From the Atlantic: This is a great article on the stress of the teaching profession and why some chose to stay and why some chose to leave. Here’s the opening, I highly recommend reading the whole thing, especially for policy makers with the goal of improving the quality of the teaching profession:
Richard Ingersoll taught high-school social studies and algebra in both public and private schools for nearly six years before leaving the profession and getting a Ph.D. in sociology. Now a professor in the University of Pennsylvania’s education school, he’s spent his career in higher ed searching for answers to one of teaching’s most significant problems: teacher turnover.
Teaching, Ingersoll says, “was originally built as this temporary line of work for women before they got their real job—which was raising families, or temporary for men until they moved out of the classroom and became administrators. That was sort of the historical set-up.”
Ingersoll extrapolated and then later confirmed that anywhere between 40 and 50 percent of teachers will leave the classroom within their first five years (that includes the nine and a half percent that leave before the end of their first year.) Certainly, all professions have turnover, and some shuffling out the door is good for bringing in young blood and fresh faces. But, turnover in teaching is aboutfour percent higher than other professions.
Approximately 15.7 percent of teachers leave their posts every year, and 40 percent of teachers who pursue undergraduate degrees in teaching never even enter the classroom at all. With teacher effectiveness a top priority of the education reform movement, the question remains: Why are all these teachers leaving—or not even entering the classroom in the first place?
“One of the big reasons I quit was sort of intangible,” Ingersoll says. “But it’s very real: It’s just a lack of respect,” he says. “Teachers in schools do not call the shots. They have very little say. They’re told what to do; it’s a very disempowered line of work.”
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K. Hill
February 1, 2014
Teachers also quit because they are dogged out and used. I’ve been teaching for 8 years, and although I’ve taken every opportunity to present professional development seminars to my coworkers for free, coach debate for my students, and teach a tested subjects area on a grade level where there are 3 high stakes tests, I still get no consideration for a leadership role or raise. Not to mention the fact I have been recognized nationally several times and have been on at least 3 SCS press releases on average, per year, doing something phenomenal. I do all this, but there are teachers in my building with 3 planning periods and don’t sponsor a thing. Really and truly there are a faithful few doing all the work, and others who are straight lazy. I’d have nothing to say if the pay was great but I’m almost at poverty level, and it’s a shame teachers can’t get food stamps because our checks are docked for everything imaginable. So yea, effective Feb 3rd, I’m resigning. Y’all will not be able to claim me for prestige anymore. Find someone else. Oh yea.. SCS is losing a few National Board Certified Teachers as well because there is no respect for the work put in to get that certification. That bonus check is nothing compared to how MCS would bless the teachers. SCS is a travesty, and no one wants to teach under this type of disrespect and poverty salary levels. It’s pathetic.
K. Hill
February 1, 2014
One more thing: for eveyone saying teachers should stay for the kids, realize these aren’t “our” kids. These are YOUR kids. This is a profession, and y’all have to lose the emotional appeals. This is BUSINESS. And in the line of business, if employees aren’t compensated & treated fair, work will remain undone. We don’t do volunteer work, so telling a teacher to remain for their “students” is ludicrous. Students matter but they are rarely the reason a teacher quits. They are actually the reason a teacher will endure the trauma of their job – to cater to kids. But eventually, that doesn’t pacify the situation anymore. Again, I’m leaving because of the lack of respect and lack upward moment in the district. There is no room to grow as an educator past the classroom. I really wanted to be a “best practices” guru and work specifically with new teachers, because I love to mentor, but SCS doesn’t see the value in that, or they don’t have positions. Either way, I have a wealth of knowledge beyond that of being a teacher and I want to use my knowledge before I lose it.