Advertorial in Education Week, March 30, 2005
Business and industry have long known that hiring the best people and keeping them is good business. The same philosophy applies to schools. Nurturing new teachers, helping them learn about the community and hone their teaching skills, gets results. The problem in education is not so much recruiting new teachers, but keeping them, according to the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future report, No Dream Denied.
A 2004 report by the Charlotte Advocates for Education particularizes the problem. The report, titled Role of Principal Leadership in Increasing Teacher Retention: Creating a Supportive Environment, notes that between 15% and 20% of teachers in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools in North Carolina leave each year. The percentage is higher for teachers with fewer than three years of experience. The authors of the report estimate that each teacher turnover costs the district $11,500 in replacement costs. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg figures are not untypical of school districts across the nation, but the dollar costs do not tell the whole story. High teacher turnover also negatively affects the quality of education, disrupts the continuity of school programs, and stunts school reform efforts.
Education leaders know what it takes to keep good teachers in the classroom. It takes, among other things, making realistic assignments for new teachers, rather than giving them the tough challenges that no one else wants. It takes providing sound mentoring so that new teachers feel connected even when they close the classroom door. And it takes school leaders who create what Dennis Sparks, executive director of the National Staff Development Council, calls “a high-performance culture,” based on focused professional development.
Knowing and doing are two different things, as any armchair mechanic can attest. Some things simply are beyond the power of educators to change, such as coming up with new money in financially strapped times to reward teachers for performance above and beyond expectations or transforming public opinion about the professionalism of teachers after decades of teacher-bashing. These are issues that must be addressed in other ways. However, school leaders can and should tackle those retention issues they can affect, such as giving new teachers reasonable assignments, commending a job well done, providing sound professional development, and asking seasoned veterans to mentor newcomers.
On the mentoring front, Phi Delta Kappa International and the Wal-Mart Foundation recently paired for an exciting new initiative to help educators. The two groups are expanding their three-year-old partnership in the well-known Teacher of the Year program to include a “telementoring” system designed to help retain teachers new to the profession. The telementoring system will electronically link new teachers across the nation to experienced Kappans and recent state and national Teachers of the Year — an initial cadre of some 200 mentors. Groundwork for this new initiative is being done this spring, and the program will be operational later this year. Information will be forthcoming on the PDK website — www.pdkintl.org — as the program develops.
As schools continue to tackle retention issues, PDK is there to help. For nearly a century our association has been committed to providing leadership, research, and service in education. The PDK/Wal-Mart telementoring initiative is just the latest embodiment of that commitment.
For information about PDK membership, professional development opportunities, publications, and other services, please visit our website at www.pdkintl.org. The Phi Delta Kappa International 2005 Conference will be held in New Orleans, November 10-13. More information online.
Phi Delta Kappa
International
408 North Union Street
P.O. Box 789
Bloomington, IN 47402-0789
www.pdkintl.org
Information@pdkintl.org
Phone 812/339-1156
Tollfree 800/766-1156
Fax 812/339-0018
Support for this message provided by the Phi Delta Kappa Educational Foundation |
