Top 5 Reasons Many Teachers Quit - NCLB?
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TOP 5 REASONS MANY TEACHERS QUIT
Many teachers quit because teaching is difficult and, to compound this circumstance, many school and school district administrations practice micromanagement and a lack of support that drives teachers away. The U.S. Department of Education; National Center for Education Statistics Teacher Follow-up Survey shows these major self-reported reasons among 7,000 teachers and former teachers for why they quit or are likely to soon quit.
The persons interviewed report (1) a constant battle with the administration, including submitting weekly lesson plans for examination and approval. This holds up their work and the students' progress. Teachers often feel that they are being directed to "teach to the test" with only memorization of facts instead of active learning. The bureaucracy has resulted in slow-downs in classroom progress because of numerous re-writes of lessons and lesson plans to improve standardized test scores only, and too many last-minute changes by the administrations.
According to this recent report on teacher attrition by the National Center for Education Statistics, in teachers who quit and took non-education jobs, 64% did so to have more autonomy at work, without micromanagement. The survey among 7,000 current and former teachers, also listed (2) unreasonable, much-too-heavy workloads and (3) poor general working conditions as primary reasons for leaving.
(4) Too much responsibility for accountability scores on No Child Left Behind and other standardized testing and accountability initiatives was listed as another major reason to quit. As the US states increased education reforms via NCLB and local accountability initiatives, they also loaded increasing and unreasonable accountability standards onto the teachers, without permitting them the necessary training, vital ongoing professional development, or mandatory supplies they needed in order to accomplish the job. These teachers often were given too many students per classroom as well. This sometimes resulted in too many students in a room that were memorizing facts, but not being able to retain them in order to score high enough on NCLB-mandated tests. These students also did not know how to use or apply the facts they memorized. Critical thinking as a learned skill was bypassed. In addition, many parents in urban school districts (which generally scored the lowest on NCLB-mandated testing) were unable to help their children with educational needs. This dumped more responsibility onto the already-broken teacher's backs.
(5)Teaching was no longer rewarding, emotionally or fiscally, since raises in pay were denied when students' scores were not raised high enough. Some teachers were fired for this and others quit. All this created problems regarding unfair terminations with the teachers' labor unions and growing bad blood between teachers and their unions with administrations.
One -fifth, or 20%, of public school teachers that had no previous full-time teaching experience quit in the school year 2004-2005. Overall, 65% of former public school teachers report that they are better able to balance work and personal/family life since they quit teaching. Before quitting, nearly all their time was spent on such things as rewriting lesson plans, purchasing their own supplies, and working unpaid overtime hours without additional needed training.
Links for Teachers and Friends
- Teacher Support Network - USA and UK
- College and University Support Newtwork for Teachers
- Teacher Appreciation Day
- Teacher $ Bonuses
Teachers in UK can receive up to 5,000 pounds sterling as a starting bonus.
Teachers Quit in the News
- Barrack Hebrew Academy teachers approve contractThe Philadelphia Inquirer19 hours ago
Teachers at the Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy in Bryn Mawr voted unanimously today to ratify a new five-year collective bargaining agreement.
- Teachers at Barrack Hebrew Academy Ratify New ContractKYW News Radio 106010 hours ago
It looks like it's back to school on Tuesday for several hundred students at the Barrack Hebrew Academy, on the Main Line, after a weeklong teachers' strike ended with approval of a new contract.
- Mistake Costs Teachers in Grad SchoolFOX 5 Atlanta13 hours ago
Dozens of Georgia teachers in graduate school thought they had received money from the Hope Teacher Scholarship Loan Program. But now the commission that facilitates the money admits it made a mistake.
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (Public Law 107-110), most often referred to as NCLB, is a United States federal law that was passed in the House of Representatives on May 23, 2001. It was signed into law on January 8, 2002 and reauthorized a number of federal programs that aimed to improve the performance of U.S. primary and secondary students and schools by increasing the standards of accountability (higher standardized test scores) for states, school districts and schools, as well as providing parents more flexibility in choosing which specific schools their children will attend. Additionally, it promoted an increased focus on reading and mathematics and re-authorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA).
No Child Left Behind in the News
- Keokuk students aren’t meeting No Child Left Behind reading goalsKeokuk Daily Gate City4 days ago
Reading scores are not meeting No Child Left Behind goals, Superintendent Dr. Lora Wolff told Keokuk School Board members at the Nov. 9 meeting. Board members reviewed reading scores in the August 2009 annual Report to the Community.
- Plea deal halts an Emerald Isle exileDaily Local News13 hours ago
WEST CHESTER — By design more than luck, an Irish national accused of forgery and thefts evaded a sentence that could have deported him to his native countrywith his wife and newborn child left behind.
- Deal helps accused forger remain in U.S.The Mercury15 hours ago
WEST CHESTER — By design more than luck, an Irish national accused of forgery and thefts evaded a sentence that could have deported him to his native country with his wife and newborn child left behind.
Resources
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Comments
Twice in the last 20 years I have seen movments away from neat-regimented-rows to participatorty education and different structures. Administrations forget that the Latin word for "to teach" means TO BRING OUT OF, not "to put into."
