How many teachers are leaving your school next year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:until SPED has its own payscale that is different and more than the regular teacher payscale, no one should take a SPED teacher position.

SPED teachers have to be a teacher + case manager + following IEP goals and accommodations/modifications + in some cases has to be collaborative teacher in team taught classes thus sharing teaching roles with gen ed teachers.

SPED teachers are severely underpaid.

They are on different scales.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:until SPED has its own payscale that is different and more than the regular teacher payscale, no one should take a SPED teacher position.

SPED teachers have to be a teacher + case manager + following IEP goals and accommodations/modifications + in some cases has to be collaborative teacher in team taught classes thus sharing teaching roles with gen ed teachers.

SPED teachers are severely underpaid.

Often lacking true support from county or even their own admin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They track the staff who leave in and the have it in the last school board meeting of every month. They lost 276 teachers in the summer time last year and lose about 30 teachers a month during the school year. So far this year they have lost 454 teachers post contract/ midyear, not including retirees.

https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/D55GQD44BDF6/$file/Monthly%20Separation%20Report%20April%201%2C%202024%20to%20April%2030%2C%202024.pdf

Numbers don't lie. It has been so hard. Staff hung in there during covid and post-covid...hoping it would get better. But certain things just get worse- no respect for teachers, unrealistic expectations of teachers and public schools, litigious parents, verbally abusive parents, poor behavior of students, more demands on teachers (especially elementary) with not enough time to complete the job, low pay, raise not high enough this year, and so on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:until SPED has its own payscale that is different and more than the regular teacher payscale, no one should take a SPED teacher position.

SPED teachers have to be a teacher + case manager + following IEP goals and accommodations/modifications + in some cases has to be collaborative teacher in team taught classes thus sharing teaching roles with gen ed teachers.

SPED teachers are severely underpaid.

They are on different scales.

Sped teachers are not on different pay scales. There has been a temporary fund that gave them pay for an additional 30 minutes a day of work. That doesn't even cover the amount of extra work, duties, stress, and more that sped teachers have over gen ed teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:until SPED has its own payscale that is different and more than the regular teacher payscale, no one should take a SPED teacher position.

SPED teachers have to be a teacher + case manager + following IEP goals and accommodations/modifications + in some cases has to be collaborative teacher in team taught classes thus sharing teaching roles with gen ed teachers.

SPED teachers are severely underpaid.

They are on different scales.

It’s about 6000 dollars more a year on the extended day scale

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The kids never do anything wrong. Look at the kid who is suing the school for not giving him what he needs.
He gave a teacher a concussion and sent her to the hospital and is suing the school for not stopping him.
The teacher is always to blame (did you make sure they were challenged? Did you make sure he felt secure? Etc).

The situation in Newport News is what happens when you have the trifecta of an unsupportive parent, unsupportive principal, and bad policy. The parent tried to go on national tv and put blame on her because “her son felt ignored” and he has adhd. This is an extreme example, but these behavioral situations are not as rare as we would like to think. Teachers only take 2 or 3 base level psychology classes when they are in college. The behavioral and therapy work that these kids need is far out of our scope of practice but they still end up in our rooms.

+1. I'll add that if a kid is in 5th grade and one teacher between K-5 claims the kid needs a more restrictive placement due to behaviors, it really might not be a great personality match with the kid and that teacher. If a kid is in 5th grade and every teacher since kindergarten has said the same thing, the teachers aren't wrong. It's negligent for schools to gaslight teachers and insinuate it's a failure of classroom management when the same thing has happened with multiple teachers over the years.
Also, there should be a zero tolerance policy for physical assault or threats of physical assault toward staff, especially at the secondary level. That should go to the hearings office the first time it happens with OSS in the meantime. If it's a manifestation of the child's disability, they need to be in a classroom with a crisis response team on constant standby.

I'm an early primary teacher and I think there needs to be a zero tolerance policy towards even our youngest students regarding being physically aggressive with staff or threatening them. Students who do that need more support than can be had in the gen Ed room. Kids who make threats or hit, kick, etc staff members? That should trigger an immediate move to a behavioral sped room. Such students can either learn to self regulate there and then return to gen Ed after a period of time OR they can be diagnosed and treated and if they truly cannot self regulate themselves then great, in the behavior room they stay. I'm sorry, I don't care if they are 5. I've had 5 year olds threaten me and it is no fun wondering if today is the day they actually bring in a weapon. It happens.

