Time magazine recently infuriated teachers with a cover that implied that teachers are a nasty scourge that need to be wiped out with the subtitle, “Rotten Apples”. As an educator, I have to say that seeing this cover made me ill, and it also terrified me. When I was a new teacher, I thought my greatest challenge would be figuring out how to engage my students with lessons that would prepare them for college and the real world, while balancing all the additional paperwork and duties that come with being a public school teacher. What I have learned after almost ten years in the classroom, is that my endurance in the classroom would not be tested by my students, but by the corporate leaders and school reformers who would seek to make changes to our schools, without taking school administrators’ or teachers’ opinions into consideration.
One of the scariest things about school reform, is that many of these decision-makers, believe that the solution to fixing our schools is making it easier to fire teachers. The truth is, is that it isn’t very hard to fire a teacher who is not doing their job. It does require documentation however, because teachers, like most professionals, are entitled to due process. As a teacher, I have worked in schools where the administration in charge work hard to select strong teachers, provide feedback and training to teachers that need support, and even collect documentation on teacher/student interactions that require intervention. I have also worked in schools where the administration choose to ignore teachers that are neglecting their duties, and instead put more responsibility on the backs of teachers that are doing their jobs.
When administrators crack down on poor teaching practices and support their best teachers, schools thrive and students benefit. If administrators take the time to follow through with due process, they can manage to fire teachers that are not doing their part with students. But, that alone is not going to fix our schools. The key to building successful schools is not firing bad teachers, but retaining the good ones.
Year after year, I see some of the greatest teachers I know, getting ready to leave the classroom. These are the teachers that schools should be fighting hard to keep. These are the teachers that love students, and that love teaching. But, with the education environment being what it is, they have no choice but to leave. Teachers today are not being offered enough incentives to stay in the classroom. Our jobs get harder and harder with each year, and most teachers can almost double their pay by leaving the classroom. This has always seemed backwards to me. Why not give the best teachers with the most to offer students, pay incentives to stay in the classroom? More specifically, teachers should be paid more to work in schools that sorely need strong teachers.
There are so many schools in low-income areas that could benefit from having highly skilled teachers that know how to fill in the learning gaps that some students have from growing up in low-income households. Many teachers can earn a twenty to forty-thousand dollar pay raise as they move from the classroom into administration positions. Some move into administration even though they prefer teaching, simply because their family would benefit from the pay increase. Imagine, how many teachers would move into a high-need classroom if they could be compensated for the extra work and time those children require. Instead, those highly-skilled teachers that love what they do, are exiting the classroom and are being replaced by new teachers every year. It is an incredible waste of their talent, and it is detrimental to students who need instructors that know how to teach.
Unfortunately, even with more pay, some skilled teachers may want to leave the classroom anyway. That is because teachers are expected to take on more responsibilities each year with less time to do them. If school districts want qualified teachers in the classroom, they need to give them time to do their jobs. Up until about five years ago, teachers were given 450 minutes per week for planning time. A few years ago, that time was cut in half. Teachers now have an hour or less per day to perform their other duties which include writing lesson plans, assessing student work, analyzing data, documenting information on each student, creating intervention plans, and calling parents. The amount of things a teacher needs to do daily could easily fill another full-time job.
Because teachers spend the entire work-day teaching, they have to take a great deal of their extra work home. It is common sense that with only so many hours in a day, with less time to do their jobs, teachers will have less time to plan lessons that will help students, less time to give students feedback, and less time to reach out to parents for support. Not having the time to do quality work is frustrating, and having to take half of your work home every day is disheartening. The amount of work that teachers are expected to do for the amount of pay they receive, does not match, and it accounts for the number of qualified teachers leaving the classroom year after year.
The last and most important factor to maintain teacher retention, is to provide new teachers with the support they need to continue working in the classroom. New teachers are frequently placed within classrooms of the highest need, and they are often unequipped to work with at-risk students. New teachers need support; otherwise, they feel isolated and frustrated with no one to turn to for answers. Schools need to get into the practice of providing new teachers with effective mentor teachers that can guide them in the best teaching methods, time management, and classroom discipline. In Education Week, Dara Barlin wrote about how much teachers can improve, not to mention schools, just by choosing great teachers to be mentors to new teachers.
When I was a new instructor teaching in a high-need area, I found myself teaching three different English courses to ESL students that ranged from beginners to advanced learners. I felt so lost and overwhelmed that I thought constantly about finding another job. Instead of quitting, I decided to go to more experienced teachers for help, and fortunately, I was able to learn a great deal from them. But, it took years for me to figure out how to help my students to get the most out of my class. That was a lot of precious time wasted, and our students do not have years to wait for their teachers to master their craft. Schools need to make quality mentoring a priority for their new teachers. If new teachers feel they are getting the support and the answers they need, they will be more likely to stay and become stronger teachers.
Our schools are in dire need of good, qualified teachers that will help close learning gaps for students and set them on the path towards success. Cleaning house by firing teachers is often the only plan on the school reform agenda, but it isn’t the only solution. There was a time when teachers were paid a middle-class salary. Today, teachers have to pick up extra hours, or even a second job at times, to make ends meet. The time teachers spend doing their jobs, used to be valued and respected. Now, teachers take piles of work home as their work day becomes overloaded, and their time to work at school is increasingly shortened. School districts need to work harder to provide time, money, and training for their teachers. Teachers are a worthy investment for schools to make. It isn’t enough to make it easier to fire teachers and consistently place new teachers in classrooms with the hope that they will do better. If school reform leaders continue to put off investing in their teachers, then the same problems will reemerge year after year. It’s time to stop blaming teachers for failing schools, and instead, give them what they need to be successful. After all, the point isn’t to make more teachers leave but to get the good ones to stay.
Vivian Maguire is an English Teacher and a parent in El Paso, TX. Follow her on Twitter @Maguireteacher. Like her Facebook page on Storymother.
