Here is the link to the DCPCSB annual reports page. You'll have to skim the reports to find their attrition percentages: http://www.dcpcsb.org/MISC/Charter-School-Annual-Reports.aspx


I'm still looking for the exact document offered by DCPS.

Anonymous wrote:OP from the thread re: teacher attrition, This is the thread to which I was responding but could not find. To answer the OP of this thread, the charter schools' annual reports, available on DC Public Charter School Board site, have the teacher attrition rates info included in the reports. This, coupled with the scorecard info on DCPS schools, should provide a comprehensive view.

Link please.

OP from the thread re: teacher attrition, This is the thread to which I was responding but could not find. To answer the OP of this thread, the charter schools' annual reports, available on DC Public Charter School Board site, have the teacher attrition rates info included in the reports. This, coupled with the scorecard info on DCPS schools, should provide a comprehensive view.

Someone decided to start a second thread on teacher turnover. So bumping the original...

Anonymous wrote:Fair enough, but another way to look at it is that good schools do not get TFA teachers. If you are truly a great school, with high morale, and excellent PD- then you are not left with spots to fill when the TFA kids roll around. So, if you see a lot of TFA at a school- its because they school has high turnover.

Hi. TFA alum and current DCPS teacher. This is a pretty good assumption.

Honestly, often the purpose of hiring loads of novice teachers (either from TFA or ed school) is because you're trying to mitigate a seemingly unsolvable problem. The majority of schools that hire TFA teachers are poorly managed and low performing. When these characteristics are combined, it makes working at the school INCREDIBLY difficult. If you have teaching experience, your pool of potential schools at which you could be hired is more extensive than people new to the profession. Therefore, you're going to avoid these chronically low performing schools. Administrators and district officials who work at said schools want to keep their jobs and fill their teaching vacancies, and the only people left are the fresh meat TFA recruits. They're typically willing to work hard for those test scores, and as soon as they're burned out or have enough experience to move to another school, along comes another crew of new TFA kids to take their place.

Solving this problem doesn't lie in the kind of teachers you recruit (honestly, TFA recruits and ed majors perform about the same under similar circumstances), but in how you're managing a school and district. So, look for things that the PP mentioned - high morale, excellent PD, happy teachers.

Being poorly managed and being low performing are not necessarily mutually exclusive characteristics of schools, so I wouldn't suggest avoiding a school just because it doesn't have the most appealing scores. I still work at a Title I public school that gets decent scores, but the culture of the building is wonderful, which makes me want to work extremely hard for my students, families, and administration. Scores will continue to rise as long as a school is well managed.

Fair enough, but another way to look at it is that good schools do not get TFA teachers. If you are truly a great school, with high morale, and excellent PD- then you are not left with spots to fill when the TFA kids roll around. So, if you see a lot of TFA at a school- its because they school has high turnover.

Anonymous wrote:^ 1000+

Are there any solutions? Should principals avoid the TFA applicants and try to hire more education majors?

^ 1000+

A significant percentage of Teach for America teachers cycle in and out each year. They begin their careers clues and just when they start getting good they cycle out to enter grad schools at elite universities as was the plan on day one.

Strange indeed. The general page is down, but you can access all schools directly by typing into Google something like "DC School Profiles" along with the name of the school that interests you.

wow--can't believe I never saw this before--useful info, thanks! but I can't get any other school to load... not sure why the Deal page is working but it says the school profiles page is down.. how did you pull up the Deal page?

Forgot to add: "Scorecards" is the green tab next to the blue "Overview" tab. Not sure why but it took me a moment to get it.

Look under DCPS School Profiles, click on Scorecards, then on the details for "Safe and Effective Schools". Here is the example for Deal, so you can work your way from there to whatever you want to check: http://profiles.dcps.dc.gov/Deal+Middle+School
(Not sure that anything like this exists for charters in such detail. Charters do receive report cards but they're more aggregate and I don't recall being able to pull up the underlying data details.)

Does anyone know how to find out a school's teacher turnover rate from year to year?