Agree. It is SO hard to get children placed into a "more restrictive setting" even when it is 100% best for the child, the other chldren, and the teacher. Schools cannot recommend alternate placements or self-contained rooms because it "is too restrictie" even when the child either 1)isn't participating in the gen ed setting 2) is aggressive 3) needs constant 1:1 support to participate- which isn't being given and can't really happen in a gen ed setting annd so on. And yet...schools here are accused on not being inclusive "enough" and not recommending gen ed setting "enough"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:until SPED has its own payscale that is different and more than the regular teacher payscale, no one should take a SPED teacher position.

SPED teachers have to be a teacher + case manager + following IEP goals and accommodations/modifications + in some cases has to be collaborative teacher in team taught classes thus sharing teaching roles with gen ed teachers.

SPED teachers are severely underpaid.

They are on different scales.

It’s about 6000 dollars more a year on the extended day scale

no one is on that extended day schedule. unless you are someone's Gatehouse concubine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:until SPED has its own payscale that is different and more than the regular teacher payscale, no one should take a SPED teacher position.

SPED teachers have to be a teacher + case manager + following IEP goals and accommodations/modifications + in some cases has to be collaborative teacher in team taught classes thus sharing teaching roles with gen ed teachers.

SPED teachers are severely underpaid.

A lot of teachers will tell you it isn’t about the pay. It’s the disrespect and the poor working conditions. Fix those.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:until SPED has its own payscale that is different and more than the regular teacher payscale, no one should take a SPED teacher position.

SPED teachers have to be a teacher + case manager + following IEP goals and accommodations/modifications + in some cases has to be collaborative teacher in team taught classes thus sharing teaching roles with gen ed teachers.

SPED teachers are severely underpaid.

A lot of teachers will tell you it isn’t about the pay. It’s the disrespect and the poor working conditions. Fix those.

So true. Teachers who have been around for a while and have pretty decent salaries (>100K) are leaving before retirement age. And the working conditions *should* be much easier to fix than pay!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Out of curiosity, how many teachers are leaving your school next year? At my ES there is 10 that we know of so far. Im wondering if the shortage situation is going to be better or worse than last year for the county.

To me this metric is meaningless without additional data. For example, I’d like to know:

the delta between outgoing and incoming (not known until late summer);

the primary reason for leaving (eg, administrative issues, unsuitable match, retirement, career change, etc)

the seniority of the teachers;

and so on.

Most of this is meaningless. The key points are that more are leaving the system than entering, and those entering are largely new and inexperienced.

This we just hired another "teacher trainee"

We are seeing the decline of the “career educator” who majors in education in college and stays all the way through retirement. More and more people are coming in through Alternative Certification programs.

I'm a career changer and I can tell you that morale is extremely low among the career educators in my department--I'm talking about people who have been on the job 15+ years. Here are some quotes:
"I used to love my job and now I hate it."
"I have to hang on for ___ years until I can retire."
"I'd rather be doing just about anything else."
"I really want out but there's nothing else I'm trained for."
"I have been looking at (insert private/other district name) to see if it's better."
"I am treated like a child and my opinion as an educator doesn't matter."
"I

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Out of curiosity, how many teachers are leaving your school next year? At my ES there is 10 that we know of so far. Im wondering if the shortage situation is going to be better or worse than last year for the county.

To me this metric is meaningless without additional data. For example, I’d like to know:

the delta between outgoing and incoming (not known until late summer);

the primary reason for leaving (eg, administrative issues, unsuitable match, retirement, career change, etc)

the seniority of the teachers;

and so on.

Most of this is meaningless. The key points are that more are leaving the system than entering, and those entering are largely new and inexperienced.

This we just hired another "teacher trainee"

We are seeing the decline of the “career educator” who majors in education in college and stays all the way through retirement. More and more people are coming in through Alternative Certification programs.

