10-25-22 Testimony on Teacher Turnover by Mary Levy
/My role in the issue of teacher turnover for a long time has been to study and say what it is. In short, except for a two-year pandemic decrease, for the last ten years the average public school has lost one-fourth of its classroom teachers every year.
OSSE’s report of last spring is welcome, but only lays out city-wide information. This is useful for public policy, but for accountability and effective action, we at least need the DCPS and the charter sector distinguished, and beyond that information at the school level because school level is what counts for the students.
Fortunately, OSSE did provide a database with full retention data by school, which I have turned it into a more user-friendly format, accompanied by analysis. That information is posted on the website of the Coalition for DC Public Schools, C4DC.
It says:
The range of teacher turnover in DCPS last year ran as high as 64%.
The average loss of one-quarter of classroom teachers last year is just an average. One third of DCPS schools lost one-third or more of their teachers in a single year.
Worse, teacher loss has gone up consistently with the percentage of at-risk students.
Last year the average rate was 18% at schools with fewer than 20% of their students classified as at-risk but 30% at schools with over 60% considered at-risk. Research finds that the achievement of low-income students is especially hurt by teacher turnover.
In addition:
Based on DCPS reports at Performance Oversight Hearings most classroom teachers leaving DCPS are rated Highly Effective or Effective—almost 80% last year.
Then there are those who quit mid-year. Last year between the beginning of October and the beginning of January, over two percent of classroom teachers disappeared from the DCPS roster. That’s over 2,000 students with interrupted instruction in just three months. This is terribly destabilizing and it really needs to be investigated and come to an end. My question: why has nothing changed in ten years?
Addendum to Testimony before the Committee of the Whole, District of Columbia Council
Teacher and Principal Turnover vs. Retention in the District’s Public Schools
Bill 24-355, “Statewide Data Warehouse Amendment Act of 2021
Mary Levy October 25, 2022
Last year between the beginning of October and the beginning of January, over two percent of classroom teachers disappeared from the DCPS roster. That means that in just three months over 2,000 students suffered interrupted instruction.
This information is based on a comparison of two DCPS employee rosters obtained through FOIA requests.
Classroom teachers
Total number in October
4,484
Not in January roster
95
Percentage leaving
2.12%
All ET-15 staff
Total number in October
5,451
Not in January roster
116
Percentage leaving
2.13%
The number of students affected is based on average class size of 22, calculated from FY 2022 grade level enrollment projections by school and Initial Budget allocations by school.