The Feedback We Need: New Teacher Retention –A Bare Bones Introduction

John Baird, M.Sc.

KIPP

Introduction

• Better education means we need better teachers

• Retention of the best and most effective teachers is a measure of how well our school systems perform

The Problem

• According to the NEA, as many as 50% of new teachers leave within the first five years

• According to the Gates Foundation, the top 10% of new teachers leave education at a rate of 60-70% within the first five years

• We are not only failing to retain teachers, but we are specifically failing to retain the very best and brightest!

The Cause

• According to the Gates Foundation, the reason most cited by top tier teachers for leaving: administrators and their feedback

• Principals, assistant principals, and other school leaders are NOT communicating effectively with the best teachers

• That ineffective communication is causing the best to leave rather than affect change

Case Studies

• An urban Houston school– Low SES student population– Academically struggling

• A high-performing Austin charter school– Highly diverse with a wide spread of SES– Academically successful

• Both failed to retain highly effective new teachers in core subjects – why?

A Solution

What are some feedback and communication

techniques that can help?

Action!

• Goal Oriented Performance Reviews– Saying, “This is a problem” accomplishes nothing– Provide a goal – a milestone and timeline – for

success– Make it measurable; vague goals only add stress

Attention!

• Differentiate by Time– A first-year is not the same as a fifth-year teacher– We don’t lump students together into a common

milieu – and we shouldn’t do likewise to teachers

Open!

• Symmetrical Evaluation Pathways– Administrators must be open to feedback, too!– We need formal mechanisms to let the teacher

POV of leadership be as well known as the leadership’s POV of them

– A one-way street silences creative minds – like those of the best talent we need to retain!

Simplicity!

• Apply the KIS Principle to Principals– Keep feedback straightforward and focused, set a

theme for each meeting– Too many topics = confused and discouraged

teachers– Like this presentation, don’t distract with jargon

or ambiguous buzz words

What else?

• How do we define effectiveness? How do we identify our top teachers?

• What metrics for administrators can we use to see if they’re doing their part?

• How can we update existing evaluation systems to account for these techniques?