Teacher Turnover is Growing For Obvious Reasons

February 2016        W. L. Doromal

A January 26, 2016 Orlando Business Journal article, Central Florida public schools to hire nearly 4,800 workers, reveals that Orange County Public Schools expects to hire about 1,600 new teachers and 840 administrators and classified personnel between now and the start of the 2016-2017 school year.

Teacher retention rates are declining. The Alliance for Excellent Teaching reports that more than 50% of teachers leave the profession before their fifth year of teaching costing the United States $2.2 billion each year.

I can remember when it was unusual to have any vacant teaching positions at the start of the school year.  Not anymore. Teacher turnover is at an all time high. OCPS has held job fairs as late as December this school year. Permanent substitutes with little or no teaching experience are filling the many open teaching positions and staying in the classrooms for longer periods of time. Teachers are leaving the profession before they even complete the first month of school. Others are so fed up with the poor working conditions, low pay and inadequate benefits that they are moving to other careers, many before the second semester starts. Still others state that the disrespect, loss of autonomy and interference in the profession caused them to make the decision to retire early.

Multiple studies have found that there is a conclusive correlation between high teacher turnover rate and school climate and student achievement, yet we are facing an exodus of skilled and dedicated teachers. It is not surprising that more teachers are quitting. The teaching profession has been under attack by lawmakers who disrespect teachers and corporations who think our children are for sale.

In 2011 Florida policymakers passed two anti-teacher bills S.B. 736 and S.B. 2100. Both bills severely altered the teaching profession, affected teachers' earnings, benefits, retirement and job security.

The primary reason that OCPS teachers are leaving the District or leaving the profession is because the District has demonstrated that it regards teachers as disposable and replaceable labor units rather than as valued employees. This is evidenced in the poor working conditions, low salaries, eroding benefits, loss of autonomy and excessive work load.

Other evidence that OCPS undervalues teachers was seen in the state's 2014-2015 teacher evaluation scores. Only 2.4% of all OCPS classroom teachers received scores of highly effective.  Teachers across the District have complained that their principals and evaluating administrators told them that the District felt that there were too many 'innovating' and 'applying' scores so teachers could expect to receive 'developing' and 'beginning' scores.

Can you imagine the outcry if teachers determined that all students would be receiving low scores before they even assessed their work?

Indeed, these low scores pulled the teachers' overall evaluation scores down to place the District among the bottom worst three in the state. Something is seriously wrong when our District is recognized by the state for having many schools rated as 'A' schools, but only 256 classroom teachers were considered to be highly effective.  (See this Post.)

Since teachers' pay is tied to their evaluation scores, many suggest that the District made an intentional effort to lower scores across the district to avoid having to pay higher salaries. This is a reasonable assumption considering the huge disparity between the OCPS scores and those of other districts.

 OCPS teachers submitted evaluation concerns at the AR meetings. They were brought to the Evaluation Committee and CBLT. Teachers from schools across the district reported that their administration told them they would receive lower evaluation scores. The excuse? Teachers had to start at the bottom to 'show 'growth'. Here a few of their concerns with names and schools redacted – click the images to enlarge:









The District's Strategic Plan underscores the goal to “increase the retention rates of effective and highly effective staff.”  Yet, the current Contract conflicts as far as what the District considers an “effective teacher”.  Under the evaluation system an effective teacher is one who has achieved an Instructional Practice Score between a 2.50 and a 3.49. However, the contract states, “The principal shall recommend for reappointment annual contract teachers who achieve a 3.0 or higher on their Instructional Practice Score.” If retention of effective teachers is truly an element of the Strategic Plan then the contract should be changed to read, “The principal shall recommend for reappointment annual contract teachers who achieve a 2.5 or higher on their Instructional Practice Score.”

While the District has ignored or made excuses for the broken evaluation system, low salaries, deteriorating working conditions and other factors that have teachers leaving at alarming rates, teacher unions are stepping up to tackle the issue. At last weekend's FEA Governance Board meeting FEA announced the formation of a Teacher Retention Task Force. Among the committee goals are to develop a standard FEA exit survey to be used uniformly across the state; recommend best practices for attracting and supporting teachers new to the profession; establish a mechanism for sharing membership/activist information when teachers move to another county; and to provide examples of effective ways to build teacher leadership opportunities step-wise within the local structure.

Teachers, schools and students will benefit from FEA's work. But we also need to educate parents and community groups and partner with them to stop the exodus of our teachers. We owe it to every child who is enrolled in Orange County Public Schools to attract and retain effective teachers.

Read related articles:
Why Aren't There Enough Teachers for Our Kids? SunSentinel, 2-3-16
Another Florida teacher quits blaming state mandates, Tampa Bay Times, 2-4-16
Teachers demoralized, overwhelmed, overworked, Gainesville.com 2-2-16
Florida's Teachers Stressed Out, WLRN, 2-1-16
Teachers are speaking out, but is the Legislature listening? Tallahasee.com 1-23-16
Research Spotlight on Recruitment and Retention, NEA
Alachua County Teacher Shortage, The Independent Florida Alligator, 1-26-16
How the Teacher Shotrage Could Turn Into A Crisis, Huffington Post, 4-18-16

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