Try teaching in a charter school. Simetimes that's better, sometimes worse. Or might you become a tutor that works with several kids at once after school. I believe there is still federal funding towards agencies that facilitate that under No Child Left Behind and the SES - Supplemental Educational Services. But the NCLB did not receive renewal yet, I also beleive. I must read about this.
It reminds me fo the 1950s and 1960s all over again - Music and art CREATE a brain that can learn math and science - especailly when combined with language development, but some admins want to skip it because "it is worthless touchy feely crap." Then it gets eliminated.
Who's in charge here?!?
Patty,
In response to "who's in charge here!?": Not the people who should be in charge, for SURE!
Kids hold veto power over the whole thing and they are the ones who have been entirely DISEMPOWERED from public education.
(I have a whole flippin' lot to write on this---My experiences and observations in education have changed me from a person who was sort of amused by the system into a highly critical one who is passionately contemptuous of it, so I hope you'll read my future hubs.)
I am leaning toward private tutoring and hope to eventually open my own school. I am still reeling from my last teaching position, which was at a Charter school. For some reason the majority of charters that have opened in my area of the world are of the "back to basics" mentality.
NCLB is disgusting to me. It seemed sort of noble at first glance---Who doesn't agree that kids should have a quality education, after all? But when the idea is fully understood, one recognizes that it devalues every single individual it is meant to serve. It basically says, "Forget that you are a unique person with talents that you will surely use to add value to the world. What we value is how you measure up as what we've chosen as Normal."
Write on! I will read.
Seems NCLB tranlasted in many cities as more memorization and less hands-on learning.
Accountability in the schools has always been a difficult issue. We who teach often understand that what makes an education valuable and vital is all too often impossible to quantitatively measure. Our clients (parents, children), on the other hand, want some measure of how their children are performing and how their schools measure up to other schools.
Accountability will not go away. My alternative was to develop effective systems that would enable students to achieve high scores on standardized tests, tie these skills into life-long needs (most of us have to take standardized tests to advance in our careers), and supplement this learning with other whole-child based learning goals.
Sounds like to you have a comprehensive plan that satisfies all sides. I'd like to hear more about your methods - project based hands on learning?
A problem with falsified testing results plagued our school district two years ago, but that seems to have been remedied. Four years prior to that, a set of official state GED history section exams were stolen and GED testing overall was shut down for 6 months while a new exam was written.
The first reason seems to be very common.The teachers in my kid's school quit becuase they had problems with the principal.Though they were helpful to the parents many had to leave even after being in the school for about 15 to 18 years.The result - my child's performance in school went down with all newly appointed teachers.They had no experience.
When the higher authorities realized this she was transferred to another branch.I changed my son's school too.
Great analysis again Patty.Thanks.
Thanks for sharing your story too, Abhinaya. Teachers are most important, second to parents, in their influence and ability to shape healthy, educated youth. Good teachers must be recognized and lifted up!
Patty,
Our paths cross again. First with China and now with education. In addition to being the professional development coordinator of a large urban school district, I am also the District In Need Improvement Coordinator. DINI is the designation a school or district gets when they don't make AYP or Adequate Yearly Progress. I think I'll do a hub on what NCLB really is.
Now, don't mistake what I am about to say as support for NCLB. However, as a lover of education and a lover of my job, I have to jump on board. All of us at our district office hate it, but it isn't productive for us to sit around and complain about it, so we make the best of it.
So, we know all the bad things about NCLB. Here are the good. Teachers, (including me) are used to working in isolation. This is how it has been for years. We even despise and detest others being in our classrooms when we teach. What NCLB has done is forced schools to realize that student acheivement goes way up when teachers work together in Professional Learning Communities. What does a PLC do? This group of teachers look at student data and try to identify why students are not achieving proficiency. It's mind blowing the kinds of things we are discovering. For example, we have noticed a misalignment between curriculum and assessment. How did we miss this before???? It obvious to me now that in our district, if no teacher were any better at teaching and no student was any smarter, we could still see a huge gain in student achievement if we only aligned curriculum with assessment. And this is just one example. I could go on and on.
Great hub!!!!!!!!!
vrecc, we must be related!!
"...we have noticed a misalignment between curriculum and assessment. " PLC is truly an answer, isn't it? When I first taught GED I found that the standardized testing was done and teachers were then giving the students "just anything" -- even the ONE teacher that was board certfied. There was no curriculum at all at students received matierals for sections of the GED they had already mastered. The other teachers were suddenly laid off and I found myself alone. I recurited volunteer education students form the university. Long story short, we were able to remedy the deficit with Indidivualized Study Presrcriptions and some group and indidivual classes and tutoring sessions. We doubled and tripled the number of GED certificates achieved each smester, with fewer staff.
I would really like your Hub on NCLB. Amazing things we find, are they not?
Excellent hub, Patty, and the discussion adds a lot. I'm not in the education field, but I've alway believed that educators should help students find their way to a good education, not push them toward some administrative goal. Too often, I believe, administrators are more interested in building an empire for themselves, rather than doing what is best for students. NCLB is a political, financial and educational disaster.
