Improving Teacher Retention Through a Focus On Professional Growth

Teacher turnover has been an issue for years, and it accelerated during the pandemic, with record numbers of teachers leaving the field. One report noted that job satisfaction and other metrics were nearing 50-year lows. High teacher turnover disrupts a school system and can negatively impact student success.

Strategies for Teacher Retention

Reports show that teachers are more likely to stay when they feel valued and supported.  Investing in coaching and mentoring, creating a positive and professional workplace environment, providing relevant, high-quality professional development, and utilizing a teacher evaluation system that supports teachers, is responsive to their needs, and prioritizes their professional growth are all strategies to bolster teacher retention.

• Coaching and Mentoring. The National Education Association highlights the importance of coaching and mentoring as a long-term strategy to help address the teacher shortage. The most effective programs, it says, are those that offer a multi-faceted approach to support new educators – for example, providing a new-educator orientation week at the beginning of the year, mentorship for two years, and regular team meetings, workshops, and training. It also recommends training principals on how to support early-career teachers. “Educators who receive high-quality, targeted support at the beginning of their careers have been shown to be more effective and more likely to stay in teaching than those who did not,” the article states.
• A Positive Work Environment. The workplace environment can be a big reason why teachers stay or go. A report by the Learning Policy Institute citing research in North Carolina stated that “working conditions are ‘highly predictive’ of North Carolina teachers’ stated intentions to remain in or leave.” According to the report, teacher retention influences teacher and school leadership, professional learning and collaboration, community support and parent engagement, teachers’ collective practice and efficacy, time for teaching, and student behavior. Investing efforts into improving these areas can help reduce teacher turnover.
• Professional Development. Ongoing professional learning is important to the success of teachers and the students they serve. “When teachers get good quality professional learning, they tend to stay. They tend to stay more often than teachers that don’t get that,” said Heather Hill, a Harvard Graduate School of Education professor, in an article on the School of Education’s website. In one math coaching study, Hill found teachers who received strong professional development were 10% more likely to teach math again the following year than those who did not, according to the article. To be effective in retaining teachers, it’s important that professional development be relevant. The NEA notes if professional learning opportunities aren’t useful, teachers are more likely to quit. Dr. Andrea Stoler, director of special education for Chicopee Public Schools in Massachusetts, which adopted Vector Solutions’ Inclusive Instruction & Interventions course library to address an increase in challenging student behaviors, stressed the importance of giving employees relevant PD options to choose from and letting them select the topics they are interested in. This, she said, will help them feel valued and will support buy-in. “It allows for meaningful, purposeful PD, and staff members get to pick what they want to do,” she said. “I’m giving them the opportunity to choose something they’re interested in.”
• Teacher Evaluation. Districts can help teachers feel valued by purposefully structuring professional evaluation systems in a way that gives teachers a voice and helps them grow professionally. Creating a connected system that allows teachers and administrators to easily access and track things like self-assessments, supervisor reviews, and more makes the evaluation process more efficient, which teachers appreciate. A connected system facilitates collaboration, regular opportunities for teachers to obtain feedback, and coaching. The Littlestown Area School District in Pennsylvania uses Vector Solutions’ Professional Growth Suite, which includes Vector PD Tracking and Vector Evaluations+. Connecting professional development with teacher evaluations has helped the district in its efforts to retain teachers.

Attracting teachers can involve a multifaceted approach, including everything from exploring alternate certifications, expanding recruitment efforts, and increasing pay and benefits. To retain teachers and reduce turnover, a focus on workplace culture, professional learning, and growth is key. Teachers are a school’s most important asset, and investing in strategies like those noted above that make them feel valued and supported will help ensure they stay.

How Vector Solutions Can Help

Vector Solutions’ Professional Growth Suite combines best-in-class professional development content and tools to manage staff evaluations and professional development, streamlining the professional growth process. Easy-to-use tools simplified administrative workflows, and centralized reporting and tracking in one consolidated platform increase efficiency for administrators and empower professional growth and development for educators and staff. The professional growth suite includes the following:

Evaluations+ maximizes professional growth opportunities with easy-to-use tools, customizable forms, and workflows that help manage the evaluation and development process for educators and staff from start to finish.​

PD Tracking allows users to easily plan, manage, track, and evaluate all professional development events and activities for educators and staff – improving organization, streamlining communications, and saving valuable time.

Vector Training addresses individual professional development needs and supports ongoing professional growth by providing access to hundreds of high-quality online courses on important safety, prevention, and inclusive instruction topics.​