Administrator Impact on Retention

Keeping on with a recent post about retention of teachers, I think it's interesting to bring light to some concerns a small focus group came up with about what they are concerned about and think would improve the retention rate of teachers: support from the school community. Read: support from the school administration and support staff.

The data speaks for itself, if teachers are willing to stay, they are more likely going to stay at the school they are currently at. If teachers are leaving, about 76% of teachers say that they are either extremely dissatisfied with their or mostly dissatisfied. When the same group of teachers (stayers and movers) were asked what would contribute to teachers staying for a longer time, the overall view was for a better administration.

I wonder, with the implementation of student surveys to assist with teacher evaluations, why not implement the same for administrators? Teacher surveys on the effectiveness of an administration in support or encouragement? I think that SER visits (that come around every couple of years) could possibly be an attempt at this, but an ineffective one. At schools across the district I am confident that similar things are happening: we have meetings during our collaborative planning periods to talk about what the SER team is expecting to see from their teachers. While the principal insists that nothing should change in our own instruction, we of course are reviewing what effective teachers should be doing, hint hint ;)

When the questions turn to what kind of culture is experienced from our administration, our teachers struggle. The administrator that is helping to facilitate the meeting encourages teachers to be truthful about weaknesses. Do they really want us to mention that teachers who have been placed on Performance Improvement Plans actually do not meet on a regular basis with the administrator they are required to work with? Do they really want us to mention that teachers are publicly ridiculed about data that is too low, while teachers who have achieved a 75% pass rate for other district tests are ignored? Do they really want us to mention that administrators admonish teachers in front of support staff, students and parents, showing them a lack of support during a meeting about extreme disrespect and bullying? For some reason, I think that this would rather be kept under wraps and a positive spin be put on all of the inappropriate comments, emails and utter disrespect shown towards our educators.

What do we do to increase the retention rates of our teachers? Improve the effectiveness of our administrators in Baltimore City. 

Welfare Funds Tied to Children's Academic Performance

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2013/jan/25/campfield-bill-would-tie-welfare-benefits-to/

While watching a left-leaning TV show a few weeks ago (either Steven Colbert’s or Jon Stewart’s—I can’t recall), the host took a dig at a Republican Senator, Stacey Campfield, and his recent proposal of a bill that would cut welfare benefits for parents of children who are not making “satisfactory academic progress” in school.

It was a strange moment for me because hearing that proposal would have probably infuriated me (a person who has only ever voted Democrat and joined Teach For America with the determination to combat social injustice in the education system) if I never had the experience of being a Baltimore City public school teacher.

As detailed in the article above, Campfield made some valid points (regardless of where he stands on other issues). He essentially said that student success is dependent on good schools, good teachers, and good parents—and pointed out that education reform currently focuses more heavily on holding schools and teachers accountable than it does on holding parents accountable.

Specifically, Campfield proposed that parents of students who do not pass their State standardized tests would experience a 30% decrease in welfare funds (currently they can already lose 20% if their children do not attend school regularly). In Baltimore City (at least at the schools where I have taught), that would affect the majority of students because very few of them pass the MSA. However, I think every single one of them is capable of passing the MSA (assuming any necessary modifications are provided for those with IEPs).

I think the reason most do not pass is because teachers end up having to spend so much class-time managing misbehaviors that they do not get to effectively teach the necessary content. Because those misbehaviors often hold even the well-behaved kids back from achieving on standardized tests, I would propose that the decrease in welfare funds be tied to Report Card grades instead (perhaps the funding that is taken away from parents whose children are failing could be given to other parents on welfare whose children are making all A’s). 

If a bill like this were to be put into place, I definitely believe parents of failing students would be in a lot closer communication with their children’s schools and teachers to ensure their kids get on and stay on the path to success. 

What Makes Employees Happy?

In light of the upcoming discussion on teacher retention, I wondered what it takes to retain any employee—not just a teacher. Certainly there are nuances to teaching that make us different from just any employee but certainly we are similar in our workplace happiness to people in another field.

