Teacher
turnover high at the 'takeover schools'
External managers struggle with staffing instability
by Kurt Spiridakis
Teacher turnover
increased between June and September 2002 at most of the schools in Philadelphia
that were assigned to external managers or subject to special intervention.
This pattern
among schools was evident across all types of interventions and managers,
including for-profit education management organizations (EMOs), nonprofit
entities, the District-run "restructured schools," and schools
designated to become charter schools.
The problem
of staffing instability was especially severe at the conversion charter
schools and those run by three of the external management groups -- Universal,
Edison, and Victory. Data on anticipated vacancies for the fall of 2003
indicate that teacher turnover may continue to be a problem next year
in the schools subject to external intervention.
An examination of School District staffing data indicates that the state takeover and implementation of a multiple provider model intensified the longstanding difficulty among most of the low-performing "partnership" schools in retaining their teachers and in attracting fully certified teachers.
 |
Historically,
schools serving the poorest students in the District experience high
levels of teacher turnover. Some of the departing teachers leave the
District entirely; many teachers seek transfers to lower-poverty schools
within the District once they have enough seniority. These schools
also have higher rates of emergency-certified teachers who are not
yet fully licensed to teach. The problem has always been most severe at high-poverty middle schools, which were among the schools targeted for the interventions implemented this year. |
Some administrators
affected by the high turnover are not so sure it was a bad thing. Representatives
of some EMOs say they welcome new teachers who embrace their reform model
and add that young teachers can bring new energy to a school.
But ongoing
turnover and teacher instability is a problem for schools. Schools with
high turnover have a hard time implementing a coherent academic program
since many staff have no history of working with each other. High turnover
generally also implies the arrival of many inexperienced new teachers
each year, presenting an annual mentoring challenge for senior teachers.
Partnership
schools hit by turnover
Education
experts in Philadelphia wondered if there would be a mass exodus of teachers
from schools once the takeover list was announced back in April 2002.
According to data provided by the School District of Philadelphia, these
fears have been confirmed.
Between the
spring and fall of 2002, an unusually large number of teachers left schools
that were slated for management by external partners or that were ordered
to become independent charter schools.
Teacher turnover
rates more than doubled in schools newly managed by Edison (19 percent
to 40 percent), Victory (17 percent to 40 percent), and Universal (14
percent to 36 percent). The Universal school turnover rate exceeded 40
percent when Vare Middle School, a transitional charter managed by Universal,
was counted in the Universal category.
Seven of
the 20 Edison-managed schools had over 40 percent of their teachers leave
before the school year started. Stoddart-Fleisher Middle School and Comegys
Elementary School both lost at least half of their full-time teaching
staff.
Turnover
rates from last year to the current school year were not as high in schools
assisted by the University of Pennsylvania or Temple or that were targeted
to be a District-run restructured school. These schools had turnover rates
between 23 and 28 percent. Only four of the 21 restructured schools lost
as many as 40 percent of their teachers.
None of the
schools managed by Temple University and the University of Pennsylvania
lost more than 35 percent of their teachers.
The lowest
average turnover rate of any category of schools on the District's list
of 86 low-scoring schools belonged to the 16 schools that, because of
a history of improvement, were not assigned to an external manager.
These 16
schools (dubbed by some as "the sweet sixteen") were instead
given extra per-pupil funds to further their efforts to raise student
achievement. Their turnover rate was 22 percent, and their turnover rate
increased less than the schools with outside managers.
Teacher turnover
rates for all categories of school interventions during this first year
of reform were still substantially higher than the districtwide turnover
rate of 12 percent.
"Teachers
left the schools on the low-performing list in higher numbers than usual,
partly because of the uncertainty and confusion of the state takeover
and the move to a diverse provider model," said Elizabeth Useem,
director of research at the Philadelphia Education Fund. Useem has followed
trends in staffing in Philadelphia schools over a number of years.
