Larry Buhl writes in Capital & Main that teacher churn is a serious issue in the charter industry, but high turnover rates may be a feature of the charter business model, because it keeps labor costs low.
In Los Angeles, a 2018 study comparing charter- and traditional-school teachers between 2002 and 2009, found that elementary-school charter teachers saw 35 percent higher turnover than their traditional public-school peers. And the gap is even wider at the high school level, with charter-school teachers nearly four times more likely to leave than their peers.
“The conventional wisdom, which our study backs up, is that charters recruit very young teachers,” said study co-author Bruce Fuller, an education and public policy professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Fuller added that teachers are also more likely to be white in charter schools than in traditional district schools, and many received their education background through the nonprofit teacher-recruitment organization Teach for America, rather than at a university or college.
“[CMO management] will say this in small groups but not to reporters — that they want younger teachers because it saves on wages and benefits,” Fuller said. “Our study shows that younger teachers are more likely to leave than older ones. There is no benefit to staying longer. Science-oriented STEM teachers were also more likely to leave in both charter and private schools, possibly because they had more lucrative opportunities in the private sector….”
Growing anecdotal evidence and studies point to several causes, including the startup-like culture of some charters, which leads to “seat of the pants” teaching, as well as inadequate help from administration for charter teacher burnout.
Rachel Schlosser, a fourth-grade teacher at Los Angeles’ Para Los Niños elementary charter school, turned to teaching after working as a grant writer for a nonprofit organization. She had considered going to a district school but was drawn to PLN’s smaller class sizes and student-centered approach. Now, however, she said it’s “student-centered at the expense of teachers.”
She claimed that the school is currently not investing in its teachers: It’s not providing enough professional development or support, nor adequate guidance for handling disciplinary problems, a science curriculum or a long-promised resource library. (Para Los Niños’ administration did not respond to requests for comment.)
“The administration can make or break your experience,” Schlosser added. “If you are not your best self and not feeling supported, the students won’t benefit. Teacher burnout is real.”
Indeed, the “Stay or Go” study showed that the levels of support from administrators for teachers were closely tied to teachers’ decisions to walk away. And teachers aren’t the only ones feeling the urge to move on. A study of New York schools shows that charter-school principals are much more likely to leave than their public-school counterparts.
KIPP has invested in retention strategies, but it still retains fewer teachers than public schools.
Only 11% or so of charter teachers are unionized, so they have no way to bargain for better working conditions.
The ruling class’ takeover of education, transmuting it for profit-taking under the guise of concern for Black students is shown as the scam it is, by recent statistics. Corporate America owns the 11% penalty that Black workers experience because of their race. Average wages for workers with high school diplomas ages 18-21 show White labor gets $12.29 per hour and Black labor gets $10.92.
If Melinda Gates, Priscilla Z-berg or the widow Steve Jobs had an ounce of sincerity, they would confront the differential in pay, linked solely to racial bigotry.
The latest being touted by Fordham is a study done in North Carolina suggesting that black kids in charter schools are more likely to encounter black teachers. Of course, they generalize this to the nation as a whole on the basis of no evidence because Fordham exists not to follow the evidence but to promote the positions of its billionaire funders. It’s a PR firm masquerading as a think tank.
Here’s the thing about calling one’s organization a “Think Tank.” There have to be people in it doing some thinking, at least occasionally.
The newest thing in policy analysis: the Ignorance Tank.
LOL. Totally disruptive!!!
Here’s one possible explanation for there being a higher percentage of black teachers in charters than in traditional public schools: charters are often FORCED UPON communities of color where the teacher applicant pool is likely to be more nonwhite.
Fordham sponsors schools in Ohio with 5400 students enrolled. How many TFA’ers are on the payroll? What is their rate of turnover?
Why do the schools falsely claim they are public when the Ohio Supreme Court ruled they are private?
What are the racial demographics at Fordham?
Exactly.
Not that it will in any manner stop Petrilli from making unsubstantiated generalizations based on whim, but David Lapp from Research For Action responded immediately with their own contradictory data for PA and kinda scolded Petrilli on Twitter about it. In PHL and PGH (where all the charter students are) black students are more likely to have black teachers. Naturally Petrilli ignored Lapp’s criticism about extrapolating without reason.
Too clarify: Black public school students in PA are more likely to have black teachers than black charter students.
Some people will make whatever claims those who write the checks want them to make until, that is, the checks stop coming. He has whatever opinions he’s paid to have.
PJL,
Given the lack of teachers of color in Pennsylvania (5.6% of Pennsylvania’s teachers are not white), I am not sure it is surprising. The fact that 58% of Pennsylvania’s schools employ only white teachers and 38% of the school districts in Pennsylvania’s school district only employ white teachers is, I think, a problem.
