How do we stop the revolving door of new teachers?
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November 22, 2013
Helen F. Ladd is a professor of public policy and economics at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy and a member of the Scholars Strategy Network. In this essay for the AJC, she addresses the challenge of teacher turnover.
By Helen F. Ladd
In an effort to keep educational costs in check, America’s cash-strapped states, local school districts and charter schools are hiring less costly novice teachers. Some of the new hires are energetic college graduates supplied for two-year stints by programs such as Teach for America.
In the late 1980s, most of the nation’s teachers had considerable experience; only 17 percent had taught for five or fewer years. By 2008, however, about 28 percent — or more than one in four of America’s teachers — had less than five years of experience.
The proportions of novices in the classroom are particularly high in schools in underprivileged areas. Some observers applaud the rapid “greening” of the teaching force because they