The Need for Teacher Retention

According to new statistical information, there is a staggering onset of challenges facing education today. The teacher workforce is shrinking. Due to the declining enrollment in teacher preparation programs, competing industries, and challenges experienced in schools, talent pools are becoming more and more shallow. Finding and keeping high-quality teachers has become a necessity. In the past, the teacher workforce enjoyed an abundance of eager graduates and seasoned professionals. However, this paradigm has shifted. According to the National Education Association Teacher Leadership Institute, new and experienced teachers are leaving the profession in part due to a lack of shared decision-making roles and opportunities to lead. Today, job seekers and employees site well-being, recognition, rewards, and flexibility as primary factors for remaining in their current roles.

The education industry is, unfortunately, considerably behind in strategies for recognition and rewards. In 2006, companies began to consider positions and departments like People Operations, Chief Happiness Officer, or Employee Well-Being Directors to refocus their retention and recruitment initiatives on a people-focused and people-first approach.

Teacher retention is just one of the many areas in which teacher leadership can help solve the most pointed and relevant problems in education and, ultimately and most importantly, help students learn. Even without occupying formal organizational roles, teacher leaders have a profound impact on school culture and quality. Moreover, great achievements are possible when teachers have formal opportunities both inside and outside the classroom.

Charlotte Danielson describes the teaching profession as “flat”. The lack of roles in which teachers can grow and extend their knowledge and practices beyond the classroom while still having the option to engage closely with student learning-can lead to dissatisfaction and flight from the profession, especially among those who crave additional intellectual and career rigor. These issues, in turn, can affect school culture negatively; high turnover rates, coupled with burnout among those teachers who do stay, make for a challenging environment in which it is difficult for any teacher to feel supported, secure, or empowered. In addition, all these difficulties ultimately affect student learning, as both high turnover and a school culture of uncertainty and negativity make it difficult for teachers to provide the best learning experiences possible for the students.”