Reply to HTS teacher/staff turnover

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[quote=Anonymous]It's just human nature, and it's a minor fudge, and it might not even be a bad idea.  Administrations nowadays are BOMBARDED by parental complaints.  They naturally downplay problems rather than keeping parents informed about them, because the parents have a tendency to get crazy and as a group parents can build up a head of steam over the wrong things.  If there's too much turnover, the administration will handle it by finding replacements.  They don't need any help or advice from the parents.

And that's why one poster thinks three people left and one poster thinks 13 people left.  Because the administration doesn't necessarily want to keep parents up to date on this kind of thing.

And ESPECIALLY if people are leaving because they don't like the administration for some reason.  The last thing the administration wants is anyone talking about that.  Again, simple human nature.  "Preventing panic."  Every organization is motivated to prevent panic even if it means not accurately informing people.

In an ideal world, I would have the highest respect for administrators who collected turnover data including the "whys" given by leavers, and publish it for parents all the time, and admit to any administrative actions that may have enhanced turnover, and keep everyone informed about plans to improve hiring and retention.  But we don't live in a world where administrators are inclined to do this.

There's high turnover at some schools and lower turnover at others.  But any parent at any school who asks administrators why the turnover is high at their school is guaranteed to hear that it's like that everywhere and there's no administration-related reason why anyone ever leaves.  Even disgruntled teachers will instinctively say this to parents, because they know that the administration doesn't want their own role in any turnover ever mentioned.

Anyway, obviously this school hasn't sent out any announcements about how many people are leaving.  And, in my humble opinion, that's a weird job listing if you need to hire multiple elementary school teachers.  Maybe it was just written by AI, or by someone bad at grammar or logic?  Or maybe whoever maintains the career page knows instinctively that showing 13 different job listings might create another cascade of concerned parents that the principal doesn't want to hear from on this.  (Or maybe they really have only one opening, but it could be for any grade because the current teachers will switch around to help a new hire get the grade he or she prefers?)

Anyway, test it out.  Ask how many people are leaving and probe on the question of WHY they're leaving, and see how you feel about the response.  Report back!

In conclusion, I think the trust you have in the administration is justified and is the right attitude.  I wouldn't think the administration would usually be a reason for a teacher leaving.  And I'm not trying to say there's any particular foul play here.  I'm just saying that ALL schools find it hard to be totally transparent about this topic of teacher retention.  [/quote]

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