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Illinois School Board Journal
March-April 2000
Teachers need support
The loneliest profession
by Ellie Ashford
Ellie Ashford is editor of the National School Boards Association's School Board News. This article first appeared in the February 8 issue of School Board News and was made available by the NSBA News Service.
This is the loneliest place I've ever been."
This is how a first-year teacher described her situation to Mary Beth Blegen, teacher-in-residence at the U.S. Education Department. Blegen says this comment reflects the feelings of many brand-new teachers. This former student of hers, who once had been excited about becoming a teacher, left the profession because she felt so isolated in her classroom.
Blegen, the 1996 National Teacher of the Year, says "lack of support" is the major reason so many new teachers quit within the first three years. "The low salary also is a factor, but teachers know about that when they go in. Most of us do not understand the culture, what it's like being in a school."
Blegen's daughter followed her footsteps into teaching but quit after her first assignment. She was placed in an eighth-grade classroom with 28 boys and five girls and was given no support.
It's more difficult today than it was years ago, says Blegen, who taught in a Minnesota high school from 1966 to 1995. A high school teacher today might see 200 students a day, while facing more demands and working with students who are more diverse and have more diverse needs, she says. "It's virtually impossible for a brand-new teacher to succeed in this kind of environment."
Shortages
According to research by Richard Ingersoll, a professor of sociology at the University of Georgia, 11 percent of teachers leave the occupation after one year on the job. After two years, 21 percent have quit; after five years, 39 percent have quit.
Spurred by reports of a teacher shortage, some school districts are initiating mentor programs or other types of supports for new teachers. Twenty-eight states now mandate some sort of induction program for beginning teachers, reports "Quality Counts 2000: Who Should Teach?" published by Education Week.
The Blue Valley school district in Kansas, for example, has three peer assistance facilitators who advise first-year teachers. Teachers selected to be facilitators take a three-year break from their classroom duties.
Kathy Flexman says she temporarily left her job as an elementary reading specialist to advise new teachers in eight buildings. She observes first-year teachers in the classroom, evaluates their instructional techniques, and offers peer coaching.
That program is just one facet of a range of newly instituted supports in Blue Valley, says Sandra Chapman, director of human resources for staff development. All teachers new to the district - including those transferring from another district, as well as those just out of a teachers' college - attend a six-day induction program just before the start of the school year. It covers the curriculum, the district culture, special education and other programs, student discipline, and personnel issues.
Each new teacher is assigned a mentor in the same school who either teaches the same grade or covers the same content area. Mentors are master teachers who receive training and extra compensation, Chapman says. Teachers may volunteer to be mentors but must be recommended by their principals.
Blue Valley also offers a master's degree in curriculum instruction in collaboration with the University of Kansas and the National Education Association to all teachers in their first or second years in the district. The first nine hours of the program are held in the district on Tuesday nights, and the district pays for the textbooks.
Support network
The program just started this fall, and 41 teachers enrolled, Chapman says. Already, there are 40 on the waiting list for next year. The teachers who take the courses not only improve their teaching skills, "they form a strong support network," she says.
Flexman says, "so far, the feedback has been very positive," but since she's only been a peer assistant for five months, "it's hard to judge the impact of the program at this point." But with the four components of assistance in place, she hopes "teachers in Blue Valley are experiencing more success and more satisfaction in the classroom. And they'll be more likely to stay in the profession."
Although Blue Valley has a relatively low turnover rate for all teachers (seven or eight percent) Chapman says: "We're concerned about the national teacher shortage. We don't want to be in a situation where we have a shortage." She also notes that these support systems are "very strong recruiting tools."
The state of Massachusetts inaugurated a new program in January aimed at keeping new teachers on the job. All first-year teachers in the state will be paired with a veteran mentor teacher.
Any experienced teacher who passes National Board for Professional Teaching Standards certification and agrees to be a mentor will receive an annual bonus of $5,000.
In addition, 750 first-year teachers - about one-quarter of the new teachers hired this year - will participate in a series of free seminars in 15 locations throughout the state sponsored by the Massachusetts Department of Education. These "case study seminars" will cover such issues as technology in education, inclusion and statewide standards and assessments.
Massachusetts is experiencing a boom in the number of beginning teachers, notes Education Commissioner David P. Driscoll. At the same time, more teachers are retiring and student enrollments are expanding, while "approximately one-third of today's incoming teachers leave the profession after just a few years." That's why it's so important to develop "innovative ways of making the teaching profession more attractive to those who have made the initial commitment to teach."
Some of the nation's most extensive peer assistance programs for teachers are in Columbus, Toledo and Cincinnati, Ohio.
The Columbus Peer Assistance and Review (PAR) program is a multifaceted initiative created 12 years ago as a collaboration among the school district, the Columbus Education Association (CEA) and Ohio State University.
