Policy Memo:
Solving the Teacher Shortage
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To: The New York City Department of Education
From: Kim Ferguson, Program Officer-New Visions For Public Schools
Date: December 8, 2016
Executive Summary
There is a growing shortage of incoming teachers in New York City while an increased number of teachers leave their New York City classroom. There are many reasons for teachers leaving New York City or leaving education. In order to understand the shortage and decreased new teacher pipeline, we will explore teacher job satisfaction, salary and teacher preparation. Through the challenges related to these three topics, we will explore ways to increase retention and to prevent attrition.
Problem: The Growing Teacher Shortage: Retirement, Attrition, Pipelines
In the first five years of teaching, 50% of all new teachers leave the classroom for another profession. Some leave because of low job satisfaction, some leave to find a career that is a better fit, and some are searching for a more mobile career ladder. Studies show that teachers are most effective after their fourth and fifth year of teaching. Reconciling average turnover with teacher effectiveness surfaces teacher quality challenges. If half of all teachers are gone within their first five years, before they are their most effective, there is a consistent pool of new teachers who are still learning to become exceptional educators. Even more concerning, in high needs schools, which most New York City schools are, 50% of all staff turns over every three years. As a result, student quality of learning suffers. There is also a large price tag for constant turnover. NCTAF estimates that the price tag for teacher turnover is approximately $7.9 billion.
In addition to the growing demand for teachers, there are a significant amount of educators on the verge of retirement. There is also a significant decline in teacher preparation enrollment. In New York state by 2022, there will need to be 5.8% more teachers than are currently in classrooms. There will also be vacancies left by over 1.6 soon-to-be retiring New York teachers. As teachers retire and demand grows, there are less new teachers entering the classroom. In 2014 there were 240,000 less enrollees in teacher preparation programs than in 2009. These statistics alone suggest there will be significant positions to fill in classrooms in the next five years. In the past 11 years, over 32,000 mid career teachers have left the classroom.
There is also the New York City “brain drain”. Many New York City teachesr eventually opt for higher-paying teaching jobs in New York suburbs. Suburban teachers have smaller classes and are burdened with fewer administrative tasks compared to their New York City counterparts.
Aside from retirement, growing teacher needs, and low numbers for incoming teachers, there is also the matter of teacher attrition. It is estimated by the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future (NCTAF) that 40% to 50% of teachers leave within their first five years of teaching. This is bad news for both students and administrators. The price of teacher turnover is high. For students, the cost is the quality of teachers and ultimately their own success. The longer one is in a profession, the more experience and wisdom they will gain. The students in high-needs schools are at the biggest disadvantage and the achievement gap is made wider by the revolving door of new teachers. As a result, the schools that need the most experienced teachers and help in providing quality education to underserved populations, are staffed with novice and unprepared teachers. NCTAF also estimates that the price tag for national teacher turnover is about $7.9 billion.
The stakes are too high. Losing teachers before they become effective is costly on many levels. That, paired with a decreased national interest in the teaching profession, begs the question of why. Why has there been such a drop in teacher preparation enrollment and why are educators leaving the industry?
The “Why” of Teacher Shortages
Teacher Salary
One reason that teachers leave the profession is low salary. While teaching salaries vary from state to state, high school teachers in the United States make about 71% of what other college graduates in different professions make. US teachers also spend more time at work than teachers in any other country. Both factors are severe deterrents for future teachers. According to the Center for American Progress. in 30 states teachers with a family of four or more are eligible for government assistance such as reduced-price school lunches.
In addition to the cost of living, new teachers may also have to contend with debt from both their graduate and undergraduate degree. Many cannot afford to pay off loans and enter a career in education. With such stark data and the impending teacher shortage brought on by less college students interested in a career in primary and secondary education, teachers need to receive incentives to enter and stay in the teaching profession.
Specifically in New York City, the UFT (United Federation of Teachers) the city is losing a great deal of teachers to the New York suburbs. The trend is troubling as teachers follow better pay for better working conditions. In the past 11 years, of the 32, 000 teachers who left New York City’s Department of Education, 4,600 of those teachers can be directly traced to suburban schools. And how much is enough to pay teachers? It certainly seems to be not only about how much teachers get paid but what they are being asked to do for their salary. In school districts such as New Rochelle and Great Neck have approximately 15% less students per classroom. In New Rochelle, the average mid-career teacher makes approximately $10,000 more per year than the average New York City teacher, in Great Neck mid-career teachers make approximately $22,000 more than their DOE counterparts.
Table 1.
Common Core and The Restrictions of Standardized Testing
Because of reform efforts like Common Core and No Child Left Behind, teacher morale has decreased. Teachers no longer feel in control of their classroom and curriculum. Instead, many teachers feel that their profession is being deskilled and also devalued. In a 2012 Metlife Survey, 51% of teachers surveyed reported feeling extremely stressed, a significant increase of 70% reported in 1985.
Along with issues of morale resulting from education reform movements and standardized testing, is the commercialization and politics that affect and interrupt a teacher’s ability to teach and students’ ability to learn.
Teachers are also subjected to value-added measures. This means that teachers financial security and tenure are dependent on the test scores of their students. This seems counter-intuitive to teacher retention in cities like Chicago and New York City where “Value-Added Measures” are implemented. Test scores hold biases against teachers in classrooms where the students may have special needs or external challenges unrelated to the classroom.
