COMBATTING TEACHER & PRINCIPAL
TURNOVER IN OUR SCHOOLS
The first week of this month the Committee of the Whole held a public oversight hearing to receive testimony about teacher and school leader turnover and retention, both in the District of Columbia Public Schools and the District of Columbia public charter schools. Teachers are the foundation of a quality education, and they are vital to the success of our students and our schools.
For any service, and the provision of public education is a service, stability is important. This includes workforce stability. If we step back and reflect for a moment, a business with workforce turnover exceeding, say, 10% a year doesn’t look good. But in our public schools, we see that within-school retention is about 70%. We have to ask why – and continually ask it.
Turnover is highest with teachers rated below effective. That would seem to be a good thing. But is it? Are we hiring too many ineffective teachers? More likely, should we be doing more to help new hires become effective? There are strategies to do this, such as mentoring programs for new teachers. While increasing the number of effective teachers is obviously good for student learning, it also helps reduce turnover because effective teachers are more satisfied in their work and therefore less likely to leave. In fact, are we doing enough to support teachers in other ways, especially in student populations with high levels of social-emotional needs? Reducing burnout also reduces turnover.
One of the hearing’s witnesses testified that “The main drivers of teacher attrition are lack of principal support, unsafe working conditions, lack of professional opportunities, and insufficient compensation.” This was given as a general statement, not specific to DC.
But this suggests – and the research proves – that principal turnover is an important factor in teacher turnover. A chart I have from DCPS states that on average, DCPS principals have a tenure of approximately 5 years at their school. But I looked more closely at the data it is not good. The modal average of principal tenure is 2 years. Only 10 schools, out of 113, have principals 10 or more years at their current school. When I remove these 10 outliers, I calculate the mean average as 4 years. Using actual numbers, not averages, 13 schools have new principals this year. Another 36 schools have principals who have completed only 1 or 2 years at their school. 43% of our DCPS schools have principals who completed less than 4 years at their school.
The principals’ union testified that it takes an average of five years for a principal to implement a vision for a school through policies and practices that improve instructional quality and produce meaningful gains. In other words, the constant turnover is hurting public education.
The real purpose of the December hearing was to force public discussion about turnover – a critical aspect of quality education. The Council and the public need to better understand the challenge, and through testimony and questioning seek guidance on how we can reduce turnover and increase stability in our schools.
