CPS schools lose half of teachers in 5 years

Sun-Times:

The typical Chicago public school loses more than half of all its teachers within five years -- and about two-thirds of its new ones, a study released today by the University of Chicago indicates.

Teacher churning is especially severe in high-poverty, heavily African-American schools -- about a hundred total -- where half of all teachers disappear after only three years, the study found.

"I find that really disturbing,'' said Elaine Allensworth, lead author of the study from the U. of C.'s Consortium on Chicago School Research. "I just see no way they can improve if they can't maintain a stable work force.''

The consortium's analysis of teachers who worked for Chicago Public Schools from the fall of 2002 to spring 2007 also raises a warning flag about Mayor Daley's Renaissance 2010 push to replace troubled schools with up to 100 new ones, many of them small.

Usually when I excerpt from articles I like to start with the introduction and find any other pertinent information. This morning I will post the introduction to a similar article from the Tribune:

A cornerstone of student achievement is school stability, a goal that includes keeping consistent teaching staff that collaborates and offers students a steady learning experience whether in elementary or high school.

But a new report shows about 100 Chicago schools lose more than a quarter of their staff every year, crippling efforts to create an effective learning environment for children in largely African-American schools.

The study by the Consortium on Chicago School Research at the University of Chicago highlights a national concern over how to keep good teachers in tough environments.

Also noted in the Tribune:

The study, which was released Monday, reviewed personnel records from 35,000 public school teachers in 538 elementary schools and 118 high schools over a five-year period from the 2002-03 to 2006-07 school years. No charter schools were included in the study.

I go back to the Sun-Times to excerpt some of the findings:

Smaller schools suffered higher teacher turnover than bigger ones, perhaps because "small schools put enormous demands on teachers and can potentially 'burn out' even the most enthusiastic new teacher,'' the study warned.

One "troubling" finding, according to the report, was that CPS teachers who leave low-scoring elementary schools tend to wind up in other low-scoring elementary schools.

Teachers who left low-scoring high schools, meanwhile, often traded up to better-scoring CPS schools, the study found.

A new recent trend is that teachers are more likely to leave CPS than to transfer inside it, the study said.

Back to the Tribune:

On the whole, more than half of the Chicago Public Schools teachers whose records were reviewed left their schools within five years, a figure consistent with the state and the rest of the nation. But in high schools where teachers show particularly low morale, 76 percent of teachers left within that time frame, the study shows.

Sun-Times provides one example of that at least:

Although Chicago's Clemente High had its share of fights and gangs, that wasn't why teacher Dana Limberg left last year for Oak Park-River Forest High School. Limberg was disappointed in her principal's leadership -- another factor the consortium tied to teacher turnover.

Many teachers felt a new small-school program "was making a dramatic improvement and he didn't seem to respect it,'' Limberg said. Plus, she said, teachers suddenly had less input -- another turnover trigger.

Of course it may not totally be a problem, both articles may indicate that the turnover is necessary especially if teaching may not be a good fit or to weed out bad teachers or indeed to resolve staffing conflicts.

This is another aspect of this study:

One teacher who spent her first two years at two high-poverty, heavily black, West Side elementary schools said she struggled with kids who picked up chairs, who screamed in class and threw crayons, who didn't know how to deal with anger -- and parents who didn't return phone calls. She is looking for another job.

Another issue, teachers dealing with issues beyond the scope of what they're hired to do. Probably more frustrating because the parents don't seem to be that engaged. I would like to get my hands on this study!