There’s a growing body of research demonstrating the impact of high-performing teachers, just as the teaching workforce is changing dramatically. Overall, the nation’s teaching force is now larger, older, less experienced, more female, more diverse by race-ethnicity, consistent in academic ability, and less stable than previous years, according to research from the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education.
For independent schools, hiring and developing a talented faculty body will only grow in importance, as studies show that improving the effectiveness of teachers does more to improve student learning than any other factor. For example, Bill Sanders at the University of Tennessee’s Value-Added Research and Assessment Center conducted a study on the effect of high-performing teachers on student outcomes and captured these findings:
“When children, beginning in 3rd grade, were placed with three high-performing teachers in a row, they scored on average at the 96th percentile on Tennessee’s statewide mathematics assessment at the end of 5th grade. When children with comparable achievement histories starting in 3rd grade were placed with three low-performing teachers in a row, their average score on the same mathematics assessment was at the 44th percentile, an enormous 52-percentile point difference for children who presumably had comparable abilities and skills.”
At the same time, the combination of teacher shortages and high turnover rates threatens efforts to attract and retain the teachers needed to educate students.
In fact, The Project on the Next Generation of Teachers at Harvard University, which has conducted research about the future of America’s teaching force since 1998, found several differences that will affect who chooses the teaching profession and how long they stay in it.
- Today’s teachers compare a teaching career with many other opportunities, such as law, medicine, and finance — fields that were mostly closed to those who entered teaching in the 1960s and ’70s.
- Nearly one-third of today’s teachers have worked in another field first and may have prepared for teaching in nontraditional programs.
- Today’s new teachers are more likely than their predecessors to treat teaching as a short-term career and to be less satisfied with its professional isolation, standardized pay, undifferentiated roles, and lack of opportunities for influence and advancement.
Richard Ingersoll of the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education has conducted extensive research on teacher turnover in both public and private schools. After controlling for the characteristics of both teachers and schools, he concluded that inadequate support from the school administration, low salaries, student discipline problems, and limited faculty input into school decision-making are all associated with higher rates of turnover.
A shortage of teachers is also a source of concern. The K-12 education sector has had trouble filling the roles in math, science, and special education. From 2012-2022, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics also predicts a 12.3 percent increase in the number of elementary school teachers needed.
In the University of Pennsylvania study about teacher turnover and shortages, teachers say “poor salary” is the primary cause of dissatisfaction. This was particularly pronounced among teachers at small private schools, where 79 percent of those moving to a different school and 73 percent of those leaving teaching cited low salaries as a source of dissatisfaction.
Which faculty workforce trends pose the greatest threats or opportunities to your school? What changes in school policy or practice do the impending workforce changes suggest?
