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Pedagogy of the Distressed

December 13, 2011

“Where did you go?” The Problem Of Teacher Turnover

by Mark Fusco, at 11:37 am

Nearly every morning after I groggily grope for the kitchen light to grab my pre-packed lunch, I notice the drawings made by my fiancée’s former students still hanging on the fridge. Stick figures grin and hearts frame students’ last messages to a teacher that had positively affected them: “Where did you go?” “When are you coming back? I want to learn more about dinosaurs.” “Ms. D I love you. What happened? Where do you live now?”

My fiancée worked at Harlem Success Academy 3, which lost more than a third of its staff over this summer alone. This figure did not count those who were fired or who left of their own volition during the school year. Ms. D is just one of the many dedicated young educators who were incompatible with the school’s structure and model for teachers and students. One popular defense of high turnover rates is that teacher firings are always done for the good of the students. Yet the refrigerator art in our apartment stands as just one compelling example that hasty dismissals can have a profoundly negative effect on students.

At non-union schools, top-tier administrators can now dispose of any teacher at any time, with or without cause. In my fiancée’s case, just a few months into her first year teaching she was given 10 days to get “98 percent compliance” in all her classes, whatever that means, or be terminated. She had no choice in the matter and was ordered not to tell any of her 150 students that she would not be back the next day. This explains the students’ questions (“What happened?” “When are you coming back?”) included in personal notes written after they realized she was gone.

None of this was a surprise to me. I had seen similar scenarios play out three years earlier, when I worked as an after-school tutor at Promise Academy charter school. A teacher would be working on grades and conferencing with students one day, and then all but disappear the next. No staff member spoke his or her name, acting as if that teacher had never been there. But the students could not forget so easily. I remember kids expressing to me that they felt like the entire year was starting over in March. Not a good time to completely turn the page, but that was the students’ problem.

Though Hyde Leadership Charter School, where I work, retains teachers well, we have had faculty members resign for one reason or another (they were moving or going to graduate school). I have seen how the loss of a trusted adult has set some students back emotionally, if not academically.

It’s hard for any of us when a mentor or a special adult is suddenly taken out of our lives. This feeling of abandonment is only compounded when it happens to students, like many of ours, who have already suffered this kind of loss in their personal lives (Dad leaves, a family member goes to jail, a grandparent dies). Last year I was struck by how many students asked me how long I would be staying at Hyde and if I would be coming back next year. It seemed to me that this was their way of trying to salvage some sense of security and consistency. I believe that students should not have to feel such fear that the adults they trust will stay with them.

The other side of this picture, of course, is those more rare scenarios when the only consistency students can count on is to have consistently bad teachers. So, how do you create a system that allows you to retain dedicated teachers while being able to dismiss that minority who are doing their job poorly? Kay Merseth, a former instructor of mine at Harvard, suggests in “Inside Urban Charter Schools” that there must be leadership opportunities for teachers so that the longer they stay, the higher they climb on the ladder. This idea has been embraced by charter schools and others, including Teach for America founder Wendy Kopp. While it rewards educators’ hard work, we risk creating a revolving-door situation where people teach for several years and then, by the ripe old age of 25 or 26, graduate to bigger and “better” things in education. Merseth mentions a more enticing idea pioneered by Community Day School in Boston, which offers sabbaticals for teachers to pursue studies that would enhance their curriculum and instruction. The model treats teachers like professionals and urges them to improve upon their craft. Yet the model would be too costly for many schools.

One option is to find the funding to offer teachers sabbaticals — something the city has eliminated in this tough budget climate. Another option is to create systems in schools where teachers, especially young teachers, will be helped rather than fired if they experience some struggle. They don’t need to have a “job for life” but they do need the assurance of job security as they figure out just how to do the job. Sadly, these ideas seem radical in the current political climate. If you work in certain charter schools your job is always in jeopardy. Recent reports show that Ms. D was not the only one who felt the overwhelming burden of that fact.

There is no evidence I have seen that this intense pressure improves teacher performance, and there is no evidence I have seen that it improves student performance. What we do know is that this new way of treating these once eager teachers can make them miserable enough to jump ship, depriving students of yet another much-needed lifeline.

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  • Helpschoolsnow

    With all due respect to the author’s hard working, compassionate fiancee, I think the results at HSA3 speak volumes:
     
    http://schools.nyc.gov/OA/SchoolReports/2010-11/Progress_Report_2011_EC_M385.pdf
     
    The author gives away his naivete with this statement in the final paragraph: “There is no evidence I have seen that this intense pressure improves teacher performance, and there is no evidence I have seen that it improves student performance.”  Not exactly a research based statement.

    Please, if you’re going to take the time to write about a problem, choose a school that has failed kids for DECADES, not a success story like HSA3.  As a parent, I would rather have a school turnover too many teachers than hold on to so many that are ineffective.

  • Anonymous

    Any school with such high teacher (and student ) attrition is not a good school. Test scores are not enough.

  • cl_pixie

    There are many reasons for HSA  so-called “good” results–the fact that they get rid of special ed students and do indeed cherry pick–as well as what other charters do all the time (counsel-out students who are not making the grade). 

    But I do have a problem that those in TFA are considered “highly effective” teachers before they walk into the door and are also rewarded with perk jobs because of their affiliation with TFA.  The majority do go on to better things, but not in the field of education.  Some top financial institutions have a deal with TFA to hire those who complete 2-years teaching.

  • Christinak111

    also, a bad teacher is a bad teacher. your fiancee was probably pretty damn inept.

  • Nyhistoryteacher

    You are making a leap of faith in attributing good standardized test
    results to a large number of teachers being fired each year. I have yet to see evidence supporting that conclusion. A much more
    reliable correlation exists between the number of LEP students, students receiving free lunch and special education students that a school enrolls and standardized test results. Would
    HSA3 do as well if they enrolled the same demographics as nearby public
    schools – I doubt it. The “don’t question them because they have numbers that look good” attitude always leads to problems.

    HSA3 demographic information

    59% Free Lunch
    4% Limited English Proficiency

    Closest Public Elementary school on google maps James Weldon Johnson School ps 57 (2 blocks away)

    85% Free Lunch
    20% LEP

  • bee

    Such high teacher turnover, is an indication of a poisonous working environment. Teachers are not expendable commodity. This slash and burn attitude towards teachers and public schools is shortsighted. While I agree with you Mark on the negative effects of teacher attrition, a sabbatical is not a cure for a poisonous working environment, it is merely a postponement of the inevitable. As long as the “leaders” of HSA and its siblings demonstrate such depraved indifference for educators, they will continue to have problems with teacher attrition and the negative impact that comes as a result of it. Like Bloomberg and Tweedies toss NYC public schools that need TLC to the garbage heap, the HSA corporation tosses teachers to the curb. I would never, in a million years, send my child to a school like that!

  • bee

    Who is hiring these ineffective teachers? Perhaps the people who are hiring ineffective teachers, are ineffective.

  • Conspiracy Follower

    A question and a comment: 1) Why does the author choose to currently work in a charter school? 2) I’ll make a big wager that tons of charter school teachers are going to leaving in droves for regular district schools once the economy gets better. When I was hired in the mid 1990′s the city was practically begging for warm bodies to put in front of a chalkboard. The educational reform movement is already being wounded by small groups of upstanding principals, teachers, and parents. One day the reformers will move on to the “next big thing”. (Possibly privatizing sections of the military or even the US prison system)

  • Guest

     As someone who works at HSA1, there is no way that statistic of 4% is correct. Almost half of our students have ELL problems, whether or not they’re listed as such.

  • Ticked-Off Taxpayer

    “Possibly privatizing sections of the military or even the US prison system”

    Already happening!  Blackwater in the military .. privatized prisons in many states…privatized roads …  ongoing unraveling of one of our “social contracts;” in this case, where “civil servants” oversee our public needs.

