Guidance shows light at end of teachers’ bleak tunnel
(District of Columbia) Much of the disproportionally high rate of teacher turnover in hard-to-staff schools serving high-poverty students can be attributed to a lack of quality induction programs for beginning teachers, according to guidance released earlier this month.
Roughly half a million U.S. teachers either move or leave the profession each year – attrition that costs the United States up to $2.2 billion annually – with 40 to 50 percent of new teachers leaving the profession after five years, according to research cited in On the Path to Equity: Improving the Effectiveness of Beginning Teachers.
The findings come as researchers working separately reported that career teachers around the country are struggling with low wages, sometimes even qualifying for state and federal assistance programs. That report, Mid- and Late Career Teachers Struggle With Paltry Incomes, from the Center for American Progress, points out that a major difference between the U.S. education system and those in other nations with higher-performing students is lower pay for educators here.
Combined, the two studies offer new insight into problems within the education system that have either been overlooked or ignored.
“Students are not the only ones whose ability to learn suffers in low-performing schools,” says Mariana Haynes, author of On the Path to Equity, issued by the Alliance for Excellent Education, a national policy and advocacy organization focused on underserved students. “Too often, teachers in schools serving students from high-need environments lack access to excellent peers and mentors and have fewer opportunities for collaboration and feedback.”
Collaboration and mentoring are but a couple of tools used for induction –the support and guidance provided to new teachers in the early stages of their careers.
Meanwhile, the Center for American Progress report provided some stunning examples of poor teacher pay in some places.
In Oklahoma, teachers with 15 years of experience and a master’s degree make less than sheet metal workers. In Colorado, teachers with a graduate degree and 10 years of experience make less than a trucker in the state. And teachers in Georgia with 10 years of experience and a graduate Guidance shows light at end of teachers’ bleak tunnel :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet: