October 2007 — Features
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Help Wanted
For an alarming number of new teachers, the school gates have turned into a revolving door. Here’s how technology can assist districts in addressing the reasons for the rampant turnover.
When Gabe Soumakian joined Burbank Unified School District (CA) two years ago as assistant superintendent for the
human resources department, collecting data about teacher
turnover was not a high priority. Shortly after his arrival, contract
negotiations opened, and representatives of the local teachers
association cited high attrition rates as a rationale for several
expensive bargaining points. Soumakian began researching the
figures provided by the teachers association, and he found that
the district did not have the data to either verify or refute statements
about teacher turnover in the district.
Today, officials in BUSD, on the outskirts of Los Angeles, are getting a handle on which teachers are leaving the district and why, all thanks to a FileMaker Pro database Soumakian developed and is now using for data collection, aggregation, and analysis. "It was difficult at first," he says, "but I wanted to be able to discuss the real reasons behind teacher turnover in this district and find cost-effective solutions based on our needs."
Soumakian’s efforts, while not enough to arrest teacher turnover, at least are an attempt at understanding its sources. It’s a first step in the difficult work of reversing the astonishing rate at which new teachers are quitting the profession. Expert estimates anticipate that nearly half of this year’s new hires will leave teaching within the next three years. Half.
In addition to the direct, negative impact that teacher flight has on student achievement, districts are waking up to the reality that turnover on this scale is costing them thousands, even tens of thousands, of dollars for every teacher that must be replaced. In districts where the annual rate of teacher turnover surpasses the average for student dropouts (roughly 30 percent nationally), it doesn’t require much financial acumen to realize that the cost of low teacher retention quickly eats up a hefty chunk of the budget.
What can be done to stem this drain on already limited resources, and where can technology help? Collecting, analyzing, and reporting the data, as Soumakian is doing for Burbank USD, are just initial moves leading to an even more important question: How will this information be used to reduce teacher turnover and the associated costs?
A Call to Action
Understanding today’s issues requires some background information. The rise in teacher attrition, begun in the late 1980s, has conventionally been attributed to the aging Boomer generation and a lack of qualified teacher candidates. However, the data tells otherwise. Retirement does account for a certain amount of turnover, but new teachers are leaving en masse. In fact, according to Tom Carroll, president of the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, "The number of fully certified teachers who are in the workforce but not in classrooms exceeds the number of teaching vacancies in the country." Thus, the real problem: Teachers have opted out of the education system.
