Panel Discusses Recruiting and Retaining High Quality Teachers

On Tuesday, May 11, 2004, the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices sponsored a state policy forum entitled, “Recruiting and Retaining High Quality Teachers for All Schools.” The event, which brought together notable panelists from across the United States, was held at the Phoenix Park Hotel in Washington D.C.

The overarching goal of the symposium was to discuss what challenges educators face in their schools and the strategies they are using to overcome the growing crisis of recruiting and retaining high quality teachers.

The first panel consisted of Rick Hess, the Director of Educational Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute, Richard Ingersoll, associate professor of Education and Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, Julia Koppich, the President of Julia E. Koppich and Associates and Ben Scafidi, the Education Policy Advisor to Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue.

The panel had varying viewpoints based on their individual research, but each agreed that in order to recruit and retain high quality teachers, fair compensation was paramount.

Based on research that shows a lack of high quality teachers in low performing schools, Hess believes in compensating good teachers, especially when putting them in bad schools. Koppich elaborated by saying that giving teachers more money was not enough. She believes that teachers need good colleagues and a capable principal to provide support and leadership.

Ingersoll makes the point that in order to slow down the revolving door of teacher turnover, the improvement of working conditions within the schools themselves would be an important step in attracting and keeping highly qualified teachers.

In his presentation, Scafidi recommended the use of alternative routes to teacher certification based on the success that his state, Georgia, has had. He believes that alternative certification can be a savior because it brings in more minorities and males. Furthermore, alternate routes produce better retention rates because the person making the decision is often older and therefore is making a mature, conscious decision to change careers.

The second panel included Kaya Henderson, Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at the New Teacher Project, Craig Jerald, principal partner at the Education Trust, Janice Poda, Senior Director of the Division of Teacher Quality at the South Carolina Department of Education and George Ann Rice, Assistant/Associate Superintendent of the Clark County School District in Nevada.

These local, state and national leaders discussed the strategies they are currently implementing to recruit and retain teachers and the challenges that they face.

Henderson wanted to dispel the myth that teachers do not want to teach in urban districts. She believes the main contribution to teacher shortages in these schools has to do with late application deadlines, non-existent vacancy notification requirements, transfer requirements, and late budget timelines and inadequate planning.

Jerald was excited about the No Child Left Behind Act because it provided a platform for gathering good data—without it, there is no way to assess how to fix problems in education policy.

Poda and Rice both reaffirmed Scafidi’s belief that alternative routes to teacher certification were important avenues in their state’s efforts to recruit and retain teachers.

The afternoon featured another panel discussion with state and national leaders focusing on the retention of teachers in hard-to-staff schools and schools with large populations of at-risk students.

Charles Coble, Vice President for Policy Studies and Programs for the Education Commission of the States, Lucille Davy, Special Counsel to Governor James E. McGreevey for Education Policy, Ellen Moir, Director of Teacher Education at the University of California at Santa Cruz and Marnie Thompson, Director of Teacher Professional Research in the Learning and Teaching Research Center at Educational Testing Service in Princeton gave presentations outlining strategies to improve teacher retention in these types of schools.

Many of the issues brought up reinforced earlier speakers’ remarks. Specifically, the efforts to address teacher pay, leadership and working conditions and how they lead to teacher dissatisfaction, turnover and attrition.

The keynote address was given by The Honorable Mark Warner, Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia and Chair of the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices.

Warner reiterated the need for highly qualified teachers in every classroom and the need for better accountability for teacher preparation and student results.

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