An article in Forbes magazine points out that having happier employees actually leads a company to make more money. I suppose in the teaching world, our capital would be higher student achievement. This article, which is based off Nelson’s book “Make More Money by Making Your Employees Happy”, says that more money is not actually what makes employees happy but rather cited worker safety (where applicable), rewarding employees for success (with paid time off) and sharing information (being in the dark can result in resentment). The bottom line: employers showed compassion and appreciation for their employees.

Businessnewsdaily.com states 11 ways to promote employee happiness

1.       Room for growth

2.       Good training program

3.       Small bonuses

4.       Autonomy

5.       Favorable office environment

6.       The ability to work from home

7.       Allowing workers to focus on their jobs without interruption

8.       Work/life balance

9.       Unique benefits package

10.   Help workers live healthier lifestyles

11.   Give them a break for social media and other activities

Finally, a report by Allegiance states that the average company loses 20-50% of its employee base each year. Obviously this is a huge range but it terms of these numbers, teachers low retention rates don’t seem as extreme. The main purpose of the Allegiance report is to give tips on promoting employee loyalty. They cite employee “engagement” to be the main factor in promoting employee loyalty. Engaged employees are committed to success, emotionally attached and socially involved with a company. To keep an employee, you must be helpful, make them feel competent and improved, and make them feel accepted and respected.

 So when you look at all employees, it’s not surprising that teachers are unhappy—lack of a work/life balance for 10 months of the year, lack of a room for growth, and feeling unappreciated, just to name a few.  It also feels like teacher retention is strongly linked to principal quality—in the end, who makes you feel appreciated, helps you grow, trains you and sets the climate of the school? A principal. It seems like teacher retention would be easier to discuss on a case-by-case basis, since every school is different. However, with retention rates low across the board, there must be some common link of unhappiness across many schools. Which of these factors are unique to teachers and which ones can we change to keep more quality teachers in the field?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevecooper/2012/07/30/make-more-money-by-making-your-employees-happy/

http://www.customerservicegroup.com/pdf/allegianceincreaseloyalty.pdf

http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/3132-keep-employees-happy.html

Physical Assault on Teachers

          A recent ABC2 news report¹ shed the light on an issue that most inner-city teachers are aware of, but few speak out about. That issue is teacher abuse. In the past 5 years, reports show that four BCPS school personnel are assaulted by BCPS students every single day. There have been noticeable increases in the number of teacher assaults in the last two years. Evidence shows that seventh, eighth, and ninth graders commit these assaults most often.

            The 2008 attack on Jolita Berry², an art teacher at Reginald F. Lewis (RFL) high school is what is brought to the forefront of most educators’ minds when they hear the words “teacher assault.” The brutal attack was captured on a cell phone and publicized on Myspace. When I was first assigned to work at RFL, I Googled the name and articles about the assault were the first thing to pop up. I was terrified.

            Unsurprising to any BCPS teacher, in Berry's court case, “the defense made a presentation questioning Berry's teaching skills, noting that she was on a performance improvement plan (PIP) at the time of the incident and a hall monitor was assigned specifically to stand outside her classroom.” Last spring, our administration put almost every teacher on a PIP for not passing enough students.

            Current BTU president, Marietta English states that teachers should not have to face physical and verbal assaults at work each day¹; yet they do. Teachers at inner-city schools go to work knowing they will be cursed at, threatened, and possibly even assaulted by their students. Administration says cases of teacher assault are “completely unacceptable,” yet (in my opinion) they don't do anything to prevent them or to lower the incidence of these increasingly violent acts.

            Karen Webber-Ndour is the Executive Director of the office of Student Support and Safety for BCPS. Her job is to change the perception, feel, and environment of a school in order to decrease violence. Her program has been piloted in 32 BCPS schools and so far, the results have been promising. Webber-Ndour claims there has been a drastic decrease in suspensions in that pilot group of schools, an increase in community and parental involvement¹.

