Clay Burell's Library tagged teacher_retention →  View Popular

• The US has made progress in this area. In the early 1990s, about half of new teachers participated in support programs.
A decade later, that had grown to two-thirds, and 7 out of 10 had a mentor.

Teaching versus planning time

•In most European and Asian countries, about half of a teacher's workweek, 15 to 20 hours, is spent outside the classroom
– preparing lessons, meeting with students and parents, and working with colleagues. In South Korea, teachers spend up to
65 percent of their working time outside the classroom. In Japan, teachers study one another's best lessons in groups and
analyze the strengths and weaknesses.

•American teachers are typically given three to five hours a week for planning.

Literature Review: Research shows that close to thirty percent of new teachers leave teaching within three years and nearly fifty percent quit before five years; most shocking is that fifteen percent leave the profession in the first year (Ingersoll, 2002; Ingersoll & Smith, 2003). Linda Darling-Hammond (2003), citing a Texas study showing that teacher turnover costs the state around $329 million a year, reiterated, “early attrition bears enormous costs” (p. 8).
Literature over the last twenty years (see, for example, Harrell, Leavell,
vanTassel, & McKee, 2004; McCann, Johannessen, & Ricca, 2005; Valli, 1992; Veenman, 1984) consistently show that areas such as planning, handling paperwork, teaching diverse students, and managing classroom discipline affect beginning teachers’ feelings of efficacy and their desire to remain in the profession (Walsdorf & Lynn, 2002). Harrell et al. (2004), through a five-year study of teacher attrition, found that the top four reasons for leaving the profession were salary, discipline problems with students, leaving to raise a family, and problems with parents. Factors that would influence “leavers’” decision to come back included increased salary, administrative support, and better

Not all single salary schedules are the same. Some are much better than others in reflecting what research tells us about how teachers gain effectiveness over the life of a career. Research shows that teachers have steep learning curves—they become much more effective in their first few years on the job and then level off.¹ And a great deal of research shows the link between teacher effectiveness and educational credentials to be minor or nonexistent.² A district designing their salary structure based on these findings can more effectively attract and reward high-quality teachers without increasing the overall amount of money spent on compensation.

Some districts, like Omaha, have one salary structure for all teachers that ties annual pay to experience and provides a standard bonus for academic credentials. Others, like Santa Ana, have completely different schedules for teachers with bachelor's and master's degrees. Of the districts in the sample, Santa Ana pays the highest starting salary for teachers with bachelor's degrees. But a teacher with only a bachelor's degree is capped at that level for the life of her career. Teachers with master's degrees in Santa Ana, on the other hand, are paid well at both the beginning and end of their careers. Their salary starts high at $50,159 (second highest of all the districts) and increases rapidly before peaking at almost $95,000 a year, the highest of all the districts.

Make college loans reliable, stable and efficient, thus eliminating uncertainty families have experienced due to the turmoil of the financial markets. All new student and parent loans would be provided directly from the federal government through the same electronic system that colleges use for Pell Grants. Taxpayers would save more than $4 billion a year in reduced entitlement subsidies, and those funds could be reinvested in more aid to students seeking a higher education. Private sector companies would continue to perform loan collection and related services through performance-based contracts with the Department of Education.