Spring Break, anyone?

With having worked on that Teacher of the Year application all week into the wee hours of the morning, I just can't seem to turn it off! I felt such a sense of relief when I finally dropped the application off at the Administration building yesterday. Finally, I could do no more. I felt like I had done my best work. Certainly, Raylene, my editor did a great job. (I'm joking.) Raylene's my coworker, but she's really good at editing, so guess who always gets to read over my application essays? Raylene, so I call her my editor. I slept like a baby last night, not waking until 7:30 this morning, which is very late for me, but apparently I was exhausted. I did manage to get up and get over to the Delta Kappa Gamma quilt meeting and had a good morning doing my part to complete the quilt. It was after lunch when I started to chat with Viv and she shared that her daughter was in her first year of teaching and was having a difficult time. It appears that there is no Administrative support available to this new first year teacher, Well... teacher retention is exactly what I wrote about in my TOY application, the portion titled something like "Current Trends and Issues in Education". 

The retention statistics for teachers are simply ridiculous. Approximately 10% of new teachers will quit after the first year. After 3 years, the rate has gone up to 25% of the new teachers leave the profession. By the fifth year of teaching, 50% of new teachers will have quit. 50%! And while some go into a new position elsewhere, still in the teaching field, most leave education entirely. And what, you may wonder, is causing all those teachers to leave? The biggest reason educators leave teaching is because of their principal. It's called Administrative support in the reports and research, but it really means "Principal". The principal is the lynchpin that can make or break a teacher's career. It is shocking how that one person can wield so much power but if you are in teaching, you know exactly what I am talking about. A principal impacts the entire climate of a school and affects the educational goals of every student. A good principal is wonderful to work for. You find yourself at work longer and working harder but because you feel important and know that your contribution counts, you do it. It's almost joyful. But, if you're just a cog in the machine-- or more accurately here in Texas, a low number on test scores, you are meaningless. Every reason that you had when you went into education is trampled into the ground and you feel hopeless. Of course, new teachers leave. There's a mass exodus at 8-9 years of teaching as well. I guess that's when those of us who came in to "fix the system" are too tired to fight the uphill battle anymore. I almost left. Now, it happens that, I am in a great district with a fantastic principal. Things are really moving in our district and I'm excited about our new superintendent, I'm excited about our new initiatives in curriculum, I'm loving the vision our principal has for our school, but I've worked in less than optimal positions as well.

I've been thinking a lot about my first teaching position, I guess that comes with writing your professional biography. My first principal wasn't a bad principal. I've certainly had much worse, but I loved being at that school and I thought I would never leave. Yet, I left because I didn't know how, or if, my principal valued my contributions. Well, that is until the day I left and I was flabbergasted when she told me that she would miss me and all I had done. I remember being so shocked, so caught off guard, because I had absolutely no clue that she thought highly of me at all. I guess I could have realized that since she left me alone, she probably thought I was doing fine, but I took it to mean that I had nothing to offer. I wonder if this new first year teacher is in the same position that I was. She's probably doing a great job but nobody is telling her how much she is valued. Sometimes I really want the Texas Teacher of the Year position so I can stand up and look at all those principals and tell them how important they are. I'd like to challenge them to do the job they were hired to do: boost the academic achievement of their students. The way to do that is create a supportive school climate, to emphasize to their teachers that they are important and back up their teachers with all they've got. Statistics show that having 3 years of ineffective teachers can reduce the academic achievement of students by 54%. But having 3 years of highly effective teachers geometrically increases student achievement beyond that 54%. I'd like to look at the superintendents and school boards and tell them that putting ineffective teachers in administrative jobs is the worse thing that they can do-- and from my end, they do it all the time. If someone isn't working out in the classroom and they had the foresight to get a Master's Degree in Administration, they get a principalship. Knowing how important that position is, we just can't afford to get sloppy and try to sweep our problems under the rug (or into the principal's chair).

A school very close to mine has had more principals in 6 years that I have had in my entire teaching career. The faculty is demoralized, the school is in danger of being low performing and their principalship is a revolving door. Nobody feels good when someone goes down. We do our best to help them but there are some systemic issues over at that school. I hope for their sake, that someday soon, somebody sits down and figures out what they really need, and gives it to them.

I know it's Saturday so it's really not the first day of Spring Break, but it could be the first day of Spring Break if I could turn all this off in my head and not worry about the teaching profession and teacher retention.

The "Bourne Supremacy" is on, I think I'll go watch that. Better yet, it's a new episode of "Naruto" and since I'll see my grandkids on Monday, I'll watch that instead.