If you have been in the school leadership role for any length of time, you might feel like your school has a revolving door of educators coming and going at the beginning and the end of the year. You might even find yourself dealing with this door opening and closing during the school year. The situation of teacher attrition and movement in education is an expensive time suck for school leaders and one that they may feel like they have absolutely no control over.
I can't tell you the number of time that I meet with school principals and listen to their stories about teacher movement. So many school leaders are spending countless hours thinking about, and devoting time to the attrition aspect of their professional roles. Many of them lament that they were not adequately prepared to deal with this aspect of the school leadership role, as principal preparation programs are management and pedagogically focused. Moreover, teacher preparation programs are not doing an adequate job of preparing pre-service teachers for the emotional work of the job. What happens in this revolving door of teachers and this is costing valuable time and money, and contributing to the overall achievement of our students.
Leaders; teacher attrition is about emotion. It really is that simple, and that complicated. And the thing that baffles me the most about that compli-simple fact is how much push-back I get from school leaders about how it is not their job to make teachers feel good about their job. Look, I'm going to ask you to change your perspective here. First, I am going to agree with you - to an extent. You are, in many ways, absolutely right about that sentiment, but I think if you stop reading here you are continuing to miss the point at hand.
It takes up to 5 years post-graduation for a teacher to truly become "effective." And when I talk about effectiveness I am talking about developing skills across the whole-person that contribute to their teaching. This means that it takes 5 years to develop to an effective level of professionalism, classroom management, consistent effective instruction, emotional regulation and development, and be able to contribute to the professional community of a school.
When teachers leave the profession before these skills are developed, we often have to replace them with another novice teacher. Studies show that a revolving door of novice teachers is detrimental to school and student growth.
But I can't be everything, for everyone. These teachers are adults, and my focus is on the students. I get that. But consider, for a moment, how this issue is affecting your students. When you put your students at the forefront of your thinking, I'm willing to bet that you get an immediate surge of caring and empathy through your gut. That's the feeling that will move mountains. Thats the feeling that will turn teacher attrition on its head if you can figure out how to harness it.
I also get that school leaders are frustrated for being blamed for why teachers leave the profession of teaching. That makes sense too, because you and I both know that you agonize over this work, this passion, and to be blamed for something as critical as teacher attrition is demoralizing, and it's hurting your effectiveness as a leader.
Principals who deal with high amounts of teacher attrition experience more burnout and decreased job satisfaction than those principals who do not have to deal with teacher attrition. An important thing to note here, as well, is that sometimes it is the luck of the location that determines how much and how often you will be dealing with the revolving door of leadership in your school. Here are some statistics to consider from a recent study conducted by researches Carver-Thomas and Darling-Hammond (2017).
1. Schools in the northeast region of the US experience the least amount of teacher attrition, whereas schools in the south experience almost double the NE rate.
2. Rural schools all over the country deal with less teacher attrition than urban schools.
3. The most accurate number to represent teacher attrition is 16%. Of that number, over half (67%) voluntarily leave. Their number one reason for leaving? Not money, not the students... its "lack of administrative support" (more on that in a minute)
There are many more interesting findings in this study which I will link at the bottom of this blog.
Next Steps
1. Take a retreat. Ok... hear me out. The first thing that I would like you do to for you and your school is to commit to taking an "attrition retreat." Set aside an entire afternoon to exploring teacher attrition trends at your school. Get a piece of paper. Put "Understanding Attrition at my School" at the top of your paper. Conduct a SWOT analysis of teacher turnover in your school over the last 5 years. Who is leaving? Why? What are the demographics of these teachers (years in profession pathway to certification what was their experience like while at your school, how well would you say you knew them(as a person, not just a teacher) on a scale of 1-10). Were exit interviews conducted? If not, you can still do them, even after the teacher has been gone.
2. Put some numbers to your research. If the statistical numbers aren't enough to convince you to spend some time on teacher attrition, do some adding up of students that have come through your school that have been affected by teacher attrition. Keep in mind that students who are continually subjected to novice teaching are less likely to meet standards, and they are least likely to report satisfaction with school at home and in their community. How many students have been affected by the turnover in your school? 100? 1,000? 5,000? ... more? Where is the cutoff for you?
3. Conduct exit interviews of those that have left your school. Keep your mind open and really aim to hear the messages you get about the teacher's thoughts. Even if you were that administrator at the time, understand that your students are affected by teacher turn over and there is something you can do about it.
4. Get connected. While teacher attrition is at the top of your list, look for, and join, targeted communities of other principals who are experiencing teacher attrition at their schools. I would avoid Facebook groups which tend to be breeding grounds for negativity. You will waste a lot of energy weeding through the naysayers on Facebook groups, and no one has time for that! You have a school to lead! You can learn more about my virtual coaching groups by clicking here.
5. Make a goal. We have all heard of magnet schools for students, but I want you to be a magnet school for effective teachers. Attracting high-quality teachers is only half the battle, we also have to keep them. Make a goal to change the attrition numbers in your school. Be a leader in this field! If you have low numbers of attrition, aim to make them lower. If you have high numbers, aim to reduce them even just a little bit. How many hundreds of students could benefit from retaining 5 teachers, even 1 teacher? Make your students the new face of attrition and see if that changes your perspective.
It isn't your job to make teachers happy, but it is your job as an instructional leader to provide support for your teachers an ensure the best student outcomes. One of the hardest things you will do is to change your perspective on what that support looks like. It won't be easy, and it likely won't be rooted in your comfort zone. It takes bravery and empathy to commit to meeting teachers where they are at and creating a new kind of magnet school - one where teacher line up outside the door to get hired, and stay hired, and watch your students fly into their futures satisfied and fulfilled with the best instructional experience you could possibly give them.
References
Carver-Thomas, D. & Darling-Hammond, L. (2017). Teacher turnover: Why it matters and what we can do about it. Palo Alto, CA: Learning Policy Institute.
SWOT Analysis Resource
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