Report Envisions Shortage of Teachers as Retirements Escalate

[groovedaddy]

Over the next four years, more than a third of the nation’s 3.2 million teachers could retire, depriving classrooms of experienced instructors and straining taxpayer-financed retirement systems, according to a new report.

The problem is aggravated by high attrition among rookie teachers, with one of every three new teachers leaving the profession within five years, a loss of talent that costs school districts millions in recruiting and training expenses, says the report, by the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, a nonprofit research advocacy group.

“The traditional teaching career is collapsing at both ends,” the report says. “Beginners are being driven away” by low pay and frustrating working conditions, and “accomplished veterans who still have much to contribute are being separated from their schools by obsolete retirement systems” that encourage teachers to move from paycheck to pension when they are still in their mid-50s, the report says.

To ease the exodus, the report says, policy makers should restructure schools and modify state retirement policies so that thousands of the best veteran teachers can stay on in the classroom to mentor inexperienced teachers. Reorganizing schools around what the report calls learning teams, a model already in place in some schools in Boston, could ease the strain on pension systems, raise student achievement and help young teachers survive their first, often traumatic years in the classroom, it says.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/07/education/07teacher.html?th&emc=th

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Not sure about the exodus predicted.

Teaching has tenure, medical and dental benefits, and a pension. And the pension may not be there as several states have reported severe undercapitalization and funding thereof. Thus, it would be prudent to teach until forced out. On the flip side, there may be a plethora of aging baby boomer teachers still teaching past 65.

[tonysam]

5. "Tenure" is a Joke.

Once you get it, and you are older and are unlucky enough to have a rotten administrator, and unfortunately public schools are RIFE with them, they will try to build a "case" against you if they want to throw you out and can and do. You have very little recourse in the court system. It's education's dirty little secret, which should be made public.

It is extremely easy to get rid of teachers and blackball them forever; it is almost impossible to get rid of an administrator.

[BridgeTheGap]

8. Illustrating where the REAL power is! n.t

[ProgressiveProfessor]

9. Tenure is a term misued in high schools and has no real values there

I have seen an administrator or two run off in my time as well

[Reader Rabbit]

2. Modify the retirement system, but not the problems that make people want to retire so early?

Why do these people never get it? They don't want to fix the crappy system that turns off idealistic young teachers and causes them to flee the profession after only a few years. We've had "learning teams" in our school since forever, and we still have the highest turnover rate in the district, because it's such a demanding assignment.

The Math teacher on my team has been at it for 30 years and planning to retire as soon as he's 55, despite the crappy economic downturn. We had an interesting conversation a few weeks ago about whether or not we would go into teaching again, the way things are now with NCLB. It was a given that we wouldn't leave the system now, because we'd both finally put in enough years to make it financially comfortable.

But for those new teachers who have to put up with crap for 10 months and then get summer jobs to make ends meet, as well? Why the Hell is anyone surprised that they leave after a few years? Those summer jobs show them that they can do something to pay the bills that won't physically, mentally, and emotionally exhaust them!

[LWolf]

3. Thank you for pointing this out.

WHY do teachers retire earlier than they have to? WHY do we lose the fresh blood in such high numbers?

Might it be the relatively low pay, lack of support, and poor working conditions?

How many times are TEACHERS asked how to fix the "crappy system?"

That might be the place to start.

[tonysam]

4. Why in the World Would ANYBODY Go Into Teaching?

The field has been so ruined by sociopathic administrators who can fire you for the stupidest things and blackball you forever from the field, nobody in his or her right mind would go into it. And NOBODY over 40 should even bother, since age discrimination is rampant in the field.

The kids, who should be the focus of public education, suffer because of these sociopaths.

I miss the kids, but no way in hell would I EVER darken the door of a public school again after the shitty way I was treated, being fired for trumpted up charges for the simple reason the district wanted to cheat me out of my retirement. I am 54.

[YvonneCa]

6. The same was done to me at 58. I believe it IS age...

...discrimination. ABSOLUTELY.

[Sancho]

7. In many states you are pretty much forced to retire "early"

There is no pay raise past some level of experience (22 years, 30 years are typical), the schools hate to pay high salaries and medical on older teachers, so they try to get rid of them, and states offer special retirement plans to teachers who quit before 65 (in Florida it is called DROP). Here, we've had lawsuits against the district for discriminating against experienced teachers for age only, not performance.

Most districts don't care as much about quality as they do about dollars. A "successful" superintendent gets a bonus and high salary for controlling the budget, so they run off the experienced teachers and hire new ones with fewer graduate degrees and years. The administrators get to keep high paying jobs; so that message passes down to the Principals. We had one superintendent here ($200,000 + salary) who actively worked against teachers who had more experience (ie the lawsuit). Even though the district lost the suit and had to retain and pay higher salaries to about 25 teachers that they discriminated against - the Superintendent got a $600,000 cashable life insurance plan as a bonus! The right-wing business school board rewarded him!

Of course, the kids have unlicensed teachers and lower quality schools, but it doesn't matter to the self-preserving central office administrator: it is a business to them. Bodies and bucks.