Irreplaceables: The Real Retention Crisis

As a less seasoned school administrator, I had a leadership coach share an article and research from TNTP with me about “Irreplaceables.”  "Irreplaceables" referred to the top teachers in a school and their positive impact on students and their leadership in the school is so valuable that they are nearly impossible to replace, but too often they leave because of inattention or neglect.  On average, each year they help students learn two to three additional months’ worth of math and reading compared with the average teacher, and five to six months more compared to low-performing teachers.  Teachers of this caliber not only get outstanding academic results, but also provide a more engaging learning experience for students. For example, when placed in the classroom of an Irreplaceable secondary math teacher, students are much more likely to say that their teacher cares, does not let them give up when things get difficult and makes learning enjoyable.   "Irreplaceables" influence students for life, and their talents make them invaluable assets to their schools. The problem is, their schools don’t seem to know it. 

A school leader once said “An effective teacher is worth his/her weight in gold.  Too few people really know this.”  As we were reviewing EOC and MAP data last week, I was reminded of the importance of great teachers and how profound their impact is on students.  In a week with very disappointing results from testing, there were a couple of bright spots that made us all smile at how our students performed.  One teacher had every single child in her class to meet or exceed their mid-year MAP goal of 5+ points improvement.  She had almost these same exact results in all of her classes, face-to-face and virtual.  This is despite only having 54 instructional days, with 27 of those being remote, instead of the normal 90 days in a semester.  When you hear from school after school and teacher after teacher about students scoring far below expectations and not meeting targets and some lower than ever before, how does one teacher or a couple of teaches in a school have this type of performance?……because they’re one of the “Irreplaceables!”  It doesn’t matter what challenges they might face or where their students come to them performing or what resources they might not have……they find a way to reach every student they come in contact with, they raise the bar for everyone else, and they’re the exemplar of what teachers should strive to be.  They don’t make excuses, they find a way to get results! 

I knew one of these teachers was “irreplaceable” far before she ever came to our school.  In talking with a middle school student about their favorite teacher of all time, he named her without even having to think about it.  He said she was tough and expected them to work hard every day, but she cared and tried all kinds of stuff to help him learn.  The attitude and way he perked up when he talked about the teacher let us know really quickly how much the student loved and respected the teacher.  I’ve always found it interesting that when asked about a favorite teacher, more times than not, students pick a teacher that held high expectations for them and even higher expectations for themselves in helping the student be successful.  Students don’t work for people they don’t like, but they’ll run through a brick wall for people they think care about them.  

The real retention crisis isn’t just looking at the total number of teachers that choose to leave the building each year, but the loss of truly great teachers.  Truth be told, the school probably improves when some adults choose to leave the building each year.  Statistically, schools have between a 69-73% chance of improving when an ineffective teacher leaves the building. In many cases, a beginning teacher fresh with energy and enthusiasm carries a far more positive impact on student learning than one that is negative or ineffective.  Schools only have a 8-14% chance of attaining a similar positive impact when an "irreplaceable" leaves the building.  

The article discusses ways to retain “Irreplaceables” in the school.  In most cases, simply feeling appreciated or having a principal communicate that they want them to be there is enough to keep them.  Surprisingly, money was one of the factors near the bottom of the list of why great teachers leave their school.  The adage that “people don’t leave places, they leave bosses” holds true.  One of the other top reasons they leave schools is principals not holding the line on good teaching for all and holding people accountable.  Also surprisingly, most schools have similar retention rates for "Irreplaceables" and "ineffective teachers.  Most schools also do more to encourage ineffective teachers to stay than they do to encourage them to leave.  Most schools also do far too little to try to retain their most effective and "irreplaceable" teachers.  How is it possible to improve schools when this is standard practice amongst most schools.

In this pandemic year, it’s more important than ever for principals to find a way to retain their most effective teachers.  One of the best ways I’ve learned to be a good principal is hire, train, support, and retain great teachers.  It’s one of the simplest, but most effective, ways of increasing student achievement and have a great school.  If you can retain your “Irreplaceable” teachers as you help other teachers improve, you are bound to continue to improve as a school.  As a principal, you better let your “Irreplaceables” know how much you care about keeping them in your school and how profound their impact is on students before another principal lets them know how much they’d like to have them in their school.  Hold the line on good teaching for all teachers and high expectations for all students.  It doesn’t cost a dime to do either one of these to keep your “Irreplaceables.”  Listen to your "Irreplaceables" and get their input in decision-making because they always have the students' best interest at heart, not what's easiest for the adults.  One of the best ways for a principal to take care of the students in the school is by taking care of the teachers. This is especially true with your "Irreplaceables", even though they are generally the ones that ask for the least support, make the fewest complaints or requests, and are always willing to do the most to help students....they still need to feel appreciated and respected for all they do.  What great teachers have is both a mindset and skillset for greatness in teaching; an impact on student learning that is so profound that they are impossible to replace! 