Source: https://whyy.org/articles/more-than-half-of-pa-public-schools-do-not-have-a-teacher-of-color/
TE, to understand what is really happening one must dig deeper than just the demographic breakdown of teachers by ethnicity.
For instance, How many minority college students go into K-12education and earn degrees in the field they end up teaching in and teaching credentials?
The reason for the fact that public school teachers are much less racially diverse than the country might simply boil down to CHOICE, how many minorities finish college with a goal to become K-12 teachers.
Public school districts can’t hire people that didn’t earn the education necessary to go into K-12 education.
College completion rates by ethnicity also play a role.
51 percent of Asians that start college earn a degree by the 6th year
28.7 percent of Blacks do
35.6 percent of Hispanics
47.5 percent of whites
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/04/26/college-completion-rates-vary-race-and-ethnicity-report-finds
Then there is the fact that there are more black teachers (7 percent) in k-12 education than Asians (2 percent) but the focus is always on the fact that there are fewer black teachers than white teachers.
But since more Asians finish college than blacks do, there should be more Asian teachers.
The answer is simple. the choice is a major factor when college students select a major and the field they want to work in.
The only way discrimination can be a factor is if out of a 1,000 black college graduates that earned a K-12 teaching credential, only a small number were hired as teachers and the rest lost out to white teachers … but since there is a growing shortage of teachers, how can that be a factor.
Then there is this fact: “Among teachers working in high-poverty elementary and secondary schools, 63 percent were white, 16 percent were black, and 17 percent were Hispanic, according to the data. In comparison, among teachers working in low-poverty schools, 92 percent were white, 3 percent were Hispanic, and 3 percent were black.33 Teachers of color are also overwhelmingly employed in public schools serving student populations with relatively high proportions of students of color and public schools in urban communities.”
Click to access state-racial-diversity-workforce.pdf
Lloyd,
Did you find that a problem with PJL’s post?
PLJ?
Lloyd,
My comment was in response to PJL’s comment. See the beginning of this thread.
It occurred to me that your concern about “digging deeper” would also apply to his comment, which was an observation that the ratio of black teachers to black students is higher in traditional public schools than in charter schools. Would you agree that we would need to dig deeper here before coming to any conclusions about this difference between traditional and charter schools?
I do not care about charter schools — most are hogwash. Only a few are managed by a co-op of professional teachers. The rest are, repeat, hogwash, crap, and sewer sludge designed to make some greedy vampire wealthy or wealthier
As for public schools, reporting the fact that the majority of public school teachers are white, more than 80 percent, does not indicate widespread racism.
Anyone that reads the report I provided a link to in one of my comments will quickly discover that schools with majority-minority student population also have most of the minority teachers who decided K-12 public education was the career they wanted.
During this period of growing teacher shortages, thanks to the greedy vampires opening publicly funded private sector charter schools for the last couple of decades and waging a war against public school teachers, their unions would quickly discover that alleged racisim is not the reason the ratio of black teachers is so low.
I think the lower college graduation rate among Black and Hispanics is part of the reason.
I think the fact that more Blacks and Hispanics grow up trapped in poverty is also part of the reason – growing up in poverty makes it difficult for most children to keep up in K-12 education and have the skills necessary to go to and complete college.
Obvious racism and segregation start at birth for children that are born into poverty, but I do not think alleged racism or segregation gets in the way hiring qualified black and/or Hispanic teachers.
That’s why I said in a previous comment possibly in another blog post thread earlier today wondering if the ratio of black children suffering from corporal punishment was lower for the middle class and upper-middle-class families compared to black families living in poverty.
Lloyd,
I thought your post about standards of evidence, not about charter schools. Surely you don’t have different standards of evidence for issues concerning charter schools than you have for issues concerning traditional public schools.
TE, I have no idea what you are blabbering about.
Dr. Ravitch,
I am agreeing with Lloyd that one must “dig deeper”. Do you disagree?
Wait, TE!
What was it I thought we should dig deeper about? Be specified. Do not twist what I mean into something you want it to mean.
That digging deeper suggestion of mine had to do with finding an answer that explained why more than 80-percent of K-12 public school teachers are white and why so few minorities become teachers.
And I DUG DEEPER to find the answer and posted what I discovered in a comment tread on this blog but maybe not this thread for this blog post.
This is what I learned after DIGGING DEEPER:
“Racial and Ethnic Differences in College Major Choice” (WOW! That word again: CHOICE)
“Most popular Majors by Race and Ethnicity”
Please explain why Elementary Education as a major is not on the lists for Asians, Blacks, and Hispanics, but that major is listed in the White column?
