Holding onto Millennial Teachers: Inequity Lives in the System
This is the second installment in a series called Holding onto Millennial Teachers: Learning About Why They Stay. The series explores what motivates them to stay and how those meeting their motivational needs can generate talent pipeline and retention strategies in even the hardest to staff schools.
I began writing about Millennial teachers when things were normal. The teacher shortage had already been a problem for quite some time, particularly for the nation’s neediest students. Teacher recruitment, teacher retention, and teacher development all surfaced as critical facets of this problem. Then, in March of 2020, the whole world changed. COVID-19 forced us all into a new normal. In a matter of weeks, self-isolation, social distancing, shelter in place, and lockdown characterized life across the globe. Distance Learning became School in this new normal.
The disparity vis-à-vis educational equity became glaring. Teachers in high-needs schools were suddenly mandated to locate all of their students to make sure they were safe, warm, and being fed. They were tasked with ensuring all of their students had a laptop computer and internet connectivity. And, they were expected to quickly pivot, moving their classrooms online, using platforms that were entirely new to them. The graph below shows data from last April (2020) that illustrates how the digital divide impacted students from lower-income households. For Title 1 schools, schools serving students exclusively in historically marginalized communities, this was the reality for every child. And teachers turned into lifelines.
What had been an incredibly challenging job became virtually impossible overnight. Support for these teachers appears to have varied widely, but according to Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, it is clear that pandemic conditions caused them to become even more exhausted, more stressed out, and more overwhelmed than they were under the old normal. As education gurus Linda Darling-Hammond and Maria Hyler recently stated, the current conditions simply underscore the already grave concerns around equity, access, and effective teaching for the students who get the least and need the most.
Given the dire economic conditions created by COVID-19, juxtaposed against the possible health risks of returning to brick-and-mortar schools, teacher retention in high-poverty schools beyond the 2020–2021 school year is of grave concern. Experts anticipate a new wave of resignations this summer. According to a recent RAND corporation report, stress was the primary reason teachers resigned, pre-Covid. The stress of this year due to Covid added even more weight to that. But the inequity in our school system is not going to magically disappear. We know that Millennials as a generation aspire to “make a difference with their work.” The time for them to do that is now by pushing for equity in education.
So the question is, how can school districts and school leaders that serve historically underserved students, target their Millennial teacher demographic and entice them to stay?
I provided Powerful Practice #1 and #2 in my previous post. Those are focused on leveraging adult learning through reflection as a retention strategy. Below is another to add to your toolbox, geared primarily to school leaders and districts serving low-income communities.
Powerful Practice #3: Name the Thing
Equity as a value is critical in dismantling this broken system. Millennial educators can and should be called upon to do this work. But it’s messy, complicated, and very feelings-driven. Engaging with a common text is a very effective way to create common language and norms. It’s a helpful first step in action planning.
Leaders: For district level leaders, school leaders, coaches, and teacher leaders, I highly recommend Elaina Aguilar’s Coaching for Equity. Using text-based protocols, leadership teams can really dig into equity and access as it relates to their own contexts and experiences. By defining equity, naming it as a priority, and committing to addressing inequity as a community, teachers may be compelled to stay and fight for change.
Faculty & Staff: For both instructional and non-instructional staff, it’s important to keep in mind that every adult-to-adult interaction is a professional learning opportunity. The adults in the building are constantly modeling what learning looks like. Building empathy is huge in the fight for equity. Engaging all staff in a highly engaging and accessible read like The Other Wes Moore explores the importance of holding high expectations for all students and the need for all students to have an adult in their corner championing them.
Naming equity as The Thing and then inspiring discussion, soliciting feedback, and calling folks to action is a powerful pathway to retention particularly for a generation of educators who, research shows, are in this work to be the change.
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