What does it take to make you stay?

What does it take to make you stay?

Maryland’s teachers are highly compensated.  The average starting teacher’s salary in Maryland is almost $44,000; that is $8,000 more than the national average for new teachers.  That is a big chunk of change.  In fact, the state salaries are rated at 4.5 out of a 1-5 scale, with 5 being the highest.

Maryland teachers also enjoy smaller classes than their national counterparts.   So what’s the deal?   Our teacher turnover ranking is 2.5 smack in the middle of the range in spite of smaller classes and higher salaries.  Why aren’t teachers staying around?

To discover the answer to that question, one needs to dig a bit deeper into the data collected by the Learning Policy Institute as it sought to create a teacher attractiveness rating for each state.  Maryland’s rating is only 2.1.

There are three important areas in which Maryland teachers feel they are at a disadvantage compared to their colleagues nationwide.

Seventy-seven percent of our nation’s teachers feel a sense of classroom autonomy.  That number is almost 20% less in Maryland.   Classroom autonomy is a big deal to teachers.   They want to be able to close their doors and deliver the kind of instruction they think their students need.   Pacing guides that demand teachers be on a certain page on a certain day, teaching to tests that are meaningless for many of our students, and having little to no say in the curriculum all make teachers feel more like cogs in a big wheel rather than as professionals making decisions in the best interest of students.

Maryland teachers also feel less supported by their administrators than do others across our country.   The U.S. average for administrative support for teachers is 45%, less than half.  But in Maryland that already bad number falls to 41%.   Teaching is very hard work and teachers need the support of administrators when things go array.  Clearly, teachers in Maryland do not feel they are getting that support.  Unfortunately, the system is set up in such a way that there is almost an adversarial relationship between teachers and their leaders.  These negative feelings seem to be extending throughout the school.   Maryland teachers feel a much lower rate of collegiality within their schools as well.  Only 26.9% of Maryland teachers experience that sense of “we are all in this together”. The Maryland ranking is 17% lower than the national average and like the other factors, leaves Maryland in lowest quintile when compared across the country. Maryland has almost 3 times as many uncertified teachers in high minority schools as other states. 

What’s the cause and what’s the effect?  Maryland has the highest percentage of teachers who are planning to leave teaching and the highest percentage of inexperienced and uncertified teachers.  It is no wonder that about 11% of Maryland’s teachers are planning to leave the profession.

Perhaps it isn’t all about money and class size.  Perhaps we need to stop throwing money at the problem and look at the culture in which our teachers are teaching.  Perhaps we should act like we care about teachers and what is going on in the classroom and in our schools.  Perhaps we could give them a little respect and include them in the decision making process.   Maybe then we can figure out what it will take to make them stay.