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Teacher Retention and Recruitment: Challenges and Opportunities

Intel Free Press via Flickr

Florida records indicate that as much as 40 percent of new teachers in Florida leave the profession or go on to teach in another state within their first five years of teaching.  Florida’s overall educator attrition rate of 15-20 percent is higher than the national average.  We’ll take a closer look at why teachers in Florida and around the nation are leaving the profession and their frustrations with the job.  

We’ll also explore a 2014 study from the Alliance for Excellent Education comparing teacher retention challenges across the country.  That study reports teachers linking job satisfaction with low salaries, inadequate administrative support, and isolated working conditions among other factors.  The study also finds that teacher turnover cost the state between $61.4 million and $133.6 million dollars a year between 2008 and 2009.  We’ll explore the report’s findings and recommendations and how Florida school districts are battling the problem with efforts to recruit and retain teaching talent.

Guests:

Mark Castellano, President of the Teachers Association of Lee County

Kathy Jo Piechura-Couture, Ph.D., professor in the Nina B. Hollis Institute of Educational Reform at Stetson University

Bob Wise, President of the Alliance for Excellent Education and former Governor of West Virginia