Research, personal experience and mass media stories all reiterate the significant role teachers play in their students’ lives. They play a tremendous part in developing young people’s sense of competence and mastery. Teachers are, in short, vitally important players in children’s educational lives. However, in Wisconsin, as in the rest of the United States, there are several disturbing new trends. Large numbers of teachers are leaving their jobs after just a few years, at the same time as increasing numbers of “baby boomer” teachers are nearing retirement. Budget-strapped districts are struggling to find the funds needed to address teacher shortages and teacher retention.
Thanks to a grant from the Ford Foundation, IWF is working to investigate the factors involved in retaining teachers and maximizing their effectiveness in the classroom. The focal points in this effort are Milwaukee (the largest, poorest and most diverse district in the state with 90,000 students) and the rural region in north central Wisconsin which has 36 small districts ranging in size from 162 students to 2,950. Because both Milwaukee and the smaller rural districts account for the highest rates of teacher turnover in the state, they are most in need of analysis to determine strategies for improving teacher retention and student achievement.
Project Overview
The Teacher Retention Project, kicked off in
2008, has these goals:
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Through aggregate data collection, one-on-one interviews and group discussions assess the reasons Wisconsin teachers leave (or stay) in their schools and what should be done to address the problems identified.
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Work with teachers, administrators and parents to develop recommendations for pilot projects in the schools that would include the kind of changes research shows to be the most effective in keeping good teachers in their classrooms.
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Conduct a national study of promising practices that deal with teacher retention and publicize them through an in-depth article series in Rethinking Schools magazine and in a special section of the Rethinking Schools website.
Data is currently being collected and analyzed and focus group meetings to develop recommendations are about to begin late April.
Survey Results
Revisit this page soon for survey results
Planning for the Future
Revisit this page soon for project recommendations.