Why Are All My Teachers Leaving? Retaining Public Charter School Teachers for Student Success Start with an anecdote or hook. Maybe I could tell my story re. when a student asked “why are all my teachers leaving”?

Agenda 1. Overview of Research and Findings 2. Audience Questions and Comments 3. Small Groups: Reflecting on Teacher Retention at Your School 4. Final Thoughts and Next Steps

National Data on Teacher Turnover Source: Vanderbilt study ** I would put a graph in here – probably side by side bar chart?

How Teacher Turnover Harms Students Possible Teacher Quality Effects 2. School Culture & Relationship Effects 3. Administrative Costs Assumes teacher is replaced by lower quality teacher – which is only sometimes true 2 & 3 -- Even if teacher quality is held constant, teacher turnover has a negative impact on student achievement. Why? Losing teachers disrupts student-teacher and teacher-teacher relationships, harms school culture (A Center for Longitudinal Data in Educational Research) Estimates of the administrative costs of teacher turnover (recruiting, hiring, providing professional development, and processing job terminations) range from $8,500 to $20,000+.

Our Research Review of the research Focus groups of charter school teachers Interviews with school and CMO leaders Survey of 200+ current and former charter school teachers ** Perhaps add in a graph or two from the survey itself for #2? Pictures, visuals, etc help make powerpoints much more interesting and engaging. Also, is #2 referring to the survey of just charter teachers (not the nat’l survey of district and charter)? J/w because that’s over 200 and I think has more interesting and relevant info coming out of it.

Survey Responses: Why Teachers Leave Charter Schools Long Hours Poor Leadership To Pursue Other Career Plans Lack of Support Compensation/Benefits

Possible Root Causes of High Turnover in Charter Schools Demographics of Charter School Teachers? Budget Constraints Facing Charter Schools? Lack of Unionization? Other Factors? Lindsay – You posted a comment re. this slide that said “I don’t think these points reflect what we found in our research. I might take out the unionization bullet, and substitute compensation, workload, school leadership, lack of career ladders, and other points that are mentioned in the white paper….” I have a few follow up thoughts…. I agree that this was not the focus of our research. I think that workload, school leadership, etc. explain why all schools struggle w/ teacher retention, but they don’t address the question of why charter schools struggle with retention more than other public schools. Given the previous slide comparing 25 v. 14%, I think the question re. why charter schools struggle more than other public schools is important, even if it was not the focus of our research. I “softened” the slide a bit by adding question marks after each bullet point, which reflects the fact that these are hypotheses rather than claims confirmed by research.

Our Findings: 4 Recommendations Build a Culture of Mutual Feedback Protect Teacher Time for Great Teaching Establish Clear Career Pathways for Teachers Be Responsive to the Personal and Familial Needs of Teachers Emphasis on mutual. Teachers new feedback to improve their teaching. But admin. need to give teachers opportunity to provide regular feedback about the school. Variety of formats – in person (scheduled meetings), email requests for feedback, etc. Alternatives to teacher duties – link to concept of professionalism -- associate teachers, tutors, older students, non-teaching staff….. 2 concerns. one is too much responsibility for new teachers. The other is too few opportunities for experienced teachers. Quote: “no excuses” approach became an “excuse for the administration to demand whatever it wanted from teachers.” Different solutions – financial, time, recognition, etc.

Agenda 1. Overview of Research and Findings 2. Audience Questions and Comments 3. Small Groups: Reflecting on Teacher Retention at Your School 4. Final Thoughts and Next Steps

Small Groups: Reflecting on Teacher Retention at Your School Step 1: Individual – Identify your school/CMO’s best practices and weaknesses related to teacher retention. Step 2: Small Group – Share those best practices and weaknesses with other participants. Step 3: Individual – Identify 2-3 key ideas to take back to your school/district. Step 4: Whole Group – Final Thoughts

Agenda 1. Overview of Research and Findings 2. Audience Questions and Comments 3. Small Groups: Reflecting on Teacher Retention at Your School 4. Final Thoughts and Next Steps

La Shawn Allen lashawn85@yahoo.com Jeff Vogel jev72000@gmail.com Thank you La Shawn Allen lashawn85@yahoo.com Jeff Vogel jev72000@gmail.com