Getting and Keeping Talented Teachers is the Way Forward

Eva Chiang presents School Leadership Initiative reports at Briscoe Elementary School in Fort Worth, Texas. (Grant Miller / George W. Bush Presidential Center)

Since 2019 student achievement has fallen rapidly. This may feel like an unprecedented and impossible to recover from shift in our education system. But there is one clear way to recover learning loss for students: Get and keep talented teachers and leaders for our students.

Like many other fields, the educator talent pipeline has taken a hit.  Some estimates show that the school year started with over 30,000 teacher roles open, and over 100,000 roles filled by uncertified staff.

Our educator workforce may never return to the same as it was before the pandemic. Too much has happened to make talented educators decide to change professions or leave the workforce altogether — stress related to the pandemic, divisive politics invading our schools, and students who are getting further and further behind. This is not just happening in education. Terms like “The Great Resignation” and “quiet quitting” are trending for a reason.

A look at the research and data, though, shows where we go from here. Much like in other professions, there are talent retention strategies we can use to keep our great teacher talent.

What we know about talent retention

There are some universal strategies to keep talented people in their roles in a variety of fields. Management researchers like Brooks Holtom have been studying the concept of job embeddedness for decades. As the name coined by Holtom and colleagues suggests, this construct is simply all the things that help get employees embedded into an organization, making it more difficult for them to choose to leave.

There are three forces behind job embeddedness: fit, links, and sacrifice. For example, if you have friends at work, you may think twice before deciding to leave for a different job with people you don’t know. This is an example of links. Alternatively, if you find a similar job with similar intrinsic rewards, but for a lot more money, you may be willing to make the leap to a new organization. That is sacrifice.

Much like in other professions, there are talent retention strategies we can use to keep our great teacher talent.

Holtom and others identified ways organizations can change their practice to help facilitate this embeddedness. These include things like providing quality training or leadership programs to help employees build their skills, giving employees opportunities to weigh in on decisions and/or time to get to know their colleagues, and supporting employees outside of work with things like child and elder care.

While the research on educator talent is not definitive, there is a growing body of evidence that helps us understand how we get, support, and keep talent. There is descriptive research, for example, that matching educators to their schools based on their student teaching experience make teachers more effective. This may help increase fit. And, we know that teachers who have networks they feel comfortable seeking advice from when implementing new teacher standards is significantly related to student achievement. This is a way to create links.

A teacher is surrounded by students in Atlanta, Georgia. (via Unsplash)

What teachers think

Research is one thing, but I was curious about what current teachers say would make them stay in their roles longer. To understand this, I surveyed 62 Texas teachers in urban school districts. There are limitations with this survey data given the small and limited sample size, and it should be interpreted carefully.

That said, the data is interesting, especially when interpreted with the job embeddedness theory lens. Teaching students to learn is an incredibly rewarding endeavor. I am a former teacher, and though I’ve been out of the K-12 classroom over a decade, my career highlights still include breakthrough moments with former students.

My biggest professional accomplishments include things like teaching struggling middle schoolers to love reading. I was embedded in that role from day one because I felt strongly that I fit the role and I felt links to my students and the teachers I taught beside.

Research is one thing, but I was curious about what current teachers say would make them stay in their roles longer. To understand this, I surveyed 62 Texas teachers in urban school districts.

My organization did not have to change any practice or invest any money to give me that feeling of fit or those links. I have had amazing jobs since leaving the classroom, but not one hooked me that deeply from day one. Education has something going for it when it comes to retention.

The survey data reflects this phenomenon of fit and links. Even today with all that is going on, about half of survey respondents reported being satisfied with their current position. And 76% agreed that they are a good match for their school and role. As one surveyed teacher said, “Working in the classroom is what I feel I am meant to do. I work to be a better educator every single day. My colleagues do as well.”

While the education field has a leg up when it comes to fit and links, this is not true when it comes to sacrifice. It turns out 71% of survey takers agreed that they frequently explore other job opportunities, and only 34% agreed that it would be very difficult to leave their current jobs.

While the research on educator talent is not definitive, there is a growing body of evidence that helps us understand how we get, support, and keep talent.

So how can we design system that gives teachers such strong benefits and support that it would be a sacrifice for them to leave? Since 44 of the 62 survey respondents reported they plan to leave their jobs within three years, we have to try.

Talented teachers are needed in classrooms.

What will keep educators in the classroom

One part of the survey has statements like, “I would stay longer if my district…”. There are 16 of these items on the survey, and I looked at the top-rated statements to understand teachers’ motivations to stay. According to those surveyed, there are three things we can do.

First and unsurprisingly, teachers reported in the survey that we need to pay them more and give them better benefits. In Texas, the average teacher salary is just under $59,000, and our retirement system lags behind other states.

More frustratingly, I observed many districts giving bonuses for new teachers to attract more talent. However, teachers who stayed loyal and in their roles received nothing. We need to rethink how the financial compensation and incentives we are giving our educators.

But pay isn’t everything.  Teachers surveyed also want more control over how and when they do their jobs, much like all professionals. Eighty-eight percent agreed they’d stay longer if they had more autonomy, and eighty-one percent agreed a more flexible schedule would entice them to stay longer. Creating flexible schedules may seem difficult given that their job requires them to be in front of students, but some districts have figured out how to do this.

If we are to keep teachers, we must provide more support. All but two teachers agreed that they would stay longer if they had more support with student behavior. And 74% would stay if they had more support with parent or community challenges. One explained, “I would be convinced to stay in this position if, as a teacher, I would receive the proper support to help my students.”

If we are to keep teachers, we must provide more support. All but two teachers agreed that they would stay longer if they had more support with student behavior.

When teachers say this, they aren’t blaming students. It is easy to understand how hard it has been to recover from the pandemic and other stressors happening in our world. This is particularly true for our children.

Three immediate policies

The increasing student achievement gap is worrisome. But a clear path forward is to get and keep talented teachers in our classrooms. A combination of research and the small survey of teachers described here reveals three policies we should enact immediately.

1. Pay teachers more and ensure they have comprehensive benefits packages so they can take care of themselves and their families.
2. Treat teachers like the professionals they are. Give them autonomy over how they teach their content and find ways to give them flexible work arrangements.
3. Support teachers. Students need additional mental health and other supports so teachers can focus on academics. And school district leaders, parents, and others need to find ways to support teachers. While students and their progress should be the main focus, adults need to be careful that their advocacy efforts aren’t actually causing more harm than good. As one teacher surveyed said, “The attacks on education and teachers in the last couple of years have greatly sped up the rate of leaving.”

Talent is our most limited resource and critical to improving outcomes for students in schools. Investing in our teachers is a sure-fire way of gaining what we’ve lost over the past two years.