change the chaos, violence, poverty, neglect or a drug ridden home life.

Making urban schools better means making urban communities better and until that happens nothing will change.

[realitytrumpsbull]

This is the dawn of the Age Of Roboteach....
the answer to this'n is quite literally
at your fingertips....computer learning is
a proven method of dispelling ignorance
and imparting knowledge...

[dadw5boys]

WHAT WILL YOU DO WHEN PRIVATIZED SCHOOLS PROVE TO BE FAILURES LIKE ALL THE OTHER PRIVATIZED PUBLIC SERVICES AROUND THE WORLD AND HERE IN THE USA?
What will you do when only the wealthy can afford to send their kids to school?

BRING BACK CHILD LABOR? That would sure make it easier to create the North American Union right?

[SmallvilleSC]

Haven't you noticed that this is the trend?

College costs are quickly growing beyond the reach of the middle class (even with grants or loans that take forever to pay off). We see these morons pressing for 'school vouchers' to take public funds for private schools. And business is sticking its nose in education telling the school systems what they expect from graduates.

School control should be done at the local level, not a federal or even a state one. What fits for NYC may not work for Podunk, Nebraska, regardless of the 'standards'. Sure, some school systems might need to turn out more students with technology skills - that's where the majority of the local work base is coming from - but don't forsake the liberal arts component for work skills.

Almost forty years ago a school 'counselor' told me to go work in a local factory or go career military because I would never amount to anything. Well, after a short stint with the Marines I went on to college, earned my diploma and have been a teacher for over 25 years. Imagine if I had listened to that jerk.

The thing I try to teach my students is that the wealthy business owners don't give a crap about their employees (except that they can be trained to do the job).
Politicians don't really care about the public (except an uninitiated voter who will keep re-electing them time and again).
And America is going to the proverbial 'hell in a hand basket' because the conservative faction stayed in power too damned long in their comfort zone while the majority of us have been sheep, hoping to get our 'share' as well.

All I can do is keep telling those fools that those who have it aren't going to want to share.

[Kansas Evans]

Great post. Teachers are shaping the minds of our next presidents (Lord, help us.) and deserve more pay.

Though, it's funny, you know. People complain about teachers not making more. Especially when compared to professional athletes (especial pro-basketball and football players). But as soon as someone points out that in some areas, an increase in taxes maybe needed, folks forget about teachers.

What's more is that areas where the best teachers are needed the most (rural areas and inner cities), often can't afford to pay what others can pay (in the suburbs) even though they pay a higher property tax rate.

[Mormondude]

"unless we address the biggest crisis in our schools today: recruiting and keeping quality teachers in high-needs urban schools."

I'd say that's the biggest crisis in high-needs urban schools, not the biggest crisis in all schools.

Perhaps that's why I'm so troubled by the monopoly over public schools. The focus is always somewhere else. It's on after school programs or pre-k or fixing inner city schools rather than on every student in every school.

There was a new bond proposal here in Houston, and when I looked through where all the money was going, almost none would go to the school my child attends. It was all going into these inner city schools.

If those schools are so bad, then why not let kids leave them? Why force conscientious parents to send their kids to these problem schools? And for the parents that don't care enough to want their kid in a better school, why waste the money on trying to fix it? These kids are being failed by their parents, and that will be true no matter what environment they are in.

It's analogous to health care. I don't know the actual statistics, but the vast, vast majority of health care dollars are spent at the very beginning and very end of life. People that smoked their entire lives spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to extend their lives by a few months, and even then their quality of life is usually lousy. People that are morbidly obese with diabetes and heart disease and all other sorts of ailments drain the system of billions of dollars every year. These are people that ultimately cannot and will not be helped. Perhaps that's why other countries with socialized medicine are considering rescinding health care to people that make such harmful lifestlye choices.

Perhaps our education dollars are better spent on those kids that aren't 'terminally ill', either due to their own attitudes and choices, or due to the failure by their parents.

[MagisterLudi]

'Perhaps that's why other countries with socialized medicine are considering rescinding health care to people that make such harmful lifestlye choices.'

