High teacher turnover in charters: Does student achievement suffer?
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August 26, 2013
Does experience matter in the classroom?
Are veteran teachers better than novice ones as a result of their time in the trenches or are new teachers more enthusiastic and open to change?
A national researcher once told me that the most effective year for teaching is around year 7, a point at which teachers are experienced enough to have mastered classroom management and crowd control but are still young and optimistic enough to avoid the calcification into seething resentment that can come from the indignities and pitfalls of the profession.
Personally, I have found that while they relate better to students, younger teachers lack classroom control. My vote for my own kids would be seasoned veterans. I have found that while my kids love first-year teachers, those teachers are not as strong as the pro next door in coping with behavior challenges. The exceptions to that have been team-taught classes where the newbie is paired with a veteran; those classes have been quite effective and high energy.
The debate is examined in a New York Times story today on the high teacher turnover in charter school networks and how that short-term workforce has become part of the charter school ethos