  • Conspiracy Follower

    That is my point! Folks in the know understand that the educational “reformers” are just in it for the bucks. Once they face too much opposition they will move on to a fresh target. Glad to see that there are folks out there who can see what is going on behind the scenes. There is already a growing rise in the privatization of our military and prison systems via government “contractors” and you can be sure that this trend will continue to grow by leaps and bounds. Once our public educational systems, policing, and armies become “private” they are accountable to nobody other than the corporate goons who hold the cash and hide in glass skyscrapers. By the way, Blackwater (Xe) just changed it’s name for the 3rd time!)

  • Marty

    My school has an even better way than “leadership opportunities” to retain good teachers.  It’s called “tenure”.  It gives the teacher the right to due process in disciplinary actions.  It would have helped give your fiance a fair shake.

    I know I’m being sarcastic, and I’m sorry.  It’s incredibly rare to find reporting about what goes on in charter schools and I appreciate your post.  But I don’t understand why you deliberately ignored the obvious solution.

  • Nyhistoryteacher

    The 4% LEP statistic is from the 2010 NY state accountability and overview report for HSA 3 available here: https://reportcards.nysed.gov/files/2009-10/AOR-2010-310400860922.pdf

    If we are going to believe state reports indicating that students at HSA
    3 students do well on standardized tests (which I do), then we also need to believe
    state reports that indicate HSA 3 only enrolls 4% of students classified as LEP.

    HSA 3 has a strong incentive to classify students as LEP. When those students do well, HSA 3 earns extra points on their NYCDOE progress report. It also helps HSA 3 meet legally mandated LEP enrollment targets that they are currently failing to meet. Furthermore increasing the number of LEP students at the school would help silence critics that say, “HSA is not enrolling students with the same demographics as nearby public schools.” I am not sure why you think HSA 3 would be illegally under reporting the true number of LEP students they enroll when it is in their best interest to over report them.

    Thankfully, in New York State there is an objective measure of English Proficiency it is
    called the LAB-R. Any students who listed a language other than English
    spoken at home on the home survey must take the LAB-R. In HSA 3′s case, only 4% percent of the students fell below the threshold for proficiency on the test.

    HSA 3 may have students with “ELL problems” that are not classified as LEP, but schools with a higher percentage of students classified as LEP are likely to also have a higher percentage of students with “ELL Problems.”

    For a school that prides itself on the use of objective data based on standardized tests, your resistance to the 4% figure is baffling and frustrating.

  • Tim

    “For a school that prides itself on the use of objective data based on standardized tests, your resistance to the 4% figure is baffling and frustrating.” 

    Nyhistoryteacher, I agree with everything you wrote in this post, except for one word in the sentence quoted above: “baffling.”

    There isn’t anything baffling about it: from Eva and official spokesmodel Jenny Sedlis on down the line to rank-and-file teachers, when presented with official demographic data showing that they are not, in fact, educating the ‘same kids,’ HSA’s consistent M.O. is to call the accuracy and veracity of the data into question. Never mind that it’s data that the network itself collects and reports to the state/city, with “voluminous documentation.”

    And forgive me for not being able to resist this snarky aside: “guest,” please read up on dangling modifiers. Admittedly, they’re probably not covered on elementary ELA state tests, but knowing how to avoid them will still do you and your kids some good. 

  • Michael Fiorillo

    Rightfully putting aside the smarmy, condescending PR-speak that ed deformers use when speaking of students and teachers (at least when they’re not attacking teachers), the reality is that in their eyes, both are fungible. 

    Look at the language employed by these people, which comes straight out of MBA indoctrination academies: the value-added model of evaluating teachers explicitly turns students into a “product,” and the “human capital” model of labor relations sees teachers as factors of production.

    It’s no wonder, Mark, that your fiance and her students were abused at HSA; it’s built into the model, and cannot be otherwise.

  • Conspiracy Follower

    The author still has not stated why he chooses to currently work in a charter school. I think the majority of readers would be interested in his reply considering he wrote a critique on his current working status at a charter school.

