Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Yaya]

Half of new teachers quit within 5 years: study
By Lisa Lambert

Jessica Jentis fit the profile of a typical American teacher: She was white, held a masters degree and quit two and a half years after starting her career.

According to a new study from teachers' union the National Education Association, half of new U.S. teachers are likely to quit within the first five years because of poor working conditions and low salaries.

Jentis, now a stay-at-home mother of three, says that she couldn't make enough money teaching in Manhattan to pay for her student loans and that dealing with school bureaucracy was too difficult.

"The kids were wonderful to be with, but the stress of everything that went with it and the low pay did not make it hard to leave," she said. "It's sad because you see a lot of the teachers that are young and gung-ho are ready to leave."

The proportion of new teachers leaving has hovered around 50 percent for decades, said Barry Farber, a professor of education and psychology at Columbia University.

The study, which the association released last week ahead of its annual salute to teachers on Tuesday, also found today's average teacher is a married, 43-year-old white woman who is religious.

Teachers are more educated than ever before, with the proportion of those holding Masters degrees increasing to 50 percent from 23 percent since the early 1960s.

Only 6 percent of teachers are African-American and 5 percent are Hispanic, Asian or come from other ethnic groups. Men represent barely a quarter of teachers, which the association says is the lowest level in four decades.

"We must face the fact that although our current teachers are the most educated and most experienced ever, there are still too many teachers leaving the profession too early, not enough people becoming teachers and not enough diversity in the profession," said NEA President Reg Weaver in a statement.

Thanks to the high dropout rate of younger teachers, there will be plenty of job openings for teachers over the next 10 years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Because education is governed at the state level, programs to retain younger teachers differ from state to state.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060509/us_nm/life_teachers_dc_2&printer=1;_ylt=Aq0g6BBLxZ490zpzqHJOeXIXIr0F;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE-

[Ya-ta Boy]

I remember asking my first principal this question one evening after school my first year. He said he thought the percentage was about 1 in 3 who end up staying in education. I asked him what he thought was the most important thing that drove newbies out. He said 'classroom management'.

I agree with that assessment. The article mentioned salaries and bureaucracy. I don't really believe those are all that high on the list of factors. First, everyone pretty much knows what teachers make long before they graduate with an ed degree. I also don't think if a person really enjoys teaching his/her subject that the issue of bureaucracy would be enough to drive them out. Bureaucracy would be more along the lines of lunch duty...something you despise but put up with because it comes with the territory.

My guess:
a) Failure to develop classroom management skills
b) Discovery that you don't enjoy teaching the subjects that you enjoyed studying as a student
c) Discovery that you don't enjoy spending time with an age group considerably younger than you

One change I'd like to see is students getting some classroom experience each year while in college. Give them a chance to discover early on if they really do enjoy the profession and while they have a chance to cut their losses.

[Natalia]

[yodanole]

School boards fail to provide body armour.
Chalk, check. Eraser, check. Textbook, check. Kevlar, check.
Let's go teach!

[Ya-ta Boy]

[riley]

In my Special Ed. class, I remember the teacher telling us that many new teachers will quit. Her reason, the paperwork we will have to fill out. Nowadays, there is a lot of paperwork for each kid to keep track of. Namely any form of reccomendation for tracking the kid's ability, keeping information records of whether the student is in need of special attention, information records of students who have some form of learning disability, etc. During my student training, we had out of a class of 28, roughly 10 were qualified as ESL students in some way, so they had special classes and the homeroom teacher kept track of that, another 5-6 were in the sped class, so the homeroom teacher kept records on them and was in contact with the sped teacher, (who really had to keep a huge file of records!) plus we had maybe 2-3 who had ADHD, so that had to be kept a record of.

[krats1976]

[kangnam mafioso]

[The Man known as The Man]

[polarbearbrad]

My father taught vocational high school for 30 years in Scarborough, Ontario. He told me that one of the reasons he was happy to get out was the insane amount of inane paperwork.

"When I started teaching, to take kids on a field trip all you needed to do was get permission slips signed by the parents and file the plan with the principal. Now you need to fill in 28 different forms for each kid."

I still want to be a teacher in Canada, but I must confess the idea of the paperwork is somewhat daunting to me. Mind you after the hours I worked over here the hours of a North American teacher are a walk in the park!

Sad state of affairs eh?
PBB

[xingyiman]

One of the things that hasn't been mentioned is that many teachers find out too late that their jobs aren't really that of teachers rather they're expected to be glorified babysitters. For 8 hours a day they are expected to make sure Bobby and Jenny aren't drinking alcohaul, smoking cigarettes, doing drugs, of F###### each other. Also, I had a grad level class with a bunch of Ed majors working on their master's and lots of them go into the field because of the prospect that they can work for 9 months and get paid for 12 only to find out they must work their summers to make ends meet.

[krats1976]

[Ya-ta Boy]

I can see what you are saying, but a couple of you are still in the profession. You aren't teaching at home anymore, but you are still teaching.

The point of the OP, as I understand it, is that people leave the profession and do something else.

From my perspective of 20 years of sitting in the lounge during prep and after school listening to the newbies who did not re-sign for that second or third year, it was the failure of learning how to manage kids. They almost never said that was the cause, but after listening to semesters of complaints it was pretty clear that "I've decided to pursue other job options" was code for "The freakin' kids are driving me nuts and I'm leaving before I become a drooling idiot". (I'm not denying other factors did not contribute.)

[The Man known as The Man]