Research Topic Essay Revision
Introduction
As American educators continue to disagree on the “best practices” for educating students, we are experiencing difficulty retaining effective teachers in high school classrooms. The failure to retain effective high school teachers contributes to the poor performance of American schools. As a result, high school students trail behind foreign students academically in Korea, China, and Finland. Retaining effective high school teachers should improve the academic performance of students and prepare them for success beyond high school.
The Effects of Poor Retention
Research revealed a link between student success and the retention of effective high school teachers. These studies also showed that hard-to-staff
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While salary is a contributing factor to poor retention, administrators must investigate measures to adequately support their teachers. Greiner et al. (2005) created a five step plan to increase teacher retention. Their plan included designing collaborative training programs, developing flexible scheduling, strengthening relationships between experienced teachers, and developing partnerships between schools and local school districts.
Supportive leaders must provide continuous help to their teachers. Studies revealed that when leaders ensured a safe work environment and provided adequate educational resources for their teachers, teacher retention rates increased. Therefore, ongoing professional development programs must be provided to support educators. Veteran teachers should form partnerships with novice teachers to support their careers in education. Researchers have proven that teachers in collaborative, collegial environments have higher retention rates than educators who do not have such educational support systems (Yost,
Webster's dictionary defines tenure as, “the act, right, manner, or term, of holding something (such as a landed property, a position, or an office); especially :a status granted after a trial period to a teacher that gives protection from summary dismissal. In other words, educators receive due process protection from accusations or charges against them.Years ago, educators who acted in destructive and abusive demeanor sidestep meaningful ramifications due to tenure safeguards .However, the supreme protection granted to tenured teachers diminished greatly as of July 2011. Michigan stripped the unassailable security of tenure and the world of education in Michigan altered permanently.Forlornly, educator Kathleen Goulouze failed to adhere to modifications of the updated teacher tenure decree.
The state of Arizona is facing a serious education crisis in the retention of qualified teachers. Personally, my school in Yuma, Arizona encountered an average of seven new teachers every year. Yuma High School District allowed for a teacher to teach chemistry when his/her Bachelor’s degree was in mathematics. According to the ‘No Child Left Behind Act’ enacted in 2001, schools are required to provide “highly qualified” teachers to teach at all times (Educator Excellence). Having quality, long-term teachers is imperative to develop students in becoming productive members of society. Unfortunately due to federal budget cuts directly affecting education, Timothy L. Ogle, executive director of the Arizona School Boards Association, says, “Arizona has faced the most dramatic cuts to K-12 education spending of any state in the nation” (Lopez). As a result, administration is forced to have teachers make up for the lack of a certain subject by teaching it without qualifications. Due to this, out-of-state teachers leave within the first 5 years, and 25% all leave within the first year. Some reasons for this include a
Area III, Professional Development referenced strengths currently in place across the district: year-round professional development (PD) plan for teachers and administrators, and an effective mentor program for new and resident teachers. Likewise, the TL also noted significant challenges that reduce the effectiveness of staff training: too often, it (professional development) is voluntary or scheduled at inconvenient times, schools lack sufficient time to plan and collaborate around PD initiatives, the limited central office staff cannot provide adequate services, especially in specialty areas, too often, there is no on-going support after training, professional development sessions and initiatives are not carefully evaluated to determine what is effective, and competing initiatives across different offices send mixed messages to schools and teachers. Area IV, Specialty Programs and Other areas noted challenges facing the school district to include the recruitment and retention of highly qualified teachers. The report noted a number of factors have contributed to challenges with recruitment and retention including salary and benefits that may not be competitive enough with surrounding districts, and limited supports available to teachers to implement high quality instruction. Additionally, inconsistent teacher evaluation procedures do not produce useful feedback or data. Based on the initial evidence from focus groups and document reviews, the Teaching and Learning committee members developed twelve key recommendations. A critical recommendation regarding teacher attrition was: (TL 11) assess or clarify the issues around the hiring and retention of highly qualified and high-performing teachers (Dukes et.al). These findings suggest that PGCPS must find better ways of retaining teachers. Prince George’s County Public Schools can no longer afford to be complacent about teachers exiting the
The past decade has been hard on teachers, especially in 2002, when President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind went into effect. This brought about yearly testing from 3rd grade to 8th grade. If every child was not “proficient” and was “left behind” by the the education system then the school would be subject to sanctions. The worst
Just like in any other profession or aspect of life, there are many myths that threaten education in public schools. Many people believe that teachers are the most important influence in a student’s academic achievement. In reality, educators have a very little influence in student achievement compared to other influences in the students’ lives that is out of the teachers control. It has been proposed that teachers don’t need to go to school to learn how to educate, they just need knowledge of the subject matter. This could be extremely destructive to student learning because they would not have the proper skills to instruct a classroom. Another common misconception is that instructors in
Did you know that only one of a thousand teachers is fired for performance-related reasons? Teachers with bad performance are not being fired in America, which is caused the fact that teachers are backed up by tenure, but it can be fixed through changing the criteria a teacher should be fired on. Today, I will go over in detail what the problem, causes, and solution is to the issue of having bad teachers keep their job in America. So, first and foremost, I will discuss the problem about bad teachers not being fired.
