Teacher Recruitment and Retention

"Most teachers do not make it past year five."  That is what I heard over and over again my first couple of years teaching.  Ouch.  The truth is; if you can make it through year one, you can DO ANYTHING!"  

Teacher retention in Agriculture Education is not great.  According the National Association of Agriculture Education (NAAE), nearly 50% of new teachers exit the profession within the first five years. That was a statistic I did not want any part of.  However, it was not an easy task.  My first year was incredibly difficult.  For starters, I was 22, and looked the exact same age as a high school student.  I also was following in the footsteps of a beloved teacher after his retirement of a 33 year career at that school, and the cherry on top, was that I was the first female ag teacher in the valley, ever.   I had my work cut out.  So what has kept me here? 

A number of situations contribute to my retention. 

1-      I have an amazing Master Teacher who mentors me when the need arises.  It is important to note that this is NOT in past tense.  She played a crucial role the first few years, and I probably called her three times a week that first year, but she has continued to be my support system. 

2-      My agriculture colleagues in the regional district checked in on me regularly.  What made this a successful program was the fact that they checked in on me.  I was terrible about asking for help, and rarely did.  They would call and invite me to dinner, or offer to drive me to our next meeting, and spend that time visiting about school and our personal lives.  This time was so valuable.  They would let me know that they went through the same thing, and I was going to be ok.  I was teaching the right stuff, and doing a good job at it.

3-      The building staff became my family.  I cannot tell you how many times I sat behind the desk in the office to vent, and the secretary just listened.  The other teachers were always available for insight. 

4-      As a building, we have Tuesday morning staff meetings to keep up to speed with students and activities. We share our student concerns, and do you know what we find out?  Everyone else is having the same problems.  So we devise a game plan, and we stick to it together.  We also have collaboration for 1 hour every Wednesday afternoon.  This time is carved out for professional development. 

5-      The teacher who I replaced was there to support me.  I can remember sitting in my classroom in July (no one told me I could turn the AC on by clicking the button) devoting hours to getting my classroom ready, and trying to figure out what the heck I was going to actually teach, when I heard a knock on the window.  It was the former teacher.  He saw my pickup parked outside and wanted to check in on how I was doing and see if I had any questions.  He gave me his number and told me to call him anytime. 

The underlying theme here is feeling supported, people coming to me, and not waiting to be called, and time to address issues I was having.  Now, 12 years later, Washington and the NAAE have a couple strong programs that are also helping retain teachers in the agriculture education field.  Our state association host a new teacher orientation twice a year, and the NAAE sponsors a TEACH AG campaign.  This is targeted more towards recruiting teachers, but I would say it helps remind teachers about how important our job is, and why we do it.

I know this article was focused towards Ag Ed, and many examples may be more common in small schools, but I think every teacher would do well if they had similar support.  Are there examples of support maybe from large schools that have helped you, or you feel would help a new teacher?