Most K-12 teachers major in English, Elementary Education and/or History, and these three majors were all important to Whites but not as important to the other ethnic groups.
English does NOT appear in the Asian list, or the Black list and is ranked lower in the Hispanic list than the White list.
History does not appear in the Asian. Black or Hispanic lists.
Elementary Education only appears on the White list.
Wow, are these CHOICES being made because of racism – maybe?
Why do you think the Criminal Justice major only appears on the Black and Hispanic lists and not the White and Asian lists – maybe because of racism that affects mostly Blacks and Hispanics throughout most of if not all the U.S. legal system?
The answers are all related to what each ethnic group thinks is important to them as a group.
https://www.clevelandfed.org/newsroom-and-events/publications/economic-trends/2015-economic-trends/et-20150331-racial-and-ethnic-differences-in-college-major-choice.aspx
Lloyd,
Dig deeper about PJL’s post, the one we have all been commenting on.
As you point out, it may be the case the African American teachers simply choose to more frequently teach at traditional public schools, and the African American parents simply choose to more frequently send their children to charter schools. PJL’s statistic might simply reflect choices, not any racial bias.
If, as you allegedly think, that PJL’s statistic might simply reflect choices, not any racial bias.
I agree and I think that choice starts with the choice of a major in college since education and English majors are not important to most Blacks. In fact, the choice probably started in high school with elective choices.
Tank is actually a very good metaphor for these places.
These people all sit safely inside their armor fortified (military) tanks and fire their tank gun indiscriminately at schools, teachers, community leaders, parents and anyone else who happens to be in their way. And if the person is behind them they just back up and run them over.
Poet,
You’re dead on with the description. However, for every correct use of words, the rich have many more that they’ve distorted and employed for manipulation. One of the most egregious examples is their use of the word, “Trust”.
They are a cheaper grade of fuel.
LMAO
It was probably inevitable when ed reformers devalued experience that they would end up preferring to hire younger teachers. It is cheaper and if experience has no value there’s no reason to pay for it. Of course, it’s not true that experience has no value, but they seem to believe it- unlike people in virtually every other sector, who don’t believe that, because it’s nonsense.
I see it here with parents. None of them want a first year teacher because they (sensibly) believe he or she will be inexperienced and therefore have a learning curve, which is true.
Charters are FACTORIES, not places of learning.
I would also like to find out the rate of attrition of students. There are so many claims that charter students are pushed out at various points in the school year, and especially before testing in the spring. In addition to teacher attrition rates, this kind of data should be included in yearly reports and made readily available for parents as they consider choosing a charter.
The LAUSD could provide that information, but they won’t. Until they, and other districts are forced to provide the numbers we will never know.
Gary Rubinstein has provided some guesstimations for NYC over the last few years, but his efforts are also plagued by charter shenanigans and a lack of accurate data from the state.
I think cyber charter and charter school fraud might be the biggest heist in U.S. history.
Lloyd,
It is in Ohio.
No, Lloyd, “the biggest heist in U.S. history” has been pulled off by the U.S. military. No other organization is within light years of the heists that the death and destruction machine has pulled off.
The proper term is The Department of Defense and the private sector industry that makes gear and weapons for the DOD, also known as the military industrial complex — not the U.S. Military. Any stealing takes place way about the troops and most of those who gain from those thefts are in the private sector and probably never wore a uniform.
The troops are the U.S. Military and the troops have no choice once they sign up and take the Oath that makes them a paid, military slave that must obey even if it gets them killed — unless they want to ruin their lives and go AOL or refuse an order – in the military if you are in combat, you can be shot if you refuse to follow the orders of a superior.
If they go AOL, after being caught, they will spend a few years in federal military prison and then be turned to active duty. Then if they refuse to fight an/or die on command they will end up with a dishonorable discharge and become a half citizen because of all the privileges of citizenship that will be taken away from them.
Dishonorable Discharge
If the military considers a service members actions to be reprehensible, the general court-martial can determine a dishonorable discharge is in order. Murder and sexual assault are examples of situations which would result in a dishonorable discharge. If someone is dishonorably discharged from the military they are not allowed to own firearms according to US federal law. Military members who receive a Dishonorable Discharge forfeit all military and veterans benefits and may have a difficult time finding work in the civilian sector.
Once you join one of the military branches, all of the troops give up any freedoms that a civilian takes for granted. The only choice is to refuse to follow orders and destroy your life.
while charters will not admit to pushing out kids, neighboring true PUBLIC schools can give statistics about kids suddenly showing up on their doorsteps at certain times of the year
No surprise here. The Charter School industry is a repeat of the fast food industry. Lower pay. Higher turnover. And demand that workers put in longer hours for less or for nothing.
