EDUCATION
INSIDE: Three teachers on why so many educators feel frustration with their jobs or leave the field. PAGES 30-31 Q&A with Michigan State University education policy professor Katharine Strunk. PAGE 30 ONLINE: UM trains teachers in medical school-like residency. CRAINSDETROIT.COM/CRAINSFORUM
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’A sense of abandonment’: How teacher churn destabilizes schools, costs taxpayers and hurts Michigan’s most vulnerable students BY KOBY LEVIN AND GABRIELLE LAMARR LEMEE
Idriss Saleh hasn’t forgotten his freshman year teachers at Universal Academy, but he’s not sure they remember him. By the time his senior year began this fall, he had outlasted all seven of those teachers. Saleh worked hard to maintain a 3.9 GPA and applied to an ambitious list of colleges. But he worries that he isn’t ready for college coursework, thanks in part to an unrelenting drumbeat of teachers leaving his school. “Even though I worked hard to get to where I am, I feel like I’m still at a disadvantage entering college,” he said. Decades of research back up his concern. Frequent turnover at the front of the classroom takes a steep toll on student learning, especially in low-income communities where students most need stable schools.
“EVEN THOUGH I WORKED HARD TO GET TO WHERE I AM, I FEEL LIKE I’M STILL AT A DISADVANTAGE ENTERING COLLEGE.”
The problem is especially profound in Michigan. Amid stagnant school funding and growing disillusionment among teachers, more than one-in-six educators left for another school or left the classroom entirely during the 2018-2019 school year, a higher rate than the national average. This isn’t for lack of well-documented solutions: better training and mentorship, stronger principals, and higher pay are just some of the policies that have been shown to increase teacher retention. A Chalkbeat analysis of more than one million rows of teacher workforce data sheds new light on the extent of the teacher movement in Michigan, how many students are affected, and the toll borne by students of color and students from low-income families. In 2018-19, 71 percent of students in Michigan schools that lost at least 30 percent of their teachers were eco-
— Idriss Saleh, Universal Academy senior 26 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | MARCH 29, 2021
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