  • guest

    My class attended Ms. D’s class and I can honestly say that it was not a safe learning environment.  While additional professional development would have assisted her teaching, when a classroom is so out of control that students are getting hurt each day, and jumping on tables, it is to big of a liability as a school to maintain that teacher’s employment.  

  • Adambaum

    No offense to the author or his hard-working fiancee — but just because a 5-year old student said “I love you” doesn’t exactly mean that the teacher in question is a transformative one. Though I also dislike  the high teacher turnover rate at HSA, some teachers in the building simply do not have the classroom management capability to provide an excellent education.  In those cases, where the classroom is dangerous and ineffective, administrators need to take the appropriate action. And in reference to “Tim”… grow up. Avoiding self-professed “snarky comments” would make me take your post more seriously.

  • Nyhistoryteacher

    “where the classroom is dangerous and ineffective, administrators need to take the appropriate action.”

    I’m wondering percentage of the1/3 of the teachers who left HSA 3 had classrooms that were dangerous and ineffective.

    I think the author’s critique was on the type of corrective action being used. Looking at teacher attrition data from HSA, It begs the question, “is termination is synonymous corrective action?”

  • Former HSA3-er

    I worked at HSA3 when Ms. D was a science teacher there.  She received significant professional development and support, both from other teachers as well as school leaders.  Her classroom management was so poor that students were regularly being injured in her room.  It was dangerous.  Despite significant coaching over more than two months, Ms. D did not improve.  A decision was made that, while difficult, was certainly in the best interest of the students who attended her class each day.  Students deserve a safe, productive learning environment, and Ms. D was unable at that time to provide that.

  • Ticked-Off Taxpayer

    “ Some top financial institutions have a deal with TFA to hire those who complete 2-years teaching.”

    Wow, how cozy is that!

  • Ticked-Off Taxpayer

    Yes but … if so many HSA teachers are cycling through the HSA schools so quickly, what does that say about the hiring standards in the first place, professional development in the second, and school culture in the third?  

  • Adambaum

    I agree. I am simply stating that it’s evident that in this PARTICULAR situation, termination was appropriate.

  • Los Flerpos

    Dangling participles are de minimis offenses here, where 95% of all posts exhibit at least one error in grammar or spelling, and a substantial percentage are entirely incoherent. 

  • Pogue

    Thank you for providing an example.

  • Pogue

    Thank you for providing an example.

  • Mark Fusco

    The posts from HSA employees are suspiciously similar. This reads like the HSA echo chamber I have heard about before. The centralized efforts of the HSA faithful are trying to steer us away from the real focus of my article: the systemic problem of alarmingly high teacher turnover that we see in too many schools across the nation. Thankfully, most readers do not share their myopia. I also suggest that if you are going to smear a person’s reputation for sport you should at least have the courage to identify yourself.

  • Anotherguest

    Can’t reply to “guest” below, but “ELL problems” is pretty revealing about HSA1 attitudes.

  • Jeff

    yeah, seriously– “Former HSA3-er” what’s your name? “A decision was made”… blah blah I don’t see why you’re trying to make a personal attack with sketchy generalized information instead of either attacking or defending (or, apparently, even caring about) the argument Mark is making. 

    Ms. D could have been the worst teacher imaginable or the best– it doesn’t affect the point at all. Unless you think that all good teachers are treated fairly and all bad teachers are fired. Whether or not you agree with me and Fusco that teacher turnover is a problem is still a mystery. All we know is that you think very highly of yourself and your right to judge & condemn others… as long as you can do it from behind a pseudonym. On the internet. 

    So, yeah. We deserve a safe, productive learning environment as well. Next time try your best to write something productive or intelligent as opposed to needlessly derogatory, vague, and largely irrelevant to the post. Or at least sack up and write your name on it, so I can know exactly where to never send my kids.

    Like this:

    Jeff Israel 

  • Jeff

    here’s the thing: I agree with Marty a lot about tenure, except that it does protect bad teachers. basically, teachers shouldn’t have some special rules applied to them, they should keep their jobs the same way most people do. By excelling at them. And by excelling, I mean showing their bosses what they want to see. That is the best way to keep your job as a teacher. Depending on the individual circumstance, you might actually get to do some teaching in and around that.

