No one can argue that teachers aren’t important and, next to students, arethe lifeblood of any school. So why are so many teachers leaving theprofession? New York Schools, while they haven’t lost their entire teachingstaffs, are experiencing a high turnover of teachers, just like the rest of thecountry.
New York Schools, which is the nation’s largest school system, recruitedapproximately 5,000 new teachers this summer (2007) by the middle of August.They were looking for teachers certified in Math, Science, or SpecialEducation. New York Schools offered a housing incentive that, in some cases,totals $5,000 to be used towards a down payment on a house. The incentiveapparently worked, based on the number of teachers hired.
New York Public Schools are also looking outside the world of education fortheir teachers. Offering subsidies to offset the cost of obtaining a master’sdegree, New York Schools hope to attract “mid-career” professionals. They arelooking for folks employed in such fields as health care, law, and finance. NewYork Schools director of teacher recruitment, Vicki Bernstein is looking tohire still more teachers before school begins on September 4th – at least 1,300to be exact.
In June, one nonprofit group conducted a survey of several school districtsacross the country to find out how much they were spending annually forrecruitment, hiring, and training new teachers. New York Schools were includedin that survey. The survey found that New York Schools, among several otherdistricts, are experiencing teacher turnover that’s costing them $7 billionannually.
Retirement is one reason schools are seeing a large departure of theirteaching staff. In addition, the hiring of new teachers slowed down in the ‘80sand ‘90s, which raised the average age of teachers. New York Schools says thattheir wave of such retirements was at a peak early in this decade, but that itdid not truly cause a teacher shortage.
However, there are many new teachers hired by New York Schools that becomedisillusioned with the classroom, and find it hard to stay where they are mostneeded. The National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future has calculatedthat nearly a third of all new teachers leave the profession after just threeyears, and that after five years almost half are gone — a higher turnover,indeed.
Higher salaries in the business sector, as well as more professionalopportunities are also factors in the departure of teachers, even the onesworking for New York Schools. Traditionally, more women than men have becometeachers, and the possibility of a better salary and the chance to expand one’scareer horizons is tempting to many.
Recent Department of Education statistics state that about 8.4% of thenation’s 3.2 million public school teachers quit the field in the 2003-4 schoolyear. Thirty percent of them retired, and 56 percent said they left to pursueanother career or because they were dissatisfied.
This explains, for the most part, where the New York Schools teachers havegone. The district is working hard to get them back.
Patricia Hawke is a staff writer for Schools K-12, providing free, in-depthreports on all U.S. public and private K-12 schools. For more informationplease visit New York PublicSchools