Back on May 4, Education Week’s Sarah Schwartz wrote, “Teaching has long been a profession with long hours and low pay. Compared to other jobs that require a similar level of education and training, teachers make less money. Still, many educators will say they didn’t get into the job expecting a big salary. But after a pandemic school year that brought heightened stress and mounting responsibilities, the love of the work that keeps so many teachers in the classroom—despite the financial trade-offs—may be eroding.”
That was followed the next day by Education Week’s Denisa R. Superville’s article, “Principals and Teachers Don’t Always See Eye to Eye. Can Getting in Sync Reduce Turnover?” In it, she charts the factors school leaders and teachers say play the biggest roles in keeping educators in the profession:
School leaders’ top five:
- Positive school culture: 48%
- Love for students: 44%
- Supportive administrators: 35%
- Salary that allows for a reasonable standard of living in our community26%
- Collegiality—learning from, collaborating with and being supported by peers: 23%
Teachers’ top five:
- Love for students: 42%
- Retirement benefits: 30%
- Love for the subjects taught: 27%
- Health benefits: 21%
- Reward of seeing former students succeed: 18%
Superville goes on to say that, “Though the pandemic upheaval affected both teachers and principals, school leaders are further removed than teachers from the day-to-day challenges it wrought: the daily technology hiccups, the students learning remotely who are distracted while caring for a younger sibling, or the teacher who needs more training to manage the glut of online tools.”
Perhaps that explains, at least in part, why English and dual-credit college psychology teacher says, “I just think if I were in the beginning of my career and not the end, I would be looking for an exit ramp.”
How about you?
With my thanks, Carol