All new teachers in Columbus public schools (even those with previous experience) must participate in an intern program. Each intern is assigned a veteran teacher to serve as a PAR consultant.
These consultants are released full-time from classroom assignments so they can concentrate on observing, assisting and evaluating a caseload of 15 to 20 interns. PAR consulting teachers must have five years of teaching experience in Columbus public schools, outstanding abilities in teaching, and extensive knowledge of classroom management and instructional strategies. They receive a 20 percent salary supplement.
Internships
A PAR panel, made up of three educators selected by the superintendent and four by the CEA, makes formal recommendations on whether an intern should be offered permanent employment.
The intern program has resulted in "higher-than-average retention of quality beginning teachers," says CEA President John Grossman.
"This has been true even though some of our local suburban systems have aggressively recruited our first-year interns, knowing how well our program prepared them for their careers," he says. "Conversely, it has also resulted in the non-renewal of five to seven percent of first-year teachers who had not yet developed the requisite skills to succeed in the urban school setting."
By five years, however, "we've been able to hang on to 80 percent of beginning teachers," Grossman notes, which is a retention rate four times what it was before the PAR initiative.
The PAR initiative also includes university courses targeted to first-year teachers and an intervention program for experienced teachers having difficulties.
Blegen and other experts say that while these types of mentoring and continuing education programs are important in retaining first-year teachers, teacher preparation programs also need to do a better job. "Any teacher education program that says you can handle a classroom by yourself is doing a disservice," Blegen says.
And districts need to take care where they place new teachers. Barnett Berry, director of policy and state partnerships at the National Commission on Teaching & America's Future, says: "It's mind-boggling that the most inexperienced novices are assigned to the most challenging students. And it's mind-boggling that we expect teachers who are 22 years old to handle the same load as veteran teachers with many years of experience."
Starved for status
"This indicates a lack of respect for the profession," Berry says. "In a profession so starved for status and reward, the only benefit for longevity, other than incremental salary increases, is to apply for easier assignments."
As a result, more beginning teachers tend to be placed out of their field, he says, making it more likely they will become frustrated and quit.
If we could do a better job keeping new teachers on the job, we could help solve the teacher shortage, says Ingersoll of the University of Georgia.
The conventional wisdom pins the shortage on increases in student enrollments and teacher retirements. Actually, he says, "turnover is driving the shortage."
According to Ingersoll, the most common remedies to address the teacher shortage, such as recruitment bonuses and alternative certification processes, "overlook the real root of the problem - turnover."
Ingersoll's research identified four factors that cause teachers to leave the profession: low salaries, student discipline problems, a lack of influence or input in the decision-making process, and inadequate support for new teachers. "All of these are most pertinent in the first few years," he says.
School districts and states can improve teachers' working environment, although it would be difficult, Ingersoll says. Take the discipline issue, for example. "How many jobs are there where your clients physically assault you and you are required to keep working with them? Only the police, prison guards and teachers. And a teacher doesn't have the right to sever that relationship. Students are entitled to be in school."
Giving new teachers more support and more of a say in the school's operations are key, Ingersoll suggests. "People who go into teaching are service-oriented. They want to make a contribution, to do good. Salary and status are less important. It really boils down to working conditions."
Standards in the classroom
Virtually all the states and many school districts have adopted tougher academic standards, but the standards movement has not yet taken hold in the nation's classrooms.
According to a new poll by Public Agenda, only 44 percent of teachers say they expect more from their students because of these new standards.
Only about half of the teachers polled (48 percent) say promotion of students to the next grade is tied exclusively to achievement, one of the goals of the standards movement. Another 48 percent of teachers say their colleagues still pass students based on effort instead of how much they have learned.
Forty percent of students and 41 percent of parents report that effort, rather than learning, can get a student promoted to the next grade.
"The standards legislation that has been passed appears to be having mixed results in changing the day-to-day lives of teachers and students," says Deborah Wadsworth, executive director of Public Agenda. "There is no doubt that there are positive developments in many areas, but this research is a warning that change will not filter down to the classroom automatically."
The Public Agenda report, "Reality Check 2000," finds little evidence of a backlash against higher standards, which some feared would occur as more students are held back, forced to attend summer school, or fail high-stakes tests.
Solid majorities of all groups polled - teachers, parents, college professors, employers, and even students - say it's better for a child to be held back than be promoted without having the necessary skills.
The current edition of Reality Check has findings similar to previous annual reports issued in 1998 and 1999. Parents remain generally content with their children's schooling, but employers and college professors continue to be dissatisfied with the skills of young people. And teachers and students suggest many schools still haven't adopted the policies advocated by reformers.
Reality Check 2000 also finds:
This article first appeared in School Board News, March 7, 2000. It was made available by the National School Boards Association News Service.