Matthew Di Carlo of the Shanker Institute reports a new study of teacher attrition in the District of Columbia.
The numbers of teachers leaving the district are startling. Whether it is working conditions or policy, the District is not a good place to work.
DCPS has an attrition rate of 25%, far above the national average.
But it is far higher in the highest-poverty schools, as much as 40%.
Di Carlo notes:
“Now, it’s important to note, first of all, that this level of churn, overall and/or in how it varies by school poverty, may not be unusual for districts similar to DCPS (for example, the overall rate of 25 percent is probably roughly comparable to other big city districts). In other words, this may be less a DCPS problem than a large urban district problem (and the raw figures certainly cannot be chalked up to specific policies, in DC or elsewhere).
“Moreover, it’s unclear how much of the discrepancy in attrition/mobility by poverty rates is due to working conditions per se. For one thing, as seen in the DCPS document linked above (see page 36), teachers in higher-poverty schools receive lower ratings, on average, from DCPS’ teacher evaluation system than their counterparts in medium- and low-poverty schools, which means that some of the turnover may be involuntary (i.e., dismissals). Also, leavers and movers have lower evaluation scores, on average, than stayers (see the table above, and also that on page 32). Similarly, there are other variables, such as experience, that may mediate the association between school poverty and teacher turnover.
“In any case, while some turnover is inevitable and some of it (e.g., low-performing teachers) can be seen as beneficial, the situation in the highest-poverty DCPS schools, where around 40 percent leave every year, is at least a cause for concern. It’s difficult to comprehend how schools can function effectively under such conditions.”
So it’s working …
It never ceases to astonish me as to how the perpetrators of what I am now calling “PROFIT LED ED” want “a great teacher in every classroom” to be the factor that “closes the achievement gap” when all of their actions drives the best candidates for the career (not a two year TFA stint) out before 5 years.
Matt DiCarlo suggests something different.
Tfa data shows where they go. Based on their own 2010 website info… Approximately 20% stay in Public schools after their time is up. I was a mentor to 19 corps members as part of my role as a member of Fordham University’s graduate school of Ed. Of those 19 who I worked with from 2008-12, 4 are still teaching. There are many other reports concerning this by people like Barbara Veltri, who worked with over 100 corps members. Mine left to med school, TFA itself, educators for excellence, KIPP, grad school in business or psychology….
Read the link below. Now they have students peddling anti-teacher rhetoric. What a bunch of bull. The high turnover in poorer neighborhood reflect the difficulty and unhappiness related to working in these environments. Now, they are attacking one of the few teacher rights that might keep teachers in the classroom. Did you read that students claimed that teachers were looking at You Tube or reading newspapers? I wonder if these stories are true or just made up propaganda? I wonder if in some cases the environment was so chaotic that the teacher just gave up. Of course that is not mentioned in the article nor the high turnover rate in these poorer schools. I hope Diane looks into who is behind this group.
http://news.yahoo.com/california-students-file-suit-aimed-tenure-law-222123243.html
The idea of using kids in this law suit is a pretty good propaganda tool. The problem is not that there are a huge number of competent teachers. Of course there are incompetent teachers, just as there are incompetent lawyers, congressmen, and Secretaries of Education. The problem is in the state apparatus, not the union demand for due process. It is an easy shell game to focus it on unions and teachers.
If this isn’t the most glaring evidence of the destructive policies left by Michelle Rhee, I don’t know what is.
You might be right, but Matt DiCarlo says that the data is inconclusive.
good point… I’d should compare the data “before & after Rhee” to make that assertion…
Did I miss any data on TFA and attrition in the post?
What’s needed is followup: where did the teachers who left go? What do they say about why they left?
I have worked in title one schools where there have been TFA’s. In one school two TFA’s left after their two year stint was up. One specifically mentioned wanting to go into the corporate world and was taking a corporate job that would enable her to use her psychology degree (this was what she said). The other student who was a recent college grad went to DC to work at a think tank (just wondering what two years of teaching on the fly will do for her “experience” at a think tank)! At another school, a TFA teacher worked his two years and then decided to work at a charter school in another state. Last I heard, he lasted one year there and headed to unknown pastures. I am sure there are others who read and respond to articles in this post who have had their share of experiences with TFA teachers at their school and could tell you their reasons for leaving and where they were headed!
The “Who Stays, Who Leaves” Research Alliance paper in NYC shows similar results (http://media.ranycs.org/2013/003) … as De Carlo says this is probably a national trend … in my anecdotal experience teachers move to less challenging, higher achieving schools or voluntarily drop out … and TFAers leave after two or three years. High poverty, lower achieving schools are also characterized by school leader churn. Across professions job movement is much more commonplace than a decade or two ago …
Reformers such as Duncan, Rhee, Gates, Broad, Bennett, Bloomberg, etc. have created public education chaos from coast to coast. Good news is that parents in several states are now on top of the money making high-stakes testing scheme [Pearson]. Informed parents are linking false “reform” promises to Duncan’s department with his boss Obama in charge who promised “Hope and Change.”
Reblogged this on Transparent Christina and commented:
The Michelle Rhee miracle in action…not.
If we were trusted as professionals, instead of abused and degraded, people would understand that this art called teaching requires time to perfect. It takes an entire career. We are never done learning, reflecting, chNging to meet the needs of our students. I cannot imagine the turmoil for everyone involved with that much churning of staff.
The easiest and best way to retain great teachers in high needs schools would cost no money. If you simply had pro-teacher principals and administrators in each school, who bonded with the faculty, there would not be a mass exodus of staff. I worked in an inner city high school in Jamaica, Queens for twenty years with extremely high needs and difficult to educate kids. What made the job intolerable was not the students; but the administrators.
The assistant principals wandered the halls all day with special notebooks in which to write up staff members. During the lesson it was common to see a chairperson’s head peering through the back door of the classroom, looking to CATCH you for some infraction they could write up. Negative letters, often based on purely fictitious incidents and events, were always being inserted in your file. A large part of the daily routine consisted of filing grievances (and attending grievance hearings) to remove documents chock full of untrue negative doggerel.
What if you had administrators who said something like the following? “We are in a very difficult school with hard to educate kids. We are all in this together. I will do all I can to help you and back you up.” I bet teachers would stay. I know that I would have stayed at Hillcrest High School in Jamaica if there were supportive administrators.
When I see documentaries on the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan I notice that the commanders bond with the troops and tell the soldiers how we’re all in these trenches together. It must work, as many men and women re-enlist to return to combat zones for second and third tours to duty. Why can’t we try emulating these positive supervision techniques?
A simple thought, half of the key education spots in DC have not been filled in years and when they are filled they are filled by non educators. Education leadership is lacking, Maybe some of those bad teachers who were reviewed by non educators found better school systems where there education talents were appreciated. It is hard to believe that so many teachers are non performers, We should say that glib statement after a dr looses their patient, they just are non performers.