“It’s bad,” is how an assistant high school principal in Tennessee characterizes the level of teacher turnover the nation is grappling with after more than two years of COVID. But Whitney Green has plenty of solutions, starting with making teachers’ jobs easier and showing them they’re appreciated for how hard they’ve worked during the pandemic. “Trying to create a positive culture and build morale within a school building is really challenging these days,” says Green, an assistant principal at Ooltewah High School, which is part of the Hamilton County School District. “You need to be mindful, as an administrator, of what your teachers value.”
Here are Green’s six strategies for preventing teacher turnover:
1. Provide support for what teachers actually need: During job interviews, almost all prospective teachers ask about the support and professional development they will receive. This is particularly important when it comes to training teachers to use new technology platforms. Administrators can provide professional development to a core group of teachers, who can then train and support their colleagues. “As a leader, you really need to invest in what you’re asking of teachers,” Green says. “You need to understand the platforms yourself to make sure they’re worthwhile and will support students.”
2. Help teachers save time: Provide teachers with resources, such as learning management platforms, that will save time and meet students’ needs. Get everyone trained on the same platform and stick with it.
2. Shield teachers from unnecessary information: Principals, assistant principals and other administrators can act as filters so teachers aren’t overwhelmed with information that does not directly impact them. This will make them more receptive when critical initiatives need to be implemented.
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4. Plan for uncertainty: Administrators can lessen teacher stress by providing consistent and clear communication. This includes creating multiple plans that can be implemented easily and that give teachers enough time to prepare. “Don’t ever have just a plan A. Have backup plans B and C ready to go,” Green says. “The more we’re prepared on the leadership end, the easier it is for teachers to trust us–they know we’re not just winging it.”
5. Pay teachers for their time after school: Some teachers are eager to earn extra money by, for instance, leading an after-school program. This shows teachers they are appreciated and prevents administrators from having to find new staff in a tight labor market.
6. Ensure teachers feel appreciated: There are a wide variety of ideas here from covering classrooms to hosting Food Truck Fridays to buying T-shirts for teams of elementary school teachers. Keep in mind that teachers at different K-12 levels like different things, Green says.
‘A way of taking care of yourself’
Teachers make about 1,500 decisions a day. Supporting teachers in developing their own social-emotional competencies, and training them to build students’ SEL skills, can reduce the stress of all this decision-making, says Lora Hodges the CEO of the Center for Responsive Schools, a nonprofit provider of social-emotional learning programs.
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“When you’re making the kinds of important decisions teachers are making around instruction, around discipline, around relationships with students, having a set of social-emotional competencies to draw upon is a way of taking care of yourself,” Hodges says.
The Center for Responsive Schools promotes five social-emotional competencies: cooperation, assertiveness, responsibility, empathy and self-control. For example, Hodges describes assertiveness as being able to stand up for yourself without hurting others and learning when to say yes and when to say no.
Teachers who haven’t examined their own SEL competencies will have a harder time tending to students’ social-emotional skills or practicing the Center’s “Responsive Classroom” approach that’s focused on engaging instruction and building a positive learning community, Hodges says. “Our collective competence is greater than our individual competence,” she says. “As teachers come to rely on and trust their peers, and form positive adult relationships, they become more committed. They find a sense of resilience and belonging.”