   

   

Covid Debunking of the Politics of Distraction: Just Do Your Job & Keep the Main Thing the Main Thing

As a former coach, two of my favorite sayings were “Keep the Main Thing the Main Thing” and "Do Your Job!" Very simple but they work.  Our focus was on the mission at hand and controlling the things that were within our control.  So, what’s the main thing in education?   Simply, student safety/well-being and teaching/learning.  If you do those two things well in a school, the probability of success are very high. 

As we started to get EOC scores back this week, many were very disheartening and exponentially lower than what we are used to.  This seems to be the consensus in almost every school I’ve talked with and especially with virtual/remote learning.  No matter the situation, it’s interesting to see the mission of the USDE hasn’t changed or varied with Covid.  The mission statement of the United States Department of Education is “Our mission is to promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access.”  It’s great that public schools are doing everything they can to stay open safely and everything possible to meet the needs of students' safety and well-being, but at our core of what we do is “teaching and learning.”  Teaching requires learning, if a student doesn’t learn then we haven’t really taught. 

It’s interesting to hear the “Politics of Distractions” used as excuses or reasons for the lack of academic performance: Distraction 1: Appease the parents, Distraction 2: Fix the infrastructure, Distraction 3: Fix the students, Distraction 4: Fix the schools, Distraction 5: Fix the teachers.  These have been used interchangeably across the years.  It’s important to note that none of these have anything to do with Covid but have been used repeatedly, many times when results weren’t what was desired….ever since the inception of our educational system and especially since the increased accountability measures since NCLB and RttT.  Let's debunk the myths.  Distraction #1….we had smaller class sizes and more individualized instruction than every before.  Distraction #2….with many programs used, like SC Virtual, curricula was supposedly laid out and aligned.  Distraction #3….students aren’t the variable, the adults in the building are….and we knew our students were behind from last Spring, the question is “what were we going to do about it?”  Distraction #4….there was more federal and state money poured into education this year than probably every before in history.  Distraction #5….teachers have had professional development since before they reported to work this school year and it’s been ongoing ever since.  We really don’t have any legitimate “Politics of Distractions” when you analyze each one.  In some ways, we got each of these answered that we’ve always asked for over the years but rarely gotten....and the results were not what a supporter of these politics of distractions would've thought.   

 

The final question becomes “Where do we go from here?  How to we adjust and modify?  The final scores from this semester, the autopsy in many cases, are done and in the books.  At this point, we aren’t able to change them.  However, we do have the opportunity and responsibility to adapt and adjust going forward.  We have an obligation to adjust because what we did this past semester, in terms of teaching and learning, simply isn’t good enough and we left more kids behind than ever before.  One of the most alarming statistics is that the kids hurt the most by school shutdowns and time out of school were primarily students that were already performing significantly below grade level, minority students, and students from high-poverty/low socioeconomic situations.  For as disappointed as we were with test scores in some areas this week, there were some high achievers and some grades/subjects that did fairly well.  One of the best things was that I didn’t hear our staff make many excuses.  Instead, when we met with most teachers they had already analyzed what went well and what didn’t as well as were working on a plan to increase student achievement in the Spring.  Even thought he results weren't what we wanted, the mentality and attitude to start working immediately on a solution and as a team to improve is what I was glad to see.  That's one of the things that we control in this pandemic situation.  Tony Dungy said “You can’t always control circumstances.  However, you can always control your attitude, approach, and response.”  The great John Wooden said “Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.”  The positive in this is that our staff is focused on what “we” can do to get better and improve instead of lingering with excuses or wallowing in our frustration.  It all goes back to "just do your job" and “keep the main thing the main thing!”  Don’t let Covid, time restraints, schedules, learning platforms or anything else distract or take away from our focus on student achievement as we move forward this Spring.  

The Will to Win - Rediscovery of Excellence in Teaching and Learning

Many people use the cliché “The Will to Win”, where the more applicable phrase is probably “The Will to Prepare to Win”.  Preparation is key in anything you do successful in life.  Winning is often the by-product of preparation, organization, and hard work.  We know that when people have to persevere and endure, they are more vested and dedicated to doing whatever it takes to be successful.  However, sometimes it's necessary to make adjustments on the fly.  I don’t give a lot of credit or validity to some of the things I often read on Facebook or social media, but a post from a colleague on a Principals Facebook group said a lot and really hits home about what educators are doing during the pandemic to make sure their students are successful.  Below is the post: 

I’m truly blessed to see this with teachers every single day, working diligently and reinventing the way they educate to try to meet the needs of ALL students.  Education is truly a noble profession and one where professionals make a difference, not just a living.  In the pandemic and all of the changes that have had to take place in 2020, the commitment of teachers and principals to make sure their students are safe and get a quality education has never waivered.  While the K-12 educational world was primarily brick and mortar prior to the pandemic, we've rediscovered excellence in teaching and learning through virtual, online, hybrid, and other models to do whatever it takes to give ALL children the best education we possibly can.  No matter the challenges we may face, we'll reinvent or rediscover ways to reach students.  That's "The Will to Win", that's the heart of an educator!