Poor schools have tough time keeping teachers


		Mike Urban / P-I
	Rainier View Elementary first-grade teacher Dan Jordan works with Munira Abdirahman, left, and other students on math skills Thursday.

But his biggest problem when he arrived in fall 2000 was dealing with the school's dramatic turnover: That year alone, more than half of the teachers retired, quit or moved on to another school.

With so many new teachers at once, everyone pretty much went into "survival mode," he said.

"I didn't know what I was getting myself into," Jordan said. "It was definitely a tough year for all of us."

Rainier View isn't alone in struggling to hold on to teachers, according to a recent study.

Research by the University of Washington confirms a long-suspected trend: Teachers are leaving many of Seattle's most impoverished public schools at an alarming rate, but appear to be settling in for the long haul in the city's more affluent areas.

Seattle is below the state average in holding on to its teachers, according to the study, which examined statewide retention rates from 1998 to 2003.

Over that five-year period, Washington districts overall retained 58 percent of their teachers in the same school, while Seattle managed to keep 49 percent of its teachers in the same building.

Other Seattle findings:

Despite common perceptions that schools in the city's North End have an easier time attracting and retaining teachers, Daniel Bagley Elementary in Green Lake had the lowest teacher-retention rate in the state. Nine out of 10 teachers left the school over five years.
Turnover was highest at the district's high schools -- 9 of 15 lost more than half of their teaching staffs.
Poverty rates were one of the biggest factors in determining whether teachers stayed or left, especially at the elementary school level. With a few exceptions, schools in poorer areas and those with higher minority populations struggled to keep teachers.

"We're not trying to point fingers at anyone," said Marge Plecki, the lead author of the study, noting links between poverty, race, student achievement and teacher retention. "But this is what the data say. Clearly, it's something that should be noticed."

While some teacher turnover is healthy, too much can be problematic, experts say.

Children benefit from seeing the same teachers return year after year -- it can increase performance expectations and provide stability for those who might not have much stability in their home lives.

And teachers who work in the same school for several years are able to establish long-term relationships with parents, which is crucial to improving student performance and helping build a sense of community.

"You can't build relationships with families if you're only going to be there for a year or two," said Jeanne Harmon, executive director of the Center for Strengthening the Teaching Profession, a non-profit policy group that commissioned the study.

When looking at the Seattle district, "there are schools that are definitely worse off," Harmon said. "And Seattle needs to address the issues in those particular schools."

District administrators plan to review the study, spokeswoman Patti Spencer said. But she pointed out that there are already a number of programs in place designed to help struggling teachers.

There's a mentoring program for new teachers, and all instructors can participate in an array of professional-development activities, including ethnic studies, to better help teachers connect with children from different backgrounds, she said.

While there are no specific measures being taken to reduce turnover, the district does have a group of instructional coaches working with teachers in schools that aren't meeting state student-performance standards, such as Rainier View, Spencer said.

Not everyone agrees that turnover is a bad thing.

"It's the largest myth in education," said Ben Wright, former principal of Thurgood Marshall Elementary in South Seattle. Wright oversaw a shakeup in 2000 and 2001 that separated classrooms by gender and improved academic performance.

By the time he was done, nearly the entire teaching staff had turned over. But Wright maintains that students benefited in the long run, because the teachers who led the rebound are still there.

While dozens of Seattle schools lose far too many experienced teachers each year, there are success stories.

At Kimball Elementary in the Beacon Hill area, the challenges are many: Most students are low-income. Many have language barriers to overcome. Math scores on the WASL are alarmingly low.

But over the five-year period studied, Kimball managed to retain more than 73 percent of its teachers.

Principal Evie Livingston credits a tight-knit teaching staff that learned the ropes together. "They really care about each other," she said.

As word spread of the school's team atmosphere and collegial staff, competition became fierce when there was an opening.

"We'd have 70 to 80 applications for one position," said Livingston's predecessor, Barbara Nielsen. During her four years there, the only teachers who left either retired or were laid off, she said.

It's a similar story at Sanislo Elementary in the Delridge neighborhood of West Seattle, which over five years managed to retain two-thirds of its teachers.

Like at Kimball, a majority of Sanislo students come from poorer homes, and the student body "is wonderfully diverse," Principal Eric Nelson said.

The school's unusual open-classroom design gives it a real community feel, and Nelson and his staff try to deepen that feeling by making extra efforts to connect with parents, some of whom don't speak English.

Notices, newsletters and other announcements sent home with students are translated into parents' native languages, and the school offers an adult ESL class during the week. Monthly "family fun nights," where parents can join their kids at school to poke around the science lab or go roller-skating, are designed to get parents to feel more comfortable at the school, Nelson said.

So far, it's worked. Enrollment is up slightly, and the school has an active PTA, which this year raised $23,000 to help plug holes in the school's budget.

But some schools are not so fortunate. At Rainier View, there aren't nearly enough parent volunteers and veteran teachers.

Teachers assigned there during the years of the study were often fresh out of college -- unprepared for the realities of teaching in such a challenging school. Some would take the job to simply get a foot in the door, and move elsewhere as soon as a position opened up.

The constant turnover would be a blow to any school, but there are signs of improvement.

Dan Jordan and many of the other new hires from 2000 have stuck around, saying their early struggles helped them bond.

When the principal position opened up, teachers lobbied for Cathy Thompson, whose enthusiasm for the job is infectious. Since then, teachers have embraced changes she's made, including an instructional overhaul that places more emphasis on reading and math, and a push for culturally sensitive teaching.

There are still few veteran teachers at Rainier View, but those who stayed wouldn't dream of leaving now.

"These kids really learn better when they have something they can count on every day -- the same faces, the same routine," said third-grade teacher Carleen Greene, who has taught at Rainier View for seven years. "The more stability we have here, the better."

The job is still stressful -- there's pressure to bring up woefully low WASL scores, and there are rumors that the school may be closed to help balance the district's budget.

For now, Jordan has no plans to leave. "It's not an easy school -- I'll never say it's easy," he said. "But that challenge keeps me wanting to come back."

P-I reporter Jessica Blanchard can be reached at 206-448-8322 or jessicablanchard@seattlepi.com

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