[etni] an interesting article

Hi to all you harassed teachers,
  With the end of the year in sight, things are getting even more hectic. I 
found an interesting article from Teacher Update about why teachers quit early 
in the US. Sound familiar? 
  I am adding the article because the link doesn't seem to work.
   
  Published: May 1, 2007
  Research
  Why Teachers Quit  By Kimberly Palmer 
    It wasn?t her teenage students who drove Meghan Sharp out of teaching?it 
was the crippling inflexibility of her administrators. 
  All the innovative curriculum ideas and field trips she proposed to engage 
her 10th grade biology students were promptly shot down, and she left the 
profession after just two years. 
  ?I still enjoyed teaching, but it was a constant battle with the 
administration,? says Sharp, who worked in an urban district in northern New 
Jersey. ?I had to do things like submit weekly lesson plans. There was a lot of 
bureaucracy.? She now goes by her maiden name and asked Teacher Magazine not to 
identify her old school because she works as an education policy analyst. 
   

    According to a recent report on teacher attrition by the federal National 
Center for Education Statistics, her predicament?and her departure?are common 
in the profession. Among former teachers who took noneducation jobs, 64 percent 
said they have more professional autonomy now than when they taught. Only 11 
percent said they?d had more influence over policies at school than in their 
current jobs. 
  The survey, based on interviews with more than 7,000 current and former 
teachers, also found widespread problems with workloads and general working 
conditions, and it notes that the percentage of teachers abandoning the 
classroom continues to grow. Among public school teachers, that proportion 
reached 8 percent in the 2004-05 school year?up from 6 percent in 1988-89
  The problem, experts say, is that teaching has gotten harder. 
  ?As states have increased their reform orientation and their standards and 
accountability, a good chunk of that falls on the shoulders of teachers,? says 
Margaret Plecki, an associate professor in educational leadership and policy 
studies at the University of Washington in Seattle. Those changes, she notes, 
add up to increased pressure to perform. 
  In such a climate, teaching may not feel as rewarding, says Barry Farber, 
professor at Columbia University?s Teachers College. ?My sense is that these 
numbers reflect the fact that many teachers are still struggling to feel 
consequential?to feel that their efforts are making a difference.? 
  The NCES study also showed that less-experienced teachers were particularly 
at risk of fleeing: 20 percent of public school teachers with no prior 
full-time teaching experience left during 2004-05?more than double the overall 
rate. 
  Jim Ahrens, chief operating officer at Resources for Indispensable Schools 
and Educators, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that helps public schools hire 
and retain teachers in low-income communities, says new teachers need extra 
help. ?[They] are still trying to adjust to the rigors of teaching. It?s a very 
demanding profession, and those teachers are often left unsupported,? he says. 
  But the University of Washington?s Plecki points out that young people in all 
fields generally change jobs early in their careers. As shown by the NCES 
study, she says, ?The vast majority [of teachers] are still in the classroom 
[after five years].?
  65%:
  Proportion of former public school teachers who say they're better able to 
balance work and life now that they're working outside the education field. 
  SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education; National Center for Education 
Statistics Teacher Follow-up Survey. 
   
  Be strong till June 20th. 
  Judy Galatzer
   


       
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