Reply to How worrisome is 25% teacher turnover at a DCPS elementary?

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Reply to "How worrisome is 25% teacher turnover at a DCPS elementary?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We are at a Title I, east of the park DCPS elementary that is supposedly improving and becoming more gentrified. The school got a new principal a few years ago who made a lot of changes, and combined with DCPS-wide pressures on teachers, it is probably no surprise that many teachers have left.  Some are long-time staff who have retired, others are Teach for America types who went back to school, so maybe there's nothing unusual going on. But when I look more closely at the teacher turnover rate--25% this year, probably close to that last year-- it worries me.

What is a typical turnover rate at a good DCPS elementary (say at a WotP school)? What is turnover like at the best charters? Should I be worried? I'm glad to see dead wood removed, but don't you want a certain stability, too? Or this to be expected for an inner city, Title I public school?

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What is the inboundary rate vs out of boundary rate for the school?  Also, have a lot of involved and active families left the school too?  It could be the principal.[/quote]
OP here. It's largely a neighborhood school. I would say on balance more higher SES families are staying. Overall I think the school is improving (more families staying, test scores stable or rising). Yet the teacher turnover rate is still so high. There are teachers who were new last year and didn't stay past their first year. Were they not very good? Was it the school? As one previous poster said, I suppose I need to put this question to the principal.

Most of this turnover is in 3rd-5th grade. Maybe it's hard to hold on to those teachers because of the pressure to raise test scores? [/quote]

My understanding is EOTP, most higher performing and better behaved children exit to charter and private schools.  I've heard that the rationale is that 3rd and 4th grade are the least competitive entry points to other schools.  This phenomena would result in a different student population by 3rd thru 5th grades.  I've seen very sucessful and eager young teachers be turned off by "old school" teaching philoshopies.  In addition, a sizeable portion of the Teach for America types that are assigned EOTP are of ethnicities that differ from their student body.  In addition, these teachers are discouraged by the lack of parental involvement, lack of support from principals (some principals don't want teachers who don't look like their students correcting the children), or are afraid of the parents and students, who threaten them.  I've seen it in an ETOP school and it's been disappointing. I've also heard that the principals rarely back the teachers and almost always side with parents and students, who can be beligerent, rude, and disrespectful.   I find it highly unlikely that the principal will admit that the turnover is related to their leadership.  If anything, the response will most likely be that the teacher didn't "fit".[/quote]

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