That is especially true when the situation has been explained by Superintendent C. J. Huff and others with these three scenarios:
-The teachers were suffering from the traumatic effects of the tornado
-Their spouses landed jobs in other towns.
-And the most recent one, which was posed by an anonymous commenter on this blog- The teachers left because they are afraid of technology.
Anyone who is close to the situation knows you can count on the fingers of one hand the number of teachers who left because their spouses were hired for out-of-town jobs.
I still have not heard the name of one teacher who left because of the tornado. On the contrary, I know many who resolved to stay because they wanted to help the students get through the recovery process.
As for the technology nonsense, teachers have always adapted to the technology, even when the addition of such technology and the requirements for implementing it do not make any sense.
You are always going to have some turnover in education. It is a stressful job and there are people who realize they are not equipped to handle the stress or who find that their interests lie in other directions.
With that being said, the biggest problem with high teacher turnover is the effect it has on the students.
When that many teachers are leaving, whether it be by choice or coercion, with them goes experience that cannot be replaced. There will always be teachers retiring and beginning teachers being added to schools. It is when veteran teachers who are nowhere near retirement age are leaving that you have a serious problem.
The Joplin R-8 School District has a serious problem.
The district is running through principals at an unheard-of pace and when you have lost more than 100 teachers in each of the past two years, you are talking about a crisis situation.
Where there has not been high turnover in the past few years are two areas- the top two administrators in the district, which has remained the same for six years until Angie Besendorfer's resignation takes effect next month, and the board of education.
If Ashley Micklethwaite had not taken a job out of town, we would have the same board members during that entire time. It is almost unheard of for a board of education to stay together for that long.
One way that has been accomplished is through public relations machinery that has convinced the public there are no problems in the school district. It looks as if that public relations machinery has had a breakdown. For the first time, other than two previous candidacies by David Guilford, who was close enough to the situation to know the problems that exist, there are challenges to the incumbents, including former Irving Elementary Principal Debbie Fort, Jeff Koch, and Guilford.
One major issue will be the spending spree that has put the district on the brink of financial chaos.
The biggest issue, however, is the incredible amount of turnover in the district. When McKinley Elementary has only a couple of teachers remaining from the 2012-2013 school year and the principal is rewarded with a job in upper-level administration, you have a serious problem.
When that principal is replaced, in a school that now has an entirely new faculty, including many young teachers, with a leader who not only is taking her first principal's position, but who is not qualified for that position, you have a serious problem.
When you have a board of education that has rubber-stamped the bloodbath that the Joplin R-8 School District has seen the past couple of years (always by 7-0 votes), you have a crisis.
And the ones who are paying the most for that crisis are the children.
***
WWNO, the public radio station in New Orleans, has a revealing report on the effects of high teacher turnover, which includes this passage:
The changeovers impact students and families in that there is less continuity. There's less of a chance for teachers and administrative staff to get to know students and their families well, and so families may not have someone at the school they know they can talk to if there's a problem. Instead they're dealing with new people all the time.
4 comments:
Turner are you saying this rapid implementation of a technology-based teaching method HASN'T caused some teachers to leave this district? Are you suggesting it has no effect on the teachers and that it has been a smooth transition for them - specifically the more "mature" teachers? If you don't acknowledge that what I am saying is in fact one of the reasons for the high turnover rate you are either a liar or clueless. Please I am begging you to respond to my question.
First, you call me a liar or clueless, then you beg me to answer your question. That is what I would call pitiful. I stand by what I wrote. Technology is not the problem. Teachers have had to deal with changes in technology dating back to the first blackboard and you haven't seen them running away from their jobs in droves any time technology has changed. The problem is when you have administrators send the message that teachers should stand back and not teach and allow students to miraculously learn on their own because they have laptops and IPads. Technology was not caused anyone to leave the district; poor administration has.
9:43, you are a jackass. Many "mature" teachers have caught on to the technology just fine. That is not the problem, as much as you would like to find such a simple solution to the mystery. Teachers have and are leaving because of the threatening atmosphere that prevails. And please, don't come back with the old "everyone has a boss" retort. Teachers are used to working for bosses. But this one is intolerable. So they leave and go where the atmosphere is more tolerable. Read the data from DESE about Joplin before you jump to conclusions next time.
I do know of 1 teacher who left because of the tornado. This person was highly traumatized and did not feel safe here anymore. The rest left for other reasons. It's hard to know why since the board doesn't publish that in the minutes anymore. And if someone says that's because it's a personnel issue, they're wrong. That stopped when they discovered people could keep track of what was going on that way. No one knows when someone else is being pushed out if it isn't published. And yes, the atmosphere IS that oppressive.
Long time, dedicated teachers whose children and other family members went through Joplin schools and who even went through themselves have left and are leaving as soon as they can.
Technology isn't the problem. Teachers will teach and lead with whatever tools are available and/or mandated. Right now, teachers are told to read scripts from teachers' manuals at the elementary level and to let kids google in secondary levels. Evaluations require LARGE amounts of technology to be used. That's fine if it's what is needed but it's not when you have to focus more on the technology piece than you do the actual curriculum.
This is irritating, sad and ridiculous. They've ruined the district.
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