Teacher Retention and Recruitment: What’s the Problem?

Introduction
As an aspiring teacher, I feel that we need more teachers who are passionate about teaching, instead of looking at teaching as just a “paycheck”. I personally have met teachers, who I felt really did not enjoy their job, therefore how could I ever learn anything from a teacher that was not even interested in the topic that they are discussing. I believed that these teachers once yearned to be in the classroom, but something must have turned them off from the classroom. In the research paper I will be researching the problem behind teacher retention and recruitment, and trying to find out why it is becoming a problem with finding and keeping the right qualified teachers in our schools.

Bing Search Engine: Teacher Retention a Critical National Problem.
Teacher retention is becoming a serious problem in United States. Almost fifty percent of new teachers are leaving their field of study within the first five years (Dill and Stafford 2008). Why is it becoming so hard to find a qualified teacher, and not just based off academic standards? Well, there has never been any real way to determine if a person will be good at teaching, which could be one of the reason that teachers are not staying around long. As these teachers stray away from teaching, they leave behind a dozens of jobs that need to be filled, which becomes costly over time. The “No Child Left behind Act” has really put pressure on to higher more qualified teachers. However, there might be an answer to the problem of retaining and recruiting teachers. According to Vicky Dill & Delia Stafford of the Haberman Foundation, Dr. Haberman, who is a teacher education has developed an interview process called ‘The Star Teacher Selection Interview’, which is a process sure to weed out the qualified teachers, who are committed to the kids and dedicated to the profession from the ones who are most likely to leave the field. The interview process is composed of ten components, and the response given back based on these components determine if you get the job. Persistence, approach to students, organizing and planning are just a few of the components discussed in the interviewing process. There has been some success stories of school districts using the Haberman process. It is possible that if ‘The Star Teacher Selection Process’ is used more frequently and with more school districts it can reduce the time and money spent on recruiting teachers. As stated before so much is at stake when the retention rate is low, and when less time is spent on recruitment of teachers, more time can spent on the students and making sure that no child is left behind.
URL: http://www.educationnews.org/articles/teacher-retention-a-critical-national-problem.html
Evaluation of website:
This site is credible because it is ranked as one of the #1 source for k12 and higher education news. Also sites like these usually have editors who have to approve the article before they are posted. The sites list all of the authors who write articles on the page so that you can look up further information about the authors.

Google Search Engine: Why do Teachers Quit? Why do they stay? Teachers have one of the highest turnover rates than any other profession. In this article there are several teachers interviewed, who left their teaching jobs within the first five years. It is proven that nearly fifty percent of all teachers leave within their first five years. So what is the problem? When asked this questions most of the teachers stated that high work demand for such a low salary was to blame. According to the author Liz Riggs, the starting salary for a new teacher in the U.S. is around $35,000 (2013), which does not seem like a lot considering the long demanding after work hours consisting of grading weeks of assignments and coming up with lesson plans. However, sometimes higher pay does not always intrigue teachers. There are some opportunities for teachers to make more money in return for working in low income areas, and even with this offer, teachers are passing on the opportunity. Teaching is just not a physical job, but an emotional job as well and it can become exhausting. Therefore, balancing work life with personal life can become straining on a teacher. Another issue with teachers leaving is that, they do not have creative control of their classroom, as stated in the article. In other statics, such factors as parental involvement, student achievement, and the career entry point for teachers can also impact retention (Riggs 2013). There are many factors that may lead to a teacher to leave the field, but the main problem as stated before is that teachers are being underpaid for being overworked.
URL: http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/10/why-do-teachers-quit/280699/

Evaluation of Website:
This site is credible because it is a fair well-known site/magazine, which happens to be the same one that I sometime read in my leisure time, and it has been around since forever. Also sites like these usually have editors who have to approve the article before they are posted.

Yahoo Search Engine: Obama on Teacher Recruitment and Retention. President Obama seems to be coming to the rescue of the teachers’ high turnover rate. In the United States there are about 240,000 teachers needed every year, according to the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence (Weinstein 2009). With numbers like these, it is no wonder the president is trying to come up with a solution for our up and coming teachers. The plan will focus on four key points that will most likely retain more teachers. First on the list is to recruit more teachers, and what better way to recruit than offering scholarships for education. However, in return the potential teacher must agree to work at least four years at a location in high need of a qualified teacher. Next on the list, is to prepare the teacher accurately. Obama with allow teachers to take a performance test to insure that every new teacher is prepared and ready to work effectively as soon as they enter the classroom . Another good aspect of the plan is to pair new teachers with older teachers, so that they can be mentored, and possibly learn different learning techniques they may not have known about. Lastly, Obama is for rewarding teachers with better pay as they develop. By rewarding teachers, it may boost their confidence and also let them know that they are appreciated in everything that they do. (Weinstein 2009). Teachers should not have to become administrators in order to get better pay.
URL: http://www.education.com/magazine/article/Obama_Teacher_Recruitment_and/
Evaluation of Website:
This website is credible because after reading up on the website, I discovered that it is the fourth largest parenting website. Also the authors are listed for each article, so that you can read more information on the author.

Work Cited
Dill, Vicky, and Delia Stafford. "Teacher Retention a Critical National Problem." Educationnews.com. N.p., 14 Apr. 2008. Web. 02 Feb. 2014.

Riggs, Liz. "Why Do Teachers Quit?" The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 18 Oct. 2013. Web. 01 Feb. 2014.

Weinstein, Anna. "Obama on Teacher Recruitment and Retention." Education.com. N.p., 12 Jan. 2009. Web. 02 Feb. 2014.