There are many contributing factors to low teacher turnover, however, the main issue is a lack of support and respect for our teachers. Instead of working on maintaining and providing support for our current educators, the conversation usually surrounds expensive and often ineffective recruitment programs. The harsh fact is that it is very expensive to live in our valley and the current teacher salary/benefits are not enough to attract top talent. We need to have a serious conversation with our teachers in order to learn what incentives they need to be successful in their roles as well as to maintain a comfortable living. Teachers are the one profession that truly molds the future of our
The issue of teacher shortage today is continuing to grow. The effects of the achievement gap are reaching the teachers, not just the students: “...good administrators and teachers, who are doing their best under difficult circumstances, will be driven out of the profession…,” (Boyd-Zaharias 41). The achievement gap is part of the reason teachers feel they are underpaid, which happens to be one of the leading cause in teacher shortage considering, “Teachers were paid two percent less [than comparable workers] in 1994, but by 2015 the wage penalty rose to 17 percent,” (Long). Being a teacher requires passion in order to stay in the field, especially if the money in teaching is decreasing. Money is an important aspect for people when it comes to their careers, therefore, fewer people want to become teachers. This lack of teachers and the lack of college students studying to become a teacher leads to unqualified teachers and larger classroom sizes (Ostroff). Both of these causes are eventually affecting students’ learning environments. I chose this issue in education for my project because I have personally felt these effects, and I know others who have as well. As a future educator, I want to see better wages and better benefits, but this can only happen with qualified, passionate teachers. I plan on being one of them, and I plan on sparking a change. I am a future educator fighting to end teacher shortage.
Herbert bravely sets his sights upon the sacred cow of the educational system, teacher quality. By boldly holding teachers accountable for the outcomes of their students, Herbert describes the road map needed for improvement. Describing how high performing teachers had astonishing results with under-performing students provided the reader with a concrete example of the changes that he believes are needed. Providing the reader with current practices of school districts, these being a focus on credentials of the teacher’s, rather than on their quality inside the classroom. Job performance must be assessed within a classroom in order to prepare the students for the future. “Studies have clearly shown that the good teachers and the not-so-good ones can actually be identified, if they are carefully observed in
There is a consensus among the concerned stakeholders that the quality of teachers is the leading factor in determination of student performance. In the case of United States, the student performance can only be given an impetus by the efforts which the state can make, under all costs, to develop and retain high quality teachers. The measures undertaken determine the level of turnover of the school teachers. Lazear (2009) similarly argues the length of employment is a critical factor in averse risks of employment a trend contrary to teachers treatment. The turnover of public school teachers will refer to the rate at which the state, which is the teacher’s
In the article “Education at Crossroads part 3” Vicki Viotti discusses improvements regarding retention with new teachers. “An emphasis on mentoring teachers in their first three years has been credited with more of them staying beyond five years in the profession, a proportion that’s now up to 60 percent”(Viotti pg.3 par.1). Teacher retention is when teachers decide to continue following their path as teachers. The rate of teacher retention was low due to teachers transferring to other schools. However, after being a persistent matter in schools, it has recently increased to 60%. In addition to teacher retention, resources for fundings also seem to be a problem. “...resources aren’t where they should be”(Viotti pg.3 par.3). The DOE believes
Retention studies of student at all institutions have shown that student-faculty contact has a positive effect on student’s academic growth, and the biggest impact is on students during their sophomore year (Kim & Conrad, 2006). There are mixed reviews
Conclusion: In conclusion it is evident that student retention is dependent on the personal success of
In particular, the study focused on the role of effective principals in retaining teachers, particularly in disadvantaged schools. Jackson (2012) conducted a study that outlined the relationship between teachers’ and principals’ perceptions of their influence over policies regarding teachers’ actual employment decisions – specifically, teacher’s decisions to stay, to move, or to leave the teaching profession. Brown and Wynn (2007) conducted an empirical inquiry of teacher retention issues to better understand the leadership styles of principals who lead schools that have low attrition and low transfer rates. They identified common characteristics and successful strategies that principals use to support and retain teachers through the lens of professional learning communities. The study found that principals who understand the issues affecting new teachers, principals that are proactive in supporting new teachers, and principals that are committed to professional growth for all were able to retain teachers at a
Teaching is a very rewarding career if you learn and understand how to work with the diversity of the classrooms we teach in. As teachers, we need to be more vigilant of where are students come from. Before we can teach we need to know who we are teaching and what background, knowledge, and customs they bring with them to the classroom. We must also be aware of the factors that are relevant to the academic achievement of the students we currently teach. There are many of these factors, but I want to focus on two; teacher quality and low teacher expectations.