Redefining Retention for the New Generation of Teachers

Some provocative thoughts about how our attitudes about hiring and retention might need to be adjusted.....

.. the fact that most departing teachers are replaceable seems to obscure the real loss that occurs as they go: They take experience with them. The instructional leadership and staff stability that experienced teachers provide is more critical to student learning than many think. Succeeding at recruitment cannot outweigh failing at retention. The cost of teacher attrition has been documented in dollars and in student outcomes. The National Commission on Teaching and America's Future estimates that teacher turnover costs the nation $7.3 billion annually. Students of novice teachers achieve at lower levels than those with experienced teachers, and, most important, high-poverty students are far more likely to have novice teachers than low-poverty students.

Conventional wisdom about teachers' career choices has been a convenient excuse for overlooking the potential of a targeted focus on retention. We operate from the premise that some entrants to the field will teach for a couple of years before pursuing their "real careers," and that the remainder will last a lifetime. This logic dictates that the former group will leave regardless of incentives, and those in the latter group do not need incentives to stay. The problem is that both suppositions are wrong. The existence of the "lifetime" teacher can no longer be taken for granted. Harvard University professor Susan Moore Johnson's research clarifies that the average teacher today expects, as her generational peers in other fields do, to take on differing positions and responsibilities throughout her career. Perhaps a more interesting question is whether there is hope for retaining the promising teachers often dismissed as short-termers.. Countless students might benefit if we
actively sought to make the promising two-year teacher into a five- or 10-year
teacher.

EdWeek Commentary April 8, 2008
The Post-Boomer Teacher Crunch
Reframing 'Retention' to Fit the Needs of a New Generation

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2008/04/09/32coggins_ep.h27.html?tmp=1455304268