Off opposite

Education, Inquiry, and Justice Department, said. “Most teachers know [testing] is not what's in their students’ best interest, and it’s really hard to do a job that’s already super demanding when you know you’re not doing what you should be doing.”

In some cases, turnover extends to entire schools. Laura Fuchs, a high school teacher in Ward 7 and a leader in the Washington Teachers Union (WTU), recalls ward-wide closures during the late 2000s.

“I would have kids who would be in middle school, and their elementary school got closed. By the time they got to high school, their middle school had been closed behind them,’” she told the Voice, pointing out the loss of community that happens when schools close.

While teacher turnover and school closures certainly hinder student achievement, the uncertainty they produce also harms students’ general wellness. Sobella Quezada, who teaches pre-K in Ward 1, emphasized the importance of continuity for young children.

“To see that there’s always different staff, it’s not good for a child’s emotional well-being or their emotional health,” Quezada said. “The fact that a lot of these children that come to my school will be here from pre-K to fifth grade? That’s kind of a big deal.” A lack of continuity often means that extracurricular activities are interrupted, something that Fuchs has seen first-hand.

“People start clubs—well-meaning new teachers, maybe not new to teaching, but new to the system—and then they go ‘Oh, I’ll do debate,’ but they’re gone the next year. So who’s doing debate next year?” she said.

Fuchs described how her school has not been able to retain a music teacher—nor a band program—in several years. “Everything is always turning, so you can’t really build much. It’s hard to hold onto traditions,” she said.

As extracurricular activities often help support student well-being, this disruption poses significant challenges to fostering a culture of wellness.

For Goldstein, creating this culture begins with making sure teachers feel adequately supported.

“Education is fundamentally a human enterprise,” Goldstein said. “Teachers have to have their cups filled to be able to pour into our students. There's no conflict between educator wellness and student wellness—they require each other.”

Unsurprisingly, the D.C. SBOE found that a lack of support for teacher wellness was a major contributing factor to high turnover rates; it’s a struggle that Salute knows all too well.

“I am not able to be my best for the kids because of the challenges and the pressure. I want to do everything I can—I’m in therapy, I’m doing exercise—I’m doing all of the things and I still feel like it’s impossible, what [DCPS is] asking me to do,” she said.

For Gasoi, supporting the wellness of educators “comes down to acknowledging the stress and trauma that educators have been going through over [the pandemic], and acknowledging it by actually making their work situation more manageable.”

In a joint study with WTU, EmpowerED found that strategies to make educators’ work situations more feasible—and to prevent turnover—include providing flexible scheduling options, higher pay, increased support, and more professional autonomy. According to Goldstein, flexible scheduling is an alternative to the current “industrial revolution-era bell schedule” in schools, providing teachers more time for planning and students more opportunities for experiential-based education.

Reed, who teaches at a school where flexible scheduling is used, is very familiar with its benefits.

“On Mondays, the kids are dismissed at 1:30 to attend extracurricular activities with different community partners, or they can leave the campus in order to go home to handle family needs and such. And then that gives teachers the opportunity for additional co-planning and co-collaboration through team meetings. So it’s a win-win for the kids and the adults,” she said.

Reed described the retention rate at her school as “abnormally high,” in part because of the culture created by the administrators.

At Reed’s school, teachers have ample opportunity for leadership roles. “My principal always says ‘if you see a need, you’re allowed to use your gifts and talents to meet that need,’ so everybody understands that it’s a community effort, and that's one of the reasons that our numbers are higher than others. And just the understanding that we are humans, we’re not robots," she said.

Another strategy for preventing turnover is supporting teachers with high D.C. housing costs.

“Something needs to be done so that more people can actually live in the city where they work,” Quezada said. “I shouldn't have to live in a whole other state just to work in DCPS. I actually don’t—I'm able to live here [now], but I know it’s only a matter of time before my rent will be too expensive.”

While DCPS does have a program that supports teachers through the process of home ownership, these benefits do not currently extend to rental assistance (unlike benefits for D.C. police officers, which offer temporary housing and rental assistance in addition to the homeownership assistance program).

For Quezada, housing assistance is also related to securing a fair contract. “First, we need a contract. I think that would be very helpful because we’re working with the salaries of 2019. So that’s nearly four years of no cost of living adjustment, and considering that D.C. is one of the country’s most expensive cities, that takes a toll on people.”

While many schools have their own contracts with teachers, the last DCPS-wide contract expired in 2019. DCPS is still operating under the agreed terms of this contract, though the WTU is still fighting for a renewed contract, one that includes a wage increase.

Part of the picture also means negotiating better work-life balance. EmpowerED found that turnover is higher for teachers between the ages of 29 and 39, something they attribute to the difficulty of balancing teaching and parenting.

For Salute, this balance is a salient concern. “I can’t work until 9 p.m. and wake up at 4:30 a.m. or 5:00 a.m. for the rest of my life and maybe be a mom at some point, too,” Salute said. “How would I ever be a mom?”

As systemic support for D.C. teachers remains stagnant, teachers are left without answers to hard questions. “I don’t think I can actually work any more hours, so what can I do now?” Salute asks. “Is it fair for the kids? Is there someone who could be doing this better?” G