    The more skilled you are at recognizing and hitting the specific buzzers desired at your given school, the more secure & respected & paid you will become. Much like the more skilled students become at recognizing and hitting THEIR specific buzzers, the more social status and earning potential they acquire (along with their grades). 

    The work is done around hitting the buzzers. “Public” schools, “charter” schools, “HSA”– different buzzers, all unable at varying levels to truly devote themselves to this imaginary political entity known as “students,” or, for the more self-righteous, “children.” <– reminds me of the Simpsons every time, "won't somebody PLEASE think of the CHILDREN!"

    Some people just suck at Whack-a-Mole, regardless of how amazing their discourse on Descartes might be if one could hear it over the midi-sequenced failure soundtrack of the family-fun-zone arcade games.

    Some people can Whack-a-Mole like no other, because they've devoted their life to the ticket chain flowing out of the machine that sustains them (like an umbilical cord) and have lost focus on everything except keeping the chain moving. 

    To be a great teacher AND keep your job, I guess you've got to be a mediocre Whack-a-Mole player with a high tolerance for annoying noises, children, and parents. TFA should start fishing Chuck E. Cheese employee directories. 

  • Just the Facts

    “Tenure protects bad teachers”. Ok, so I guess that means that due process protects bad citizens as well. And as for your comment that teaching is all about “hitting buzzers”: it seems that you might not actually be a teacher. No teacher that I have ever worked with is adept at “recognizing and hitting the specific buzzers desired at a school”. However, I can name a thousand or so outstanding teachers that can teach extremely well in an overcrowded inner-city classroom with little to no support from the educational deform movement. All they want is the peace of mind that tenure provides from arbitrary harassment and dismissals.

  • http://twitter.com/BNiche B

    This is the first time I have ever seen anyone equate teaching to “Whack-a-Mole”. Strange, but kudos for the unusual analogy.

    Here’s my main question though: how do you know who’s a great teacher and who’s not? How do you equate that? What does it mean for me as a teacher to “excel” at my job according to you? Do you equate that by teachers primarily touching “test-score” buzzers?

    Lastly, why should you throw out an entire system that was designed to protect good teachers (due process in disciplinary actions) because some inadequate teachers are also protected? If that’s so, I can name of many systems that should be “thrown out” because, shockingly, they protect both good, responsible citizens and bad apples along the way. Should all those systems in place be thrown out?

  • Falasha

     If you actually knew anything about Teach for America and the organization’s alums, you would know that that’s a complete fabrication.

  • Imapeteacher

    Los Flerpos
    It isn’t about the spelling and the grammar. Its about the issues but I forgot you could care less about the issues its all about showing everyone how smart you are. You think because you graduated Law School you are smarter then everyone else. Your comments on the site are insensitive and hide your hidden agenda. You and your kind are all over the place trying to destroy teaching as a profession. 
    You are just jumping on the bandwagon because your not smart enough to have your own idea’s. 
    It will soon be your turn to defend your profession because what goes around comes around.

  • Los Flerpos

    “here’s the thing: I agree with Marty a lot about tenure, except that it does protect bad teachers.”

    That’s the nature of tenure.  So I don’t see how you agree at all with Marty about tenure.

  • Los Flerpos

    I’m Ape Teacher:  

    I don’t think I’m “smarter than everyone else.”  I think I’m smarter than you.  And I don’t think I’m smarter than you because I “graduated [l]aw [s]chool.”  I think I’m smarter than you because you are one of the least intelligent people I have ever encountered.  Finally, it’s not fair to blame me for thinking this.   People have an instinctive need to believe they’re not the stupidest person on earth, which is what I’d be if I weren’t smarter than you.