Teacher churn is at an all-time high: https://thinkprogress.org/teachers-quit-their-jobs-in-record-numbers-during-2018-497f2162b3a6/
Meanwhile, the teacher shortage is growing: https://www.epi.org/publication/the-teacher-shortage-is-real-large-and-growing-and-worse-than-we-thought-the-first-report-in-the-perfect-storm-in-the-teacher-labor-market-series/
I remember reading all the arguments in the media when Bill Gates and Arne Duncan took over education that young teachers were better because of their youthful exuberance and lack of jaded, union-based sloth. I specifically remember a comment by a parent following an LA Times article that said her daughter’s young 1st grade teacher was so good because she was so pretty, her daughter thought she was a princess. Such nonsense.
I also remember my own hubris when I first began teaching. I thought I was going to save the world with all my strictness and cutting-edgeness. All the older teachers were the causes of all the problems I encountered. Nothing was my fault, of course. Ahh, the hauteur of youth! I thought I was a great driver when I turned sixteen, too. It’s true on the freeway and it’s true in the classroom, going a hundred miles an hour is just plain, dumb lack of experience and maturity. Now I know that over twenty years in and nearly half a career left to go, I still have a lot to learn. It’s a lesson that must be taught to incoming teachers.
The teacher turnover rate cannot be fully separated from the churn among school principals (and other administrators).
“The national average tenure of principals in their schools was four years as of 2016–17. This number masks considerable variation, with 35 percent of principals being at their school for less than two years, and only 11 percent of principals being at their school for 10 years or more.
The most recent national study of public school principals found that, overall, approximately 18 percent of principals were no longer in the same position one year later. In high-poverty schools, the turnover rate was 21 percent. Principal turnover also varies by state.”
source : https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/product/nassp-understanding-addressing-principal-turnover-review-research-report
Great points, Laura. Administrative continuity is an important idea. The best schools really never change administration, because the principal works with an assistant who becomes principal, assuring the continuity of policy and tradition. Teachers stay in place, experience leads to the best outcomes. I have witnessed this personally, although I cannot quote studies.
At least in the district in which I teach, turn over of administration is a feature, not a bug. The district admin. is moving building principals and assistant principals at an average of every 4-5 years, and some are only at a school one year (or less). That’s not the decision of most administrators, but the decision of the district.
For most of the thirty years I taught in Rowland Unified School District in Southern California, that district did the same thing. Rotated principals very three to five … so they didn’t get chummy with the teachers just like the Soviets and/or Russians do with the officers in their army.
Laura-
If you haven’t seen it yet, there’s a good SSIR article about the stomach-turning SIB’s, written by Nina Pequeneza, May 31, 2019. She wrote, “Pay for Success undermines our commitment to basic human rights”.
The “Stay or Go” study distinguishes between charter-mgt-orgs as non-profit (CMO) and for-profit (EMO). Wiki says CMO’s are usually 501(c)3 orgs, formed in states where for-profit magt of charters is not allowed. CREDO (per wiki) calls both types “CMO.” But Natl Alliance for Pub Charter Schs says EMO’s are “for-profit companies that develop and deploy online curricula for schools.” [The NAPCS definition would explain why CA’s new charter law outlawing ‘for-profit mgt’ is spoken of as targeted primarily at K12 Corp.]
The study cites even higher teacher churn at EMO’s than CMO’s; they’re probably using the NAPCS definition. So are the EMO teachers those used by K12 hisch pgms to monitor/ grade at-home kids? Or teacher-coaches at the brick&mortar “Summit Public School” charters? Or pubsch teachers whose admins converted to Summit online curriculum?
Meanwhile “non-profit CMO’s” seem to be a unicorn, since for-profit CMO’s can just transform themselves into non-profits if reqd by state law. The study abstract can be misunderstood as comparing for- w/ non-profit teacher churn, when they’re really comparing teacher-admins of online curriculum vs teachers in classrooms. And meanwhile furthering the fiction that CMO’s are generally non-profit.
“Stay or Go” shows teacher churn at either charter type is much higher than at “traditional charters” managed by “local school officials and parents.” How many did they find to use as comparison? It’s good to point out they’re a better way to go, but tho they may not be unicorns they’re probably zebras.
You know something is wrong with the current state of teaching when ” which teacher type burns out slower becomes the indication of the “best” teaching job.
The two noblest professions are a) nurse and b) teacher. If you do either, you can look in the mirror and know that you are doing something really, really important. But given the iron lock on K-12 schools of the standards and testing regime, I’m finding it increasingly hard to justify counseling young people to go into the latter job. I have a lot of anger and sadness about that.
PRIVATE charter schools, folks, PRIVATE charter schools.