Retaining Teachers:
Pulaski County School System Addressing National Crisis
Pulaski County School System Addressing National Crisis
First year teachers are 2.5 times more likely to leave the profession than their more experienced counterparts. An additional 15 % of beginning teachers will leave after their second year and still another 10% will leave after the third year. Of all beginning teachers who enter the profession, 40-50% will leave during the first seven years of their career, and in excess of two-thirds of those will do so in the first four years of teaching.
The problem of teacher attrition has become one of national concern and contributing significantly to the teacher shortage crisis. To address this issue, the Pulaski County School System established the Pulaski County Elementary Leadership Academy last year to help retain new teachers. The Academy, established by Elementary Supervisory Margaret Mauney, was such a success in its first year that the program was extended to serve new middle and high school teachers this year and will be extended to second and third year teachers next year.
Many new teachers feel that they are unprepared for the reality of the classroom. Research has found that a main reason beginning teachers leave the teaching field is the inability to cope with teaching problems. Adding to the problem is the fact that new teachers often receive little or no support with these problems. Establishing a support system is one of the main goals of Pulaski County’s Academy. “If we want to retain new teachers, we must introduce them to the profession in ways that develop self-esteem, competence, collegiality, and professional stature,” says Mauney.
Traditionally, many beginning teachers have entered the classroom with only minimal opportunity to interact with students and learn from master teachers. In its 1996 report, What Matters Most: Teaching for America's Future, the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future recommended restructuring the first years of teaching to resemble a medical residency, where new teachers could be mentored by experienced practitioners. “ The Academy had planned activities that the new teachers could actually take back to their rooms and use. The information presented in our meetings has been very beneficial,” said Robin Dykes, a Southern Elementary resource teacher.
Kentucky is leading many states in this area with the teacher internship program requiring multiple observations, feedback sessions, and the pairing of a resource teacher with new teachers. However, Mauney saw a need for something beyond the internship process. Research on the retention of beginning teachers has found that an appropriate on-site support teacher in a beginning teacher program acts as the most powerful and cost-effective intervention for retaining teachers. In addition, beginning teacher programs should be flexible to accommodate the needs of participants. Pulaski County’s Academy is adhering to both these best practice principles. The intern and mentor teacher is provided time to discuss the session topics one-on-one to further explore individual needs and questions. “Since there is a connection between teachers' feelings of competency and attrition, we must insure that our first year teachers are receiving the training they individually need to be successful in the classroom,” said Mauney.
Another goal is to teach teachers how to be continual learners themselves. “We want our teachers to be self-motivators, self-evaluators, and self-directed from these monthly customized training and opportunities for collaboration” added Mauney. Both interns and resource teachers may count this time as part of the fifty hours that is required outside the school day and interns may count this time as professional development if approved by the principal as being aligned with the consolidated plan. Resource teachers may also count this time as professional development after they reach the required 50 hours with their interns.
Pulaski County Superintendent Tim Eaton notes that the program is not only positive for the individual but also an important focus for the district. “Teacher turnover burdens school districts with added recruiting and hiring costs. Concern over student and school performance also pushes this issue forward. High rates of teacher turnover are disruptive to program continuity and planning which can effect student performance.”
And high turnover rates in the new teacher population are a concern that Pulaski County officials have. “Because of our growth and programming initiatives such as reducing class size, we have hired about 50 new teachers each year over the past three years and see this as a continuing trend,” added Eaton.
An end-of-year program survey showed that both the intern and mentor teacher felt strongly supported through out the year and 100% felt the Academy should continue. “I feel very lucky to have been a part of the Pulaski County Leadership Academy. This monthly meeting gave me a wealth of resources and suggestions from professionals who had many good ideas to share. Mrs. Mauney helped make my first year of teaching much easier and more enjoyable with all of the help she gave. I think it is a wonderful academy and new interns should have the same opportunities to benefit that I had,” said Angela Childers, a Pulaski Elementary teacher who participated in the program as an intern. “Last year was the first year that Pulaski County provided extra guidance for both interns and resource teachers through the Pulaski County Leadership Academy. Each session was very informative for both myself, as a resource teacher, and the intern,” said Beverly Shelton, a Nancy Elementary resource teacher.
In fact, a big program extra was the support for not only the interns but also for the resource teachers. “The Leadership Academy provided interns and resource teachers with time that they could talk and “compare notes” about how things in their classrooms were going. I think that having these planned meetings has helped make both the resource teacher and intern teacher become more effective educators,” said Shelton. Several of the sessions, such as Using KET, Writing Tips for Primary Teachers, Responding to the Arts, and Developing Open Response Questions provided different ideas to enhance student learning. “I was really interested in the sessions on Arts and Humanities, and Open Response questioning techniques since these are two areas that I feel we need to put more emphasis on in our instruction. I was also able to help my intern incorporate some of these ideas into her teaching,” added NES Shelton.
Dr. Elizabeth Fideler and David Haselkorn of Recruiting New Teachers, Inc., reported that "much of the literature on formal programs such as these produce dramatic changes for new teachers. Retention goes up, attitudes improve, feelings of efficacy and control increase, and a wider range of instructional strategies is demonstrated, among other changes." Pulaski County’s program seems to be producing these results.