The Teacher Attrition Crisis in High Need Schools: Two Worthy Ideas to Consider
It is no secret that teachers and children in underserved communities face a plethora of challenges and realities that are seemingly unfathomable to their counterparts in more advantaged communities. Of those challenges and realities exists the issue with teacher attrition. A University of Chicago study (2009) and an APPAM study (2015) both found that over 50% of novice teachers in urban school settings leave their district and 70% leave their school within 5 years, and about 35% leave after their first year. In 2014, NPR reported this issue as a “crisis”... and as extreme as this sounds, “crisis” seems to be such a fitting word. In fact, throughout the rest of this piece, I will refer to this problem faced by urban school systems as the “teacher attrition crisis.” As a former Chicago Public Schools student, teacher, and instructional coach— and even more so as a current school principal in an underserved community of Cleveland, OH—I am acutely aware of the impact this crisis has on the children left behind by the ever revolving door of teachers.
But why are new teachers leaving their schools in masses year after year? Two ideas that tend to surface as answers to this question highlight teacher pay and student behavior as leading contributing factors of the teacher attrition crisis. However, my experience compels me to somewhat disagree. While teachers should definitely get paid more money—like other professionals who are tasked with changing and shaping the world—and the student behaviors in urban schools can present frustrating challenges, I would venture to say that these are not the [main] reasons teachers leave. No one becomes a teacher for the money. We sign up for this insanely arduous task because we want to serve and empower children to be great. This notion, as well as research, also supports that teachers don’t leave their students, they leave their schools.
Teachers often report leaving their school due to a lack of belongingness, support, and effectiveness. There are two ideas that immediately come to mind as initial steps that can be taken by school leaders to address the teacher attrition crisis in urban districts. These practices have proven to be highly effective at retaining new teachers who could have easily been ran away by the challenges and realities faced while teaching in an urban public school nested in a high-need community.
Teachers need mentors.
When thinking about improving the support of novice teachers in urban schools, teachers would benefit from a distributed mentoring model in which knowledge and skills are acquired from a variety of expert and peer sources. Expert mentoring improves teachers' development of practices and helps them acquire effective classroom management strategies. It also fosters a strong and positive teacher identity that increases the likelihood that they will remain in the teaching profession and at their school. Novice teachers often mention that having a mentor and peer group creates a sense of belonging and provides a strong support system in which there is an opportunity to share goals, discuss subject content, critique and reflect upon teacher practices, share struggles, and celebrate successes. Mentoring overall provides novice teachers with much needed support, feedback, and exchange of ideas from experienced educators.
Teachers need training and coaching in culturally relevant pedagogy.
It is necessary for teachers to be adequately trained to work in urban school environments. This includes professional development on urban education pedagogy. Oftentimes novice teachers feel ineffective at their job because they are not able to relate to the students, parents, and community in which they serve. They find it challenging to manage student behaviors or navigate the social and emotional issues that are prevalent in children living in underserved communities. Henceforth, teachers leave urban school districts in masses each year, seeking opportunities at other schools in which they feel equipped and competent. Perhaps, effective training on cultural competence and pedagogy will put novice teachers in a position to better understand, empathize, educate, and serve in urban schools.
In all, there is not one simple solution to fix the teacher attrition crisis in urban school districts. However, there are some steps that can be taken to mitigate the reasons why there is an alarming amount of urban school teachers who do not make it past five years in their schools or districts. Providing those teachers with expert mentoring and training in culturally relevant pedagogy could have a tremendously positive impact on the teacher turnover rates. Needless to say, this would also have a tremendously positive impact on students’ academic outcomes, as there are countless studies that draw a direct correlation between teacher retention and student achievement.
Lastly, since it is of the utmost importance that our children receive a quality education, regardless of their zip code, socioeconomic status, or race, the best thing we can do is support the people who have chosen to commit themselves to this endeavor.