            In order to decrease the number of teacher assaults and to better the culture and climate of City schools, we need more funding for programs like Karen Webber-Ndour’s and Professional Development for teachers on building better relationships with students. Students need to be held accountable for their actions. Incidents of students who attack teachers cannot be “swept under the rug.” Teachers should feel safe walking into their workplace. Teachers should never be threatened by or assaulted by students. If the system wants to retain high quality teachers, the system needs to change the way they view teacher assaults.

1: http://www.abc2news.com/dpp/news/region/baltimore_city/student-on-teacher-assaults-on-rise

2:http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/education/blog/2009/02/witnesses_say_jolita_berry_pro.html

Cultural Sensitivity and Awareness

I currently teach Honors Spanish I and II at one of the higher-performing high schools in Baltimore City.  Last week, right after giving a huge unit exam, I decided to design a cultural mini-unit on West Side Story to give my students a “fun” week of instruction.  Little did I know that watching an eleven-time Academy Award winning musical could be such a miserable experience for everyone who was involved.

I began the mini-unit by having students read a New York Times Article that discussed the changes in immigration demographics from the 1960 to now in New York City, with references to how these demographics were portrayed in West Side Story.  Then, students used their background knowledge about Romeo and Juliet and the new information about New York to predict what would happen in the musical, and how issues such as racism would affect the story.

As with almost all of the “creative” lessons that I have taught throughout the past two years, I encountered some unanticipated obstacles throughout the lesson—for example, my students could not discuss migration patterns from Puerto Rico and Spain, because even as 10^th graders at a high performing school, they did not know where these places were located.  So, in an attempt to be thorough, I adjusted my lesson plan to include a world map.  However, even with the world map, years of Spanish instruction, and even a targeted unit on ethnicity, several of my students were still referring the Puerto Ricans as “Mexicans.”  And this was before the movie even started.  As an educator, I felt responsible for not giving them the necessary background information to support their learning—but in my preparation, I felt that I was honestly doing so.  I had not anticipated the cultural references I have, and that I was taking for granted.

Once the movie began—West Side Story consists of over 20 songs—before each song, in each class, I had at least one student exclaim “OH MY GOD, ARE THEY GOING TO SING…AGAIN?!”  At that point it hit me.  Most of my students had never even seen a musical.  Not only did they not have the frame of reference to understand the conflict in the musical, they did not have the experience to support watching a musical for information.  As a Spanish teacher, taking a week off of vocabulary to do culture was a risk, but even in that week I could not physically give my students what they needed to be supported and successful, which leads me to ask—If we can move students two grades ahead in reading level in one year, how do we incorporate our student’s identities into consideration, all while making up for a lifetime of culture incompetence?

Where Have All the Teachers Gone?

I go back and forth between a TFA-lover and hater.  Part of what makes Teach for America a popular fix to urban systems is that it attracts young, motivated, type-A personalities – those who have a do-what-it-takes attitude and a drive to be successful.  These teachers are given a crash course in teacher training and then thrown into the waters for the next two years of their lives.

But what happens after that?

Well, about 50% of TFA corps members leave the classroom after their two years, and 80% leave the classroom after three years.

One of the biggest arguments against programs like TFA is this low long-term retention rate.  So I started to wonder: are the results really different when looking at teachers coming from other backgrounds?

Interestingly enough, attrition seems to be pretty high across the nation.  About 50% of new teachers nationwide quit after five years.  This statistic is even worse in high-need schools (which, of course, is where TFA places their corps members).  In fact, around 20% of teachers at high-poverty schools leave their schools each year.  Some leave education all together, but others merely leave to go to higher-performing schools.

I think the reason this is true due to two major factors.  The first factor (and the one that most TFA critics focus on) is the teacher’s ultimate long-term goals.  For some, who do choose to use TFA as a “stepping stone” after college, the plan to leave the classroom after two years never changes. Others, like myself, find their long-term goals refocusing on education.  In some ways, this is a scenario that is dependent on the specific person.  However, the second factor is where I think we need to focus our efforts: overall satisfaction at their school.  Understandably, teachers who found problems with their administration, working conditions, or teaching placement are less likely to remain in their placement schools.

This is obviously a systemic problem in urban districts – so, how do we change this?