CRACKING THE CODE FOR TEACHER WELL-BEING
engines , colored paints for mass-produced automobiles , and 181 other creations ! Kettering was a genius — a prodigious thinker who understood how to turn a problem on its side , vault into the heavens , and then travel back down to earth with solutions that were not only feasible but transformative .
So I stuck with the quote . His credentials checked out . And I was convinced more than ever that his way of thinking is exactly what is needed as we contemplate how to crack the code of what may be a generational challenge facing us in our schools — the problem of teacher attrition .
Anyone who has been involved in K-12 education over the last few years has witnessed the alarming trends . It is not uncommon for schools to report 35 , 40 , or even more than 50 percent turnover of their faculty over the past three years .
In the Summer 2022 issue of Independent School , author Linda Haitani , a data technology expert , called the extreme rise in job postings across NAIS schools “ very concerning hiring data .” And of course , that pales with what we are seeing in the public realm , where it was reported in August that hundreds of thousands of teaching posts nationwide were either unfilled or occupied by underqualified individuals . Equally alarming has been the precipitous decline in entrants to the profession . ( The number of students graduating from college with bachelor ’ s degrees in education fell from 176,307 in 1970-71 to 104,008 in 2010-11 to 85,058 in 2019-20 , a drop of 52 percent !)
“ It is not uncommon for
schools to report 35 , 40 , or even more than 50 percent turnover of their faculty over the past three years .
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It ’ s enough to make even the staunchest optimist blanch about the future of our schools , which is why I found my conversation with Nancy Schuler so refreshing .
Nancy has been the Head of Westminster School in Annandale , VA , since the 2021 school year . Westminster is a Pre-K – 8 program with approximately 225 children , 40 teachers and administrators , and another dozen or so staff , in the exceedingly competitive environment that encircles Washington , DC .
I learned about Nancy when I was running an online leadership cohort for Associate Heads , Division Heads , CFOs , and other Department Heads in the DC area . The topic in one of our sessions turned to how to handle the challenge of retaining our teachers . There was one member who quietly offered that this wasn ’ t a problem at all in her school .
“ Can you tell me a little bit more about why you say that ?” I asked , deeply curious .
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CSEE Connections Spring 2023 Page 3