  • Dan

    Mark,

    I don’t think anyone is trying to “smear” Ms. D’s reputation. As an HSA teacher,  I am adamantly against the teacher turnover rate, particularly that of HSA3 (many other employees share this sentiment, if you actually knew anything about them).  I take no part in your so called “HSA echo chamber”.  I feel confident in saying that while your fiancee is probably a very nice person, her classroom was truly a disaster. She had absolutely no control over her kids, and was not inputting the effort that was needed to facilitate academic success.  As my colleagues and I cleaned out her classroom when she was terminated, we found piles of assessments that she was supposed to give, but never did.  We found materials for lessons that were clearly never taught, we found boxes of magic school bus that she showed her kids instead of teaching. On top of it all, we found copious amounts of Oreos that we found out later were used to bribe her students for good behavior.  

    No one is trying to smear Ms. D. Rather, while I agree with many of the statements in your article and the detrimental affect teacher turnover has on students, I am merely saying that in the case of your fiancee, termination was the only possible option.  She was unable to complete her job at a high level and HSA (even despite its many flaws) does not tolerate that.

  • KatieBklynTeacher

    I think this would be a great topic for Gotham Schools to cover in the future.  As far as I know, it’s been almost impossible for non-TFA or NYCTF affiliated new teachers to get DOE jobs.  Do a lot of charter school teachers really want to teach in public schools, but the jobs just aren’t there?  Feel like this is part of the ed deform strategy to bleed the DOE…

  • KatieBklynTeacher

    Look, I don’t know anything about this particular teacher or even too much about HSA (I actually found this post trying to find out as much as I can about the school…), but this hits me the wrong way and seems to confirm some of the negative chatter I’ve heard about the culture of the place.

    ….as a teacher in NYC, certainly I’ve not respected and disliked colleagues current & former but I wouldn’t get online and post specifics about why I didn’t, ESPECIALLY to an article they did not write (if this had been an article about Ms. D and her experience at HSA, it would be more appropriate).  This is why it looks like smearing for sport, Dan.  And it’s not very classy.  I ‘m turned off from working in a place where people do this.

  • Michael Fiorillo

    When I hear that a teacher at HSA “had no control over her kids,” my immediate thought is that she couldn’t/wouldn’t impose Moskowitz’s Skinner Box/Pavlovian model of education.

    While  ”Dan’s” comment superficially appears to be a change of tone from the usual scripted/robotic attacks that Moskowitz puts her people up to, he nevertherless uses Mark’s fiance as a straw (wo)man to divert discussion away from the main point of his post, namely, that HSA and charters as a rule are toxic, unviable work environments.

    And of course they are: employing transient, voiceless, powerless, at-will teachers is baked into the model. It’s the very reason they are so well-supported by the 1%, while the public schools continue to be overwhelmed by the high-needs students charters refuse to take.

    A throwaway comment about how he and some purported colleagues are upset with the teacher attrition rate – maybe if you really felt that way, Dan, you’d consider unionizing, no?  - does nothing to override the continued smearing and attempted distraction Mark’s column provoked. 

    The viciousness of the response is in proportion to how close to the bone his column must have cut.

  • Skeptic

    Another HSA teacher already said Ms.D was given substantial support and PD. That is commendable. So I find it hard to swallow that so much non-compliance existed. How was she able to get away without giving assessments, without usig materials? “Support” for a new teacher usually means someone is in the room, critiquing and evaluating.

  • Marty

    As I see it, you either believe in due process or you don’t.

  • Los Flerpos

    If only things were that simple.  All arguments about due process involve debates about exactly what process is “due” and under what circumstances.   Lot of room for disagreement there.  

  • Skeptic

    Falasha, this article talks about banks recruiting TFA teachers when they complete their service. I know pre-recession this was done by lots of banks, and the teachers were promised position s. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1316/is_9_38/ai_n16621322/

  • Marty

    I’m talking about a fair hearing decided by an impartial judge.  Do you have another definition?

  • Los Flerpos

    Many possibilities.  Judge versus hearing officer versus arbitrator; what employment decisions trigger a right to a hearing; what rules of evidence should apply, if any; how soon must the hearing occur; what representation are you entitled to; by what standard is the employer’s employment decision reviewed — the list goes on and on.

  • Abc

    Marty
    he doesn’t care about your answer. He is just wants to stir things up

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