AdvanceBlog

Some years ago I read an educational article that stated a significant percentage of new teachers will have left the profession in five years.

Only five years?

I compose this blog with a unique sense of irony because as fate would have it, I was out of the classroom after five years.  Although I moved into school administration, I am evidence that the five-year premise has validity.

The five-year premise has to be taken within the context of the times.  Context shapers include:

• Unlike my parents’ generation, who valued getting a good job and staying with it until retirement, it has been predicted that members of my generation will switch jobs/ careers several times during our working years.
• The predicted “teacher shortage” of the new millennium did not occur as drastically as anticipated.  Perhaps, the economy is so dire, not many can actually afford to retire.  Or many of those who were to retire are so invested in their commitment, that retirement is not something for which they are counting down the days.
• There are less “neighborhood teachers” in this generation.  Teachers, who knew the parents, attended the local church and coached the little league teams.  Newer teachers may live outside of the community, which in itself is not a bad thing, but does present complications for the bond forging that happens when teachers live and work in the community that they serve.

Those are just a few very general context shapers, now I will share a few personal ones:

• During my first year of teaching, our local union and administration approved a new contract that provided great compensation (as it should have) for veteran staff and pennies for new staff.  When I compared my earnings with my college peers, the “good feelings” only carried me so far as I was still leaning on my parents to assist in areas where my earnings were too short.
• My third year was my best.  Personally, professionally, and spiritually, it was indeed a time when all variables were working in beautiful harmony.
• The pervasiveness of professional development expectations loomed large.  In order to move from a provisional license to a professional license, I had to attend a designated number of professional development hours or complete 18 credit hours in a graduate program.  At the moment, I figured why take 18 hours of things I already knew (I had earned my master’s before teaching); why not use the opportunity to learn something new?  That something new was administration.  Which could lead to more pay and the opportunity to continue working in schools.  Once I made that choice, the perfect variables from my third year of teaching changed.  They transformed into: do I want to be doing the same thing at age 28 that I was doing at age 23?  How many more years in this contract before I see a significant pay bump?  I have more gifts to share, so I was beginning to feel “contained” in the traditional classroom.  Along with those thoughts, came the psychological break from working to be an extraordinary teacher to I can exercise the skills I already developed while working on new talents.

I share those thoughts with you not in the spirit of whether they were good or bad, right or wrong; but instead to show how even a committed educator gradually choose to leave the classroom after five years.

So is all lost?  I answer with a resounding NO!!  Yet in addition to that answer I must add, some of the variables I experienced as a novice teacher expedited my transition away from the classroom.  The cold shoulders from a number of my colleagues and the shrinking numbers of new teacher peers made me feel as if I were on an island, left with the singular choice of doing what was best for me.  I no longer felt a part of the family, a part of the district, and a part of something larger than myself.  In hindsight, the mentorship provided by then-MEA President Julius Maddox was essential in maintaining the fire to teach during my third through fifth years.  After Julius was no longer president, it seemed as if the “professional growth” aspect of teaching had died and I became overwhelmingly discouraged with thoughts of doing the same thing for the rest of my life.

So for administrators, mentor teachers and others, it is complicated to change the tenor of the times.  Some of your new teachers will find new careers.  But it doesn’t have to be all of them.  While I do not prescribe to having the cure-all remedy, I do strongly advocate creating a sense of belonging, a sense of purpose and a sense that one’s effort contributes to something larger than themselves.  If your team can create that climate mixed in with appreciation and support, then chances are greater that your best new teachers will belong to the family for longer than five years.