Small disasters
How many teachers were in your school October 1, 2006? Of those teachers, how many were still there September 4, 2007?
We (the UFT, not me) should collect this information (from our members, from our Chapter Leaders, not from the Department of Education) and publish it.
Are we curious about pregnancies and retirements? Congratulations and congratulations, but no. Every school loses a few people. But accurately report on all, so that the massive turnover schools can be clearly seen.
I know a school (School A), not far from here, where the principal works the teachers hard. She runs a good tough school, and while she may nibble at the edges of the contract, she plays fair. And her “staying rate” is not sky high, but is pretty high for the Bronx. Oh, yeah, the kids do fairly well.
And I know schools with “staying rates” at or below 50%. One of the poster child small schools that the DoE mentions in every press release about how successful the new small schools are (School B)… Disaster. Exodus in June, every June, for five years running. And the successful numbers? I can’t explain them. Maybe they don’t really exist.
We don’t have to do what I suggest. But how many years in a row will we let School B destroy Teaching Fellows before they have a chance to become teachers? How can we let 2nd and 3rd year teachers transfer into this snake pit? And how many more School B’s are out there, thriving like some mold, some disgusting malignancy, in the darkness. Let’s shed the light of day on the situation.
(Grapevine is ok, but it requires individual – scattered – action. The UFT collecting and disseminating information is, well, collective.)
JD2718 
I hear people are already planning to leave my old school…
Leaving may solve their problem, but the school remains. It is not fair to students or to teachers or to anyone really that such an abomination be allowed to remain in the current configuration (including administration as part of “configuration”).
Publishing the “stay rate” would be a start to uncovering this.
I totally agree it would save alot of heartache if we could see statistics on the revolving door of some schools. I wish it were an
“assessment” that we as teachers could employ in our career moves. As they say, “Fifty thousand Frenchmen can’t be wrong.”
How many Frenchman can’t be wrong?
I’m curious to know what a good “stay rate” is, and what a typical stay rate is in the Bronx. I teach at one of the new small schools inside the old Stevenson H.S., and 40% of our teachers left last year. (I am new this year.) This seems high to me, but maybe it’s not really so bad compared to other places.
Right now I’m thinking of not staying, but I don’t know where I’d go that would be better.
I don’t know what a good rate would be. But let’s do a quick back of the envelope calculation. Small school, 4-500 students. 30-40 teachers? Let’s say 40.
One reason to set up a small school is so that all the adults can know all the kids. If you lost 8 teachers a year, 4 after one year and 4 after more than that, you’d have only 16-20 of the teachers a kid entered with still there after 4 years. That would, it seems to me, be the absolute maximum before that benefit were lost.
That’s 20%. (I’d easily believe that the ‘right’ number is as low as 10%, as high as 25%, since these calculations are so rough).
Beyond that, a higher turnover rate means that there are conditions that are causing teachers to leave. They could be administrative abuse, they could be organizational. The first is obvious.
Organizational problems can occur when high turnover disrupts ‘institutional memory.’ Up at 40, 50 or higher turnover, who remembers how programs were distributed, what paperwork and reservations need to be done, and when, for school trips, how final exams are organized, etc etc.
Last calculation. A resume looks better with more years in a school. But your salary will be higher after more time. And perhaps your current position is unbearable. You have to factor these together in making your decision.
From what I gather, administrative abuse is the reason so many teachers have left. And yes, we have about 400 students and 40 teachers/staff members.
It’s hard for me to know if my situation is truly unbearable, or if it’s just making me very unhappy. It’s hard to know if I would be better off at another city school. There are things about my school that I like very much, but the amount of work I’ve had to put in does seem unbearable, and the way the quality of my life has suffered has hurt me.
I guess I’ll have to read around some blogs and see what other teachers endure. I’m glad to have stumbled across yours!
If you are committed to helping fix things, then staying is an option. But it will clearly take work, collective work (not just one person). Otherwise, I can’t see any teacher willingly submitting themselves to the sort of abuse you imply is going on.