"In
some of the partnership schools, turnover accelerated because of the transfer
-- sometimes voluntary, sometimes forced -- of a well-regarded principal,"
Useem said.
"With
the departure of the leader, teachers started looking elsewhere too. One
school experienced a triple whammy -- a good principal left, the school
was designated to become a charter, and an EMO with whom the teachers
were unfamiliar was assigned to manage the school," she added. "It
is not surprising that many veteran teachers transferred out. When strong
principals stayed in place, most of their teachers stayed with them."
The two most
extreme cases of teacher flight occurred in Belmont Elementary School,
which was converted to a charter school, and FitzSimons Middle School,
which changed to single-sex classrooms under the management of Victory
Schools. These two schools registered an 80 percent teacher turnover rate.
Overall,
the four schools assigned to charter status or transitional charter status
averaged the highest teacher departure rate -- 47 percent compared to
17 percent the previous year.
Teachers
in these schools feared the potential loss of their status as School District
employees and as members of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers.
More new
teachers
The School
District hired 650 new teachers in the fall, constituting about 6 percent
of all full-time teachers. But new teachers made up a higher proportion
of faculties at schools with outside managers.
Edison and
Victory Schools, with the highest percentage of new teachers at their
schools, had over three times as many new teachers as District schools
that were not on the takeover list.
In Philadelphia
schools that have not been subject to an external intervention, the average
teacher has been teaching for 17 years, whereas the average teacher in
a Chancellor Beacon, Universal, or Edison school in Philadelphia has been
teaching for 11 years. These schools fit the historical pattern of lower
teacher experience in many of Philadelphia's high-poverty schools.
Certification
rates vary
Teacher certification
rates varied widely from school to school during the 2002-03 school year.
Certification is an indication that the teacher has taken all necessary
coursework and passed the required state exam. (However, high certification
rates do not necessarily mean that teachers are teaching a subject in
which they have expertise.) The percentage of certified teachers has been
slowly declining in Philadelphia over the past three years, from a high
of 92 percent in 1999 to about 84 percent for the current school year.
Certification
rates of the teaching staff remained about the same or improved slightly
overall compared to the previous school year at schools run by Edison,
Chancellor Beacon, Victory, Temple, University of Pennsylvania, Foundations,
and the District's restructured schools.
The proportions
of certified teachers were highest at Foundations-run schools (85 percent)
and schools that had formed a partnership with the University of Pennsylvania
(83 percent) and Temple University (82 percent).
Restructured
schools had about an 80 percent overall certification rate in the fall
of 2002.
The most
serious declines in the percentage of certified teachers occurred at the
four conversion charter schools, where rates dropped from 83 to 73 percent,
and at the two schools managed by Universal, where the proportion certified
decreased from 82 to 72 percent.
While overall
rates of certification were low at schools managed by Edison, Victory,
and Chancellor Beacon (ranging from 70 to 77 percent), these rates were
no worse than they had been during the year prior to the state takeover
and external management of schools.
According
to Elizabeth Useem, outside educational managers will need to make attracting
and retaining new teachers a priority in the current school year.
"They
inherited a chronic problem, and it was made worse by all the tumult surrounding
the state takeover and the complex, rushed process in which schools were
assigned to a variety of radical interventions," Useem said. "[The
2003-04 school year] staffing trends will give us more reliable indicators
of how teachers assess these interventions."
The data for this article were provided by the School District of Philadelphia and were analyzed and summarized by Kurt Spiridakis, a researcher formerly with the Philadelphia Education Fund. PEF is a local education fund committed to improving the quality of public education for all children in Philadelphia through direct student services, professional development for teachers, research, and advocacy.
This article was first printed in the Summer 2003 edition of the Philadelphia Public School Notebook and was part of a series that explored the theme: "The takeover-one year later." The Notebook is an independent quarterly newspaper that serves as a voice for parents, students, teachers, and other members of the community who are working for quality and equity in Philadelphia's public schools.
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