THIS is ABSOLUTELY untrue. Only in the depth of Texas can one be exposed to such misinformed notion.

"If those schools are so bad, then why not let kids leave them?"
Because commonality of experience and diversity is whats holding this country, any country together. The other, more crude notion is that parents from a more wealthy part of town may not want a lot of kids from troubled school to go over to theirs.
Wouldn't the kids transferring bring the learning and family related problems tot he new school?
Most of the time when a parent complains about lack of choice in a deeply conservative state like Texas what they REALLY mean is that they want the money to attend some religious school:vouchers.
The catch is that many religious schools are badly supervised, have non-certified teachers and inferior curriculum, even the expensive ones.

[Mormondude]

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23410977-details/'NHS+should+not+treat+those+with+unhealthy+lifestyles'+say+Tories/article.do

"NHS should not treat those with unhealthy lifestyles' say Tories

Failing to follow a healthy lifestyle could lead to free NHS treatment being denied under the Tory plans.

Patients would be handed "NHS Health Miles Cards" allowing them to earn reward points for losing weight, giving up smoking, receiving immunisations or attending regular health screenings.

Like a supermarket loyalty card, the points could be redeemed as discounts on gym membership and fresh fruit and vegetables, or even give priority for other public services - such as jumping the queue for council housing.

But heavy smokers, the obese and binge drinkers who were a drain on the NHS could be denied some routine treatments such as hip replacements until they cleaned up their act.

Those who abused the system - by calling an ambulance when a trip to the GP would be sufficient, or telephoning out of hours with needless queries - could also be penalised."

What were you saying about being misinformed?

[Curedlib]

What a sad tale! Underlying it is the 70% single mother rate for inner city black children and teacher's unions more interested in lining its pockets than paying teachers a decent wage.

Bill Cosby and Juan Williams have the answers but no-one is listening.

[Kansas Evans]

8.2Million white families are headed by single mothers.
3.1Mill black familes are headed by single mothers.
http://www.kccall.com/article.cfm?articleid=1704

49% of black children and 17% of white children live with single mothers. Black children are able to overcome this drawback while white children are not.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/Sept02/blacks.oneparent.ssl.html

And black children are disciplined more in school even though they are no more likely to act out than white children.
http://www.child-dev.com/drupal/node/87

I don't know what you've been told, but don't be so certain that you know what's discussed and how w/in the black community.

Lastly, I'm not sure how you'll react to the studies I linked for you. You'll have to read them all the way through, particularly the one about the number of female headed households. But, I just thought you'd like to have the facts.

[MagisterLudi]

How's can a union "line its pockets" without benefiting it's members? This is a self-contradicting statement.

[MagisterLudi]

Biggest reasons beginning teachers quit:

Lack of respect.

Those who chose to become educators are usually well-educated, nurturing and sensitive human beings.
The sudden shock of dealing with uncaring administrator, a few rude and crude parent utterly out of touch with reality, some obnoxious students and voila, the fight-or-flight syndrome kicks in.

[AmandaM]

Making school year-round would help to decrease class sizes and keep kids out of trouble. I heard there was a plan floating around a few years ago to divide the year into 12-week quarters (the extra 29 days would be used as Holidays and in-service days throughout the year). The student body is divided into 4 core groups, with each group getting a different set of 3-week vacations. Each student attends 9 weeks out of the 12 in each session (it adds up to 180 days of school per year) which means only 75% of the student body is in the building at a time. Instead of 30 kids to a classroom, you have 22 or 23. Instead of a 3-month long break when kids can get into trouble and/or forget everything they learned, we'd have 3-week long vacations in which teachers can assign special projects or short reading lists to keep the students engaged even when they aren't in class.

I always thought that sounded like a really good idea. Teachers would certainly need a pay increase to cover the extended work-load, but they and the students would benefit from smaller classes and a more balanced schedule. One of my friends from college went to public school in North Carolina - she said they had a setup similar to this but the student body was divided into 5 sections which somehow made room for 200 days of school per year for each kid while reducing class size by about 20%. Apparently it worked out well there.

[Kansas Evans]

I have a friend who teaches at a year-round school, too. She likes it.