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School districts can realize cost savings by minimizing the amount of teacher turnover they have each year. A study from the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future estimates the cost of replacing a teacher to range from $4,300 per year in a small rural district in New Mexico to almost $18,000 in Chicago.
Using data from the National Center for Education Statistics, Hobart Harmon and I identify seven strategies rural districts can use to reduce teacher turnover:
- Implement an aligned teacher recruitment, hiring, and support system.
- Hire early.
- Implement a mentoring program for new teachers.
- Help teachers find a place to live in the district.
- Develop local teaching talent.
- Create positive workplace conditions.
- Find out why teachers leave.
Email me if you'd like a copy of the Reducing Teacher Turnover Costs in Rural Districts policy brief.
A U.S. Department of Education spokesman confirms that the Obama administration has discontinued the department's Rural Education Task Force, and the Center for Rural Education. What are they going to do for the unique needs of rural schools? Something tells me not much. Not that the Bush administration did much of anything. Where's the outrage?
I just sent a message to the U.S. Department of Education asking them for an update on the Secretary's Rural Education Task Force. From what I can tell the Task Force held 4 or 5 meetings, the last of which was December 14, 2006.
Since the purpose of a task force is to do a task, the question becomes what task did they accomplish. My sense is it just sort of drifted away without having completed a specific task, or at least a meaningful one. Will the Obama administration reconstitute the task force and assign it important work? I'm not hopeful.
The National Rural Education Association has a nice new design for it's website.
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