Remaining Retained — Teacher Retention

I went to graduate school straight out of college. More specifically, I entered a Ph.D. program at age 22. I was the youngest person in my three-person cohort; on top of the enormous academic workload, it felt like social purgatory.

While at Temple (grad school) I had an amazing assistantship. It was my job to attend meetings at different Principals’ leadership and development training throughout Philadelphia and nearby suburbs. At this time, I had no plans to be a teacher; I was earning a doctorate in educational psychology. My studies were focused on school culture, and the principals’ training provides me with great insight. One of the biggest and most time-consuming topics of the principal trainings focused on teacher retention.

*Chuckles*

I did not complete a Ph.D. at Temple, but I did receive a Masters's Degree before becoming a teacher and school leader. As someone who has hired dozens of teachers in my role as Education Director and later as a Co-Principal, I was keenly aware and concerned about hiring teachers who had left mid-year. To leave mid-year as a teacher was seen and viewed as “I don’t care about my students” tattooed over someone’s forehead. Some school leaders might even declare such an individual “unhireable”

Then as fate would decide, I needed to leave mid-year. I would cry in a quiet stairwell after having been accosted and disrespected by parents; the school was doing almost nothing to thwart the constant, unsolicited chaos. I would pump myself up on gospel music or Beyoncé on the drive to work, just to struggle to get out of the car to enter the school. “What type of abuse will I experience here today?” I’d wonder. The stairwell tears were not for me, but for my students. I didn’t want to leave them. Our classroom was one where community circles and restorative conversations were productive. I’d meticulously plan opportunity-filled field study, after field study. In return, the students had meaningful products that showed their understanding. I adored those students. I didn’t want them to feel abandoned, however, I no longer wanted to be abused and unsupported.

I now had my tattoo. What I had was a scar.

The experience made me think deeply about how different it felt sitting on the other side of the interview table. How my leaving was a direct response to unclear professional boundaries, reactive and inactive leadership, and an overall hostile work environment.

We educators don’t sign up to abandon anyone. I salute the educators and leaders that sat discussing teacher retention years before teacher retention and my unwillingness to be contained by dysfunction became my very own reality.

There’s a teacher shortage in this country and a conversation needs to be had. Who will remain “retained” if schools are not physically, and emotionally safe, and respectful for students and their teachers?

Onward,

Melissa