Teacher Retention

Teacher Retention One of the greatest problems that education faces today, is that of teacher retention. Schools all across the country, as well as many other countries are facing a shortage of teachers. Nearly a half a million teachers leave the profession each year. Many classrooms are being run by substitute teachers because there aren’t enough teachers to fill those classrooms. There is no greater a commodity in education, as having a quality teacher to teach and deliver, a quality education to the children. The teacher retention problem is very real and becoming a crisis, with fewer and fewer people going into the field of education.

Why are so many quality teachers abandoning education for other jobs? Why do so many teachers

Administrators seem only to be concerned with the numbers and less concerned with the stress they place upon their teachers about these tests. In a study done by Labat, Labat, Lee, and Thibodeaux, 2015, a survey was given to 212 K-12 teachers, in five districts, of the same southern state. The survey was done through surveymonkey.com and focused on how much principal leadership behaviors and the demands of high stakes testing had an impact on teachers’ intent to remain in the teaching profession. Teachers indicated from this study that administrators put more pressure on the teachers who teach the grades of the state measured subject area. “Principal leadership plays a critical role in the retention of teachers, and it suggests that administrators should be aware of how their leadership style and behaviors impact the teachers they lead” (Labat, Labat, Lee, and Thibodeaux, 2015, pg. 246). Half of the teachers said that they would remain in the teaching profession for at least another year. However, most of the teachers agreed that high stakes test are leading to teacher burnout and most want to leave the grades with the state measured subject areas. The accountability is just too great and not being supported by their leader’s makes this is a reason to