Gov. Mike Pence signed House Enrolled Act 1388, the bill that aims to improve teacher preparation programs, into law. This is an important and timely issue that many teachers, including Teach Plus teachers, support. The bill also includes a clause that requires the Department of Education to publicly report teacher retention data by school on an annual basis. This specific recommendation came from a group of Teach Plus Teaching Policy Fellows who have experienced tremendous mobility and turnover early in their teaching careers. They have watched excellent teachers leave the classroom, and they didn’t see principals, schools or districts doing much to stop the bleeding.
This group of full-time Indianapolis teachers decided that if we’re going to build systems to hold teachers and students accountable, we need to have equal accountability for school and district leaders to attract and retain top talent in the classroom. Their report, “Musical Chairs: Teacher Churn and Its Impact on the Profession in Indianapolis Public Schools,” found that of the teachers surveyed, 85 percent had changed schools at least once by their fourth year; of those transitions, 75 percent were involuntary.
Read the full story from the Indianapolis Star
