Striking Teacher Churn in Charter Schools

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/education/striking-teacher-churn-charter-schools

High-quality teachers are integral to academic achievement, experts agree, from Finland and Singapore to East New York and Morrisania. Cultivating excellent teachers and retaining them in the profession are paramount goals, shared by a bevy of bedfellows usually at odds in the education-reform debate, from teachers unions to charter-school champions like the Gates, Walton and Broad foundations.

But according to data from the New York State Department of Education, charter schools in New York City lose far more teachers every year than their traditional school counterparts. In some schools, more than half of faculty "turn over" from one school year to the next, according to NYSED school report cards.

Charter advocates at the New York City Charter School Center and at Success Academies, the city's largest charter network, say that at least some of the turnover is due to movement within school networks—teachers moving up the leadership ladder, for example, or to seed the faculty of new schools, which have opened at a rapid clip in recent years.

But even so, it's hard to explain a churn of more than half the veteran faculty, which is the case at 15 percent of charter schools for which the state reports data.

[Smarmie Doofus]

1. They acknowledge this.

At least Eva Moskowitz ( NYC Charter School empress at $475,000 per year) does.

It's no biggie as far as they're concerned. It's just a matter of "moving bodies around", as I once heard one NYC DOE educrat say to another . ( And that was a LONG time ago... 1986-87 or so. Way before charters.) It's the bureaucratic mentality at work.

School "reform" is nothing if not bureaucratic dysfunction...... on *chrystal meth*.

[xchrom]

2. bureaucratic dysfunction is a huge modern problem.

right up there with corruption and ineptness.

not sure how to tackle it other than to establish some kind of audit system that stays on top of all this and agitates for reforms.

[Smarmie Doofus]

3. At this point, my advice is.... if you don't have kids, DON'T HAVE ANY.

If you already have 'em, homeschool 'em.

[xchrom]

4. lol - probably not bad advice. nt

[leftyohiolib]

6. home schooling is bad advice

[mainer]

5. Not at all hard to understand. All about pay and benefits.

My son's a teacher, and when he was job hunting, he found plenty of openings at charter schools, where the pay was much, much less than in a public school -- and with no benefits. Charter schools pay peanuts. No wonder teachers don't last there.

[theaocp]

7. My principal (sorry, CAO) told us

at our end of year wrap up "celebration" that she loved charters because they could hire and fire whomever they wished, whenever they wished. I was not sorry when I turned in my resignation and started paying union dues in the public sphere. Working in charters equals favoritism, straight up.

High turnover is a feature, not a bug. It's designed that way to maximize profit, not better educate the students. They know what the fuck they're doing.