Low Job Satisfaction
In Metlife’s annual survey “Survey of the American Teacher: Challenges for School Leadership”, in 2015, there was a 23% decrease in teacher job satisfaction compared to 2008. More disturbing is that teachers of color indicated lower job satisfaction that teachers than white teachers. The number of black and hispanic teachers that entered the classroom in 2008 decreased from 2000. Black teachers entering the classroom are significantly decreasing in large cities like New York City. This poses a problem for student development. A study by Hua-Yu Sebastian Cherng at NYU found that students had a higher opinion of their black and hispanic teachers compared to their caucasian teachers.
“Research by Maslach, Jackson, and Leiter (1996) has highlighted three important reasons to study teacher burnout citing, (a) teaching is an extremely visible profession; (b) teachers are expected to teach beyond academics into moral development to correct social problems; and (c) meeting diverse needs and expectations of students requires numerous human and financial resources,”(Kitchel, 2012).
Teachers need continued support and resources from their school leaders and peers. Teacher burnout leads to individuals leaving the occupation. Teacher burnout and job dissatisfaction also affect recruitment of new teachers. Attrited and disgruntled teachers perpetuate the social perception of teaching as a thankless profession. A survey conducted by University of Phoenix in 2015 indicated that of 1,000 teachers, 32% would not recommend the profession.
Policy Proposals
Pay Teachers a Higher Salary
One solution to attract potential teachers is to pay teachers what they are worth. The lives of America’s youth and improvement of communities and the nation as a whole can be affected by the availability of education. Teachers are as valuable as doctors and lawyers to the betterment of our society and should be paid as such. Offering to pay people what they are worth as teachers will begin to incentivise and help our prospective educators to see teaching as a viable career path.
For example, The Equity Project in Manhattan was part of a long-term study on the outcomes of paying teachers a salary of $125,000 plus bonuses. According to the study, students are showing positive results. Compared to similar schools in the area, test scores are markedly higher amongst students at the Equity Project (Sessum, 2014).
Paying teachers in New York City high needs school the same as their counterparts in the suburbs will reduce the number of high quality educators who leave the city for financial reasons. With the challenges that urban teachers face opposed to their suburban counterparts, offering less than salary will result in a continual urban to suburban school funnel.
To remain competitive, mid-career teacher salary should average at $90,000 per year. This would be a $12,000 increase at a mid-year level. Half of this increase should be paid out to teachers at their six year mark. The rationale for this is that the fifth year of teaching is when most teachers become effective, and this is also around the time when teachers leave the profession.
One of the major concerns of paying teachers more is where would those resources would come from. In 2013, there were approximately 56,000 full-time teachers that had taught for more than five years. To increase the salary of 56,000 teachers by $12,000 would cost the New York City Department of Education $672 million/year. While this number may cause sticker shock it may not be as costly as one may think. A study found that in Chicago, the overall cost of teacher turnover was approximately $18,000 per teacher that leaves the school district. Considering program, training, staff and recruitment efforts in New York City, this number is most likely comparable or even higher. Between 2011 and 2013, about 3,600 teachers with zero to five years of experience left the classroom. This turnover alone cost the DOE $72 million.
Eliminating Common Core and Reassessing Standardized Testing
Common Core testing does not necessarily predict the efficacy of a teacher. The standardized testing should be eliminated, especially in cities like New York which have large populations of students living in poverty. “Standardized tests are best at measuring family income. Well-off students usually score in the top half of results; students from poor homes usually score in the bottom. The quest to “close achievement gaps” is vain indeed when the measure of achievement is a test based on a statistical norm,” (Ravitch, 2016).
Allowing teachers to use their class time to teach curriculum that they have designed and engage with their students will increase teacher morale and job satisfaction. Many teachers and sources cite lack of autonomy as a reason for dissatisfaction.
Student success is an important factor in teacher morale and motivation. In New York City, the New York Performance Consortium has set up 38 schools that have a single standardized test for students to graduate. Instead, student understanding and competency in content areas is determined through different measures such as experiments and presentations. “Of consortium students who were high school freshmen in 2008, 82 percent graduated by 2014, compared with 73 percent citywide,” (Robinson, 2015).
Instead of using standardized testing, school and teacher effectiveness would need to be a multi-faceted approach. Effectiveness would need to be measured by high school graduation rates and teacher created assessments. It would also be necessary to take into consideration student demographic information and external factors. “The Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland survey both students and teachers on social and emotional factors and use the results to guide internal decision-making”(Kamenetz, 2015).
Invest In Training: Teacher Residency Programs
Teaching residencies decrease new teacher attrition by providing support, practice and training before entering a classroom as a full-time teacher. This type of program is beginning to gain recognition throughout the country as a highly effective way to train teachers. Traditional students who receive their master’s before entering the classroom may lack the practical experience. As a result, when they enter the classroom on their own, they may have the theoretical knowledge but lack the hands-on experience to be a successful teacher within their first year of teaching.
Novice teachers entering the classroom through many alternative certification programs have condensed period of training, which lasts between one and three months before their first full-time year. Without the previous knowledge that both the traditional graduates and residency graduates have, many teachers through this pathway will leave within their first three years of teaching. For instance, teachers who enter the classroom through Teach For America (TFA). More than half of TFA teachers leave their initial placement within the first two years of teaching. Only 14% of TFA teachers are still in their initial placement after five years.
Residency programs pair incoming teachers with a mentor for a school year in an apprenticeship. Simultaneously, residents are enrolled in a master’s program. The work residents do in the classroom aligns with their coursework. The goal of teacher residency programs is to blend the practical with theoretical.
Aside from offering the best of both worlds to train teachers, the hands-on experience and accelerated pace of the program are appealing to career-changers who may not consider teaching otherwise. Residencies can help to decrease teacher shortages because it is a high quality option for those who did not consider education as a career during their graduate and/or undergraduate studies.