I'm a career changer and I can tell you that morale is extremely low among the career educators in my department--I'm talking about people who have been on the job 15+ years. Here are some quotes:
"I used to love my job and now I hate it."
"I have to hang on for ___ years until I can retire."
"I'd rather be doing just about anything else."
"I really want out but there's nothing else I'm trained for."
"I have been looking at (insert private/other district name) to see if it's better."
"I am treated like a child and my opinion as an educator doesn't matter."
"I

And the younger teachers hear it and know to leave early if they aren’t happy with it. The glossy “Matilda/ Ms Honey” shine of teaching wears off when you are getting disrespected on a daily basis and spending all Sunday making slides and grading papers. Teaching isn’t all bad but it can be a hard job to love, and if you don’t love it you won’t want to do the extra work for the pay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Out of curiosity, how many teachers are leaving your school next year? At my ES there is 10 that we know of so far. Im wondering if the shortage situation is going to be better or worse than last year for the county.

To me this metric is meaningless without additional data. For example, I’d like to know:

the delta between outgoing and incoming (not known until late summer);

the primary reason for leaving (eg, administrative issues, unsuitable match, retirement, career change, etc)

the seniority of the teachers;

and so on.

Most of this is meaningless. The key points are that more are leaving the system than entering, and those entering are largely new and inexperienced.

This we just hired another "teacher trainee"

Lots of warm bodies that will not be supported and burn out fast.

The trainees here are getting good support from their colleagues but they were so unprepared for the actual job of teaching. One guy retired early from a mid-level management job and thought this would be a breeze. He ignored everything his dept chair and mentor told him and tried to do things his way- he likes to respond to suggestions with phrases like “I managed 40 people for 25 years…” Apparently his kids had some of the worst SOL scores we’ve ever had for that subject.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:until SPED has its own payscale that is different and more than the regular teacher payscale, no one should take a SPED teacher position.

SPED teachers have to be a teacher + case manager + following IEP goals and accommodations/modifications + in some cases has to be collaborative teacher in team taught classes thus sharing teaching roles with gen ed teachers.

SPED teachers are severely underpaid.

A lot of teachers will tell you it isn’t about the pay. It’s the disrespect and the poor working conditions. Fix those.

So true. Teachers who have been around for a while and have pretty decent salaries (>100K) are leaving before retirement age. And the working conditions *should* be much easier to fix than pay!

Yes. That’s me. I retired after 30 years in an ES. That was 3 years early. It wasn’t that long ago I would have told you I’d make it to 33 years.

Just yesterday I was telling someone I never had an issue with my pay. The top two reasons I stopped teaching were student behaviors and workload.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Out of curiosity, how many teachers are leaving your school next year? At my ES there is 10 that we know of so far. Im wondering if the shortage situation is going to be better or worse than last year for the county.

To me this metric is meaningless without additional data. For example, I’d like to know:

the delta between outgoing and incoming (not known until late summer);

the primary reason for leaving (eg, administrative issues, unsuitable match, retirement, career change, etc)

the seniority of the teachers;

and so on.

Most of this is meaningless. The key points are that more are leaving the system than entering, and those entering are largely new and inexperienced.

This we just hired another "teacher trainee"

We are seeing the decline of the “career educator” who majors in education in college and stays all the way through retirement. More and more people are coming in through Alternative Certification programs.

I'm a career changer and I can tell you that morale is extremely low among the career educators in my department--I'm talking about people who have been on the job 15+ years. Here are some quotes:
"I used to love my job and now I hate it."
"I have to hang on for ___ years until I can retire."
"I'd rather be doing just about anything else."
"I really want out but there's nothing else I'm trained for."
"I have been looking at (insert private/other district name) to see if it's better."
"I am treated like a child and my opinion as an educator doesn't matter."
"I

I catch the new teacher on my team crying in her room Afterschool quite often. Poor girl is doing great with her class but she is so stressed out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They need to pay SPED teachers 80k as a starting salary. Public schools simply are not attracting the best and the brightest. Think about it, if you were a high school valedictorian right now would you be majoring in education?

Honestly, I think starting pay for sped teachers needs to be 150k with the cap on the other end at 300k. That's part of what it would take. Part of it.