Very good points. Teachers are very conscientious people and they want to do a good job, but it is just impossible. Teachers, like cops, are authority figures with no real power or influence in the social structure. They are not paid enough to be considered "important." Airhead blondes and 300 pound athletes are important. Their opinions count.
In the cities many factors contribute to student failure. One of these factors is transiency. Each school uses different books and follows a different style. When kids move, they have to start all over again. In cities that offer a variety of year-round school schedules. some children from very transient families can miss several consecutive tracks. There are other things, also.
My husband and I know a lot of former and retired teachers--all 60 and younger. My husband retired the day after his 55th birthday--the earliest possible date.
As for NCLB--let it be left behind with one of the worst administrations in American history.
It seems to me that NCLB did the conservative thing that has been done since WWII and cut out music and arts every time there is a need to cut back. Music and arts prepare the brain for math and reading, but the cutback kings don't care. Rote memorization is not learning, but the people in charge say to let the next generation take care of the problem. When is it going to end, I wonder?
My own 1st grade teacher quit as soon as she could, She said it was no longer fun adn no one learned anything anymore. All my own frineds that were teachers quit in their 30s. I think only one of them still teaches and he enjoys it.
Thanks for the comments, bluerabbit.
Once upon a time teaching was considered to be a noble proffession and most ladies preferred it .Ladies are supposed to be the embodiment of patience .But today they are forced to quit.the above reasons given are very true .Even during holidays they are called .The primary teachers work with the children who do not know even how to handle a pencil properly,cry for the parents,and like so many can be listed.They are paid much lessand not respected .Imagine a building without a proper foundation. If the people who give in the foundation are not taken care the good efficient teachers would definitely quit
secondly corporal punishment all teachers do not do it .when you talk so much about this why don't you think about why he was given (though he could have been spared of itgoes the saying "spare the rod and spoil the child" teacher would have given the child enough excuses and finally sort to punishment to correct the child .Today the child says beat me still i'll not do my work but i'll take you to the court for punishing .Where are the morals gone?
lot of clerical work burdened on the teacher along with the lesson plans and repeatition of the same is activity book to be written .people sitting on the highest chairs forget that they were also sailing in the same boat.and once one gets the they forget the past.
i only pray god that these chairs should be occupied by teachers who have taught in the classes and know the class room situations and problems instead of offering the chairs to ministers /ias/ips officers who are playing with the lives of millions of children
GURU BRAHMA GURU VISHNU GURU DEVO MAHESHWARA
GURU SAKHSHATHPARABRAHMA THASMY SRI GURUVE NAMAHA
I found this blog to the helpful. It makes me realize, why I left public education. I am in private education now. It's an alternative school. I think there is a little more hope in this situation. Only time will tell. I am starting to feel like I am to much of an advocate for people to want to be around me in a school. I will fight what's right for the child first..even if they don't know what they need.
I teach high school English and have been for five years. I am seriously considering leaving the profession for all of the reasons listed in the article. It is amazing to me how incredibly thankless this job is and how no one is thinking about these kids.
I have been teaching for a few (7)years now, and I find a major contribution to teacher retentions is how well a person can fit into the environment that they have been hired into.
It is very difficult to be teacher in a public school in today's society. Teachers have the added pressure of NCLB, but also making lesson plans for all the different courses they teach, grading all the papers, trying to build community with co-teachers, and dealing with parent's complaints. Another major concern is discipline in the classroom. For new teachers, entering into a classroom for the first time, will be an experience you cannot prepare for. For anyone who feels teaching is a "Cushy" job, I challenge you to try it for a year, if you can last, go to an urban school and have 30-35 kids in a classroom and TEACH. You have to deal with every child's emotions and behavior. Then when the day is over, deal with their complaining parents and their excuses for their children. What happened to the society where parents backed what the teacher was doing because then we were considered professionals and not babysitters. Kids, if they acted up in school, were disciplined in school and at HOME, and resulted in a cease in the bahavior.
I love to teach and I love to influence the minds of young people and make learning as "fun and creative" as possible. Before you step foot in a classroom you have to ask yourself if you are ready to be a TEACHER, but know that there are many more responsibilities than just teaching.
mcb1964 says:
2 years ago
I earned my teaching credentials 3 1/2 years ago. Teaching was my dream---I love education and I love learning and it's a natural fit for me to be in a classroom.
I've been unemployed for 7 months, having been fired from my last job where I just didn't fit into the ultra-conservative atmosphere.
I've decided after much soul-serching that the public education system and I are just not a good fit.
What's really sad is that, in every classroom setting I've worked in, I increased test scores, student achievement, and (best of all) ENTHUSIASM for learning. I've had great feedback from students along the way and know I have it in me to be one of those influential-type teachers that most educators really want to be. However, administrators have pretty much pushed me out of it because they think that, since my students aren't sitting in neat rows taking copious notes while they politely listen to me lecture, I don't have the proper classroom management skills they value.
It's been so painful. Thanks for your blog and for letting me vent a little.