By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
According to the National Center for Education, half of all public school teachers will leave their positions within five years.
Those are “really disturbing statistics for us in teacher preparation,” said Dr. Adam Holden, Fort Hays State University’s chairman of the Department of Teacher Education.
Holden is one of the consultants in a recent analysis of 2014’s Best and Worst States for Teachers. He was asked to give his opinion for the article by “Wallet Hub.”
“For the first time, I’ve been contacted by school districts needing to fill teaching positions, which have never before had that problem,” Holden said. He calls it an “alarming trend” and believes it has a lot to do with “burnout.”
“It has a lot to do with how we’re stretching our teachers,” Holden said.
“The greatest challenge teachers face is meeting the needs of all students in educationally diverse classrooms. Teachers go into the field because they naturally want to help kids. It’s almost a professional service calling. And when that person’s motivation is diminished significantly, when they don’t feel they’re helping the kids the way they should be, they’re going to naturally leave.”
However, “western Kansas teachers tend to stay longer in their jobs,” according to Holden.
Holden also told WalletHub that in addition to teaching, teachers must be able to multi-task in order to complete the “seemingly endless pile of critical paperwork” and required testing.
There’s also the standard-of-living issue.
“We look at the most successful nations in the world in terms of their teaching–and Finland has led the way for many years–there is a direct correlation between what teachers are paid and how they’re respected in society, in my opinion, and why they have so many good teachers who want to go into the profession there.
“But most teachers don’t go into the profession to get rich. They go into the profession to make a difference. I think the best way we keep them in the profession is to help them make a difference and make sure they know that they matter and that we care about their efforts,” Holden said.
Holden is a native of England and has served as a private and public school administrator for more than fifteen years in both Europe and the United States.