The Answer - A blog about Education, Preparation, and Commitment.

“The Charter Churn” from the Texas Tribune

January 27, 2010 by Jeremy Jones

YES Prep teachers, staff and supporters: tell us what you think of this article that includes coverage of YES Prep's teacher attrition.

Charter Churn
by Brian Thevenot
January 27, 2010

At some charter schools in Texas, it’s the teachers who can’t wait to clear out at the end of the school year.

In all, more than 40 of nearly 200 charter operators the state tracked — some which oversee multiple schools — had to replace more than half their teaching staffs before the last school year. Even more established and successful operators, including KIPP and YES Prep in Houston, lose nearly a third of their teachers annually. In contrast, just six of more than 1,000 non-charter school districts statewide had more than half their teachers leave, and none of the 20 largest school districts had a turnover rate higher than 16 percent. (Austin ISD had the highest.)...

“When you have a system that’s working, you generally have stability among people who have a common understanding of the curriculum, the processes and the structure. Any time you have to retrain, it creates a real challenge,” said Laura Taylor, an associate commissioner at the Texas Education Agency. “But you have to go beyond just the number [of teachers who leave] and look at which teachers are leaving, what subject areas they are in, and whether they are the real leaders with the experience.” 

YES Prep, for instance, almost exclusively hires younger teachers who they expect to move on to other careers. They average teacher on their seven campuses averages only about 25 years old. Many are recruited by the Teach For America program, which requires only a two-year commitment to teaching.

“Many will move on to graduate school or law school,” says YES Prep spokeswoman Jill Willis. “We talk about our students getting long days and having teacher’s cell phone numbers and weekend enrichment opportunities. On the other side of that, there’s a teacher … and it’s a heavy lift.”

Still, YES Prep administrators acknowledge they are losing too many teachers each year. (Their internal figures show 22 percent rather than the 30 percent listed by the state, but Willis says either figure is too high.) YES wants more of those young teachers to become veterans and is considering a “master teacher track” that would allow teachers who don’t want to leave the classroom to make administrative-level salaries. Such teachers would likely take on additional curriculum development and training duties.

But there are some teachers who the schools are glad to lose. Charters have much more freedom to fire unsuccessful teachers, and many take advantage of it. Willis estimated that about half the teachers who leave YES Prep are sent packing. “We’re faster to dismiss teachers,” she says. “It’s not something that we want to do, but with the demographics that we’re serving, and what we’re trying to do to push them to success, we can’t afford to have four years in a row of a bad teacher.”

...Read More: http://www.texastribune.org/stories/2010/jan/27/charter-churn/

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