Report: Baltimore teachers leave their jobs over relationships with school leaders
BALTIMORE -- Should I stay or should I go? That's a question a lot of teachers are asking themselves.
It's also the title of a newly published report from the Fund for Educational Excellence on retaining the teachers that Baltimore City students need.
The report aims to better understand what prompts Baltimore teachers to leave the classroom.
Researchers asked teachers questions like "How does it feel to be a teacher in Baltimore City?" They also asked teachers questions about the challenges they face and what is working well for them.
"There is this concern of, OK if there's less folks going into the profession, five years from now, ten years from now, will there be a shortage," Fund for Educational Excellence Program Director Kwame Wyatt said. "And then, if there is, what do we have to do to retain the folks who are already committed to their position?"
When it comes to what makes a teacher want to stay in the classroom versus leave, the Fund for Educational Excellence found teachers' ability to connect with students and school leaders' management styles seem to carry the most weight.
In 2022, the Fund for Educational Excellence interviewed 202 current teachers in Baltimore City Schools and nine recently separated teachers.
Wyatt said one theme that kept cropping up was an increasingly overwhelming workload. This makes it harder for teachers to actually connect with their students and their jobs effectively.
A big factor pushing teachers to leave is the relationships they have with school leaders.
In schools where this departure trend is present, teachers reported feeling undervalued and micromanaged.
Based on their findings, the Fund for Educational Excellence recommends that city schools streamline and scale back the workload of its teachers.
Additionally, the school district should prioritize staff management skills when screening candidates and training new principals.
"Really, just giving some autonomy to teachers who are doing really good work in the classroom, allowing them to be experts at what they do, and giving them the opportunity to provide feedback," Wyatt said.