What Strategies Attract and Retain High-Quality Teachers?

• In Event: 28.086 - Teaching. Learning. Leading. Models and Examples of Teacher Leaders Using Research to Impact Education Policy

Abstract

Colorado, like the rest of the nation, faces teacher shortages. Data says there are fewer college students entering teacher preparation programs, eight percent of teachers leave the profession yearly, some due to retirement, others for a variety of reasons including low pay, a growing dissatisfaction with the profession, and poor working conditions, among others. Schools have responded by hiring inexperienced and unqualified teachers. Schools where students of color attend have seen higher rates of teacher turnover, which research points out places them at a decided educational disadvantage. To combat teachers shortages it is key to recognize the multitude of reasons and to ensure those impacted, the teachers, have a say into any responses.

In 2017, the Colorado Legislature passed Colorado House Bill 17-1003, Concerning a Strategic Action Plan to Address Teacher Shortages in Colorado. This bill provided for a collaborative effort between The Colorado Department of Higher Education (CDHE) and the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) to analyze the teacher shortage and to form a strategic action plan based on the findings. The action plan, Colorado’s Teacher Shortages: Attracting and Retaining Excellent Educators provided a series of recommendations based on research and town hall meetings throughout the state. We surveyed teachers and asked them to rank the strategies aligned to cost as proposed by the CDHE and CDE Strategic Action Plan. We wanted to know which strategies teachers felt would be the most effective and then used this feedback to make overall recommendations to the various stakeholders including legislators and other policy makers.

Using the recommendations from the report, Colorado’s Teacher Shortages: Attracting and Retaining Excellent Educators, our group sought to include the teachers’ voices in in the final recommendations to inform which strategies they believe would be most successful at recruiting and retaining teachers. We surveyed teachers from across the state of Colorado representing a wide range of grade levels, school sites and geographical areas. We analyzed which strategic options had the highest percentage of “strongly support” responses along with which strategy teachers thought would be most effective, along their thoughts in the comments section under each cost category. The results showed that the issues around teachers shortages are complex and intertwined. It also showed that there is no “silver bullet” that will address the issue. Our results showed that policy makers needed to recognize the complexity of the issue and that it would take a concerted long-term effort to stem the tide of teachers shortages. Because this research was teacher produced it provided legislators with an opportunity to build a long term scheme of legislation and action points.

Author

• Mary A Hulac, Greeley Public Schools