Have you notice the shortage of teachers in your school?

[Anonymous]

I have noticed that the academic background of the recent hires is very weak. On the contrary older teachers are much better at teaching and dealing with kids at school.

For instance the recent math teacher in my kid school comes from a public school where none the kids are proficient in math according to state evaluations. Also every month 1 teacher is leaving. So the shortage is very disruptive and it seems that the school is not raising salaries to retain top talent. This in spite of setting the tuition at 50+k. Do you experience something similar?

[Anonymous]

Not at all. Multiple teachers leaving on an ongoing basis during the school year definitely suggests a systemic issue with the school.

What kind of school is it? K8, k12?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not at all. Multiple teachers leaving on an ongoing basis during the school year definitely suggests a systemic issue with the school.

What kind of school is it? K8, k12?

K12 in DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not at all. Multiple teachers leaving on an ongoing basis during the school year definitely suggests a systemic issue with the school.

What kind of school is it? K8, k12?

K12 in DC.

Are the teachers leaving from all divisions, or just LS or MS or US? It could be an issue with division leadership vs school leadership. Def a red flag if several teachers have left mid-year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not at all. Multiple teachers leaving on an ongoing basis during the school year definitely suggests a systemic issue with the school.

What kind of school is it? K8, k12?

K12 in DC.

Are the teachers leaving from all divisions, or just LS or MS or US? It could be an issue with division leadership vs school leadership. Def a red flag if several teachers have left mid-year.

In particular MS and US. But more than teachers leaving is that the replacements are way weaker academically.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not at all. Multiple teachers leaving on an ongoing basis during the school year definitely suggests a systemic issue with the school.

What kind of school is it? K8, k12?

K12 in DC.

Are the teachers leaving from all divisions, or just LS or MS or US? It could be an issue with division leadership vs school leadership. Def a red flag if several teachers have left mid-year.

In particular MS and US. But more than teachers leaving is that the replacements are way weaker academically.

It’s likely hard to fill mid-year openings. The best teachers will have been hired for the start of the school year, and even ones who are available mid-year are probably savvy enough to avoid a school that has a lot of staff bailing out.

Our school is definitely not experiencing anything like this. You’re smart to be concerned.

[Anonymous]

It’s all probably due to the FCPS boundary studies.

[Anonymous]

Does the school buy pencils from Amazon or from Sam’s?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have noticed that the academic background of the recent hires is very weak. On the contrary older teachers are much better at teaching and dealing with kids at school.

For instance the recent math teacher in my kid school comes from a public school where none the kids are proficient in math according to state evaluations. Also every month 1 teacher is leaving. So the shortage is very disruptive and it seems that the school is not raising salaries to retain top talent. This in spite of setting the tuition at 50+k. Do you experience something similar?

Do you mean leaving in the middle of the school year - or announcing they won't return next year? If they are leaving mid-year this is very uncommon and the sign of a large problem. If they are announcing next year, it depends - transition does happen and sometimes it seems like a lot when it actually isn't (but I can't speak to whether this is a normal amount of transtion at your school)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does the school buy pencils from Amazon or from Sam’s?

None. Just from Saks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s all probably due to the FCPS boundary studies.

Or alternatively because of uncontrolled sock puppeting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have noticed that the academic background of the recent hires is very weak. On the contrary older teachers are much better at teaching and dealing with kids at school.

For instance the recent math teacher in my kid school comes from a public school where none the kids are proficient in math according to state evaluations. Also every month 1 teacher is leaving. So the shortage is very disruptive and it seems that the school is not raising salaries to retain top talent. This in spite of setting the tuition at 50+k. Do you experience something similar?

Some of the best teachers I know worked at schools with the biggest challenges. I wouldn’t use this metric in your original post as a way to judge this particular teacher’s skills or effectiveness as a quality educator.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have noticed that the academic background of the recent hires is very weak. On the contrary older teachers are much better at teaching and dealing with kids at school.

For instance the recent math teacher in my kid school comes from a public school where none the kids are proficient in math according to state evaluations. Also every month 1 teacher is leaving. So the shortage is very disruptive and it seems that the school is not raising salaries to retain top talent. This in spite of setting the tuition at 50+k. Do you experience something similar?

Do you mean leaving in the middle of the school year - or announcing they won't return next year? If they are leaving mid-year this is very uncommon and the sign of a large problem. If they are announcing next year, it depends - transition does happen and sometimes it seems like a lot when it actually isn't (but I can't speak to whether this is a normal amount of transtion at your school)

Leaving in the middle of the year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have noticed that the academic background of the recent hires is very weak. On the contrary older teachers are much better at teaching and dealing with kids at school.

For instance the recent math teacher in my kid school comes from a public school where none the kids are proficient in math according to state evaluations. Also every month 1 teacher is leaving. So the shortage is very disruptive and it seems that the school is not raising salaries to retain top talent. This in spite of setting the tuition at 50+k. Do you experience something similar?

Do you mean leaving in the middle of the school year - or announcing they won't return next year? If they are leaving mid-year this is very uncommon and the sign of a large problem. If they are announcing next year, it depends - transition does happen and sometimes it seems like a lot when it actually isn't (but I can't speak to whether this is a normal amount of transtion at your school)

Leaving in the middle of the year.

Was there some unique circumstances that occurred this year that would cause this time of departure wave? Something like a controversial new HOS taking over from a prior HOS that had been there for decades, perhaps? Just one example I could think of that would shake things up like this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have noticed that the academic background of the recent hires is very weak. On the contrary older teachers are much better at teaching and dealing with kids at school.

For instance the recent math teacher in my kid school comes from a public school where none the kids are proficient in math according to state evaluations. Also every month 1 teacher is leaving. So the shortage is very disruptive and it seems that the school is not raising salaries to retain top talent. This in spite of setting the tuition at 50+k. Do you experience something similar?

Just a wild guess, but would you say they’re not spending this money on teachers because they’re instead using it to hire new administrators to new positions via controversial hiring processes?