teacher retention

Birmingham, Alabama took a very strange step last week. They decided to continue to hire teachers from the Philippines even though Baldwin County used this same route a few years ago and it didn’t turn out so hot. And they are recruiting overseas in spite of the fact that so many people in this country have lost their jobs.

If you are not annoyed, you are not paying attention. This should be the new bumper sticker of all in education – especially all of us who work in teaching.

Here is a report from ETS that is just stunning to me -- the percentage of 8th grade math students on free and reduced lunch whose teachers left before the end of the school is year is 67%.

I think a quick note is in order regarding the EdWeek Article on the Ingersoll and Perda research suggesting that we are producing plenty of math and science teachers and all we need to do is just retain them and we are set.

The facts are probably correct – though dated – that we produce 2X as many math and science teachers than retire. Thus, retention is the solution. Woohoo - problem solved.

I received the comment below on an earlier blog about career changers. Hare are several interesting points from this teacher.

1. He/she is leaving because of teachers/administration not because of the kids
2. He/she prefers to start a business in this economy over teaching
3. He/she believes that career changers can get into teaching and bring content to life
4. In his/her experience teaching is learned on the job

Great article today covering our start in Missouri. It has been such an amazing response from some amazing people. Our first certified teacher completed last week - - an electrical engineer who has been teaching in a private school for three years.

When people try to claim that the teacher shortage we face is a retention problem, I laugh. Don’t get me wrong – I would love to see better working conditions and even higher salaries for teachers. But that will not come close to fixing the problem.

We no longer live in a society where someone works in one job, let alone one career, for life. Based on my daughter’s college friends, it is not going to get any better.