Third of new teachers quit in 5 years

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- One-third of Missouri's new public school teachers are quitting within five years, often citing poor pay, heavy workloads and a lack of respect.

Of the 3,424 first-year teachers in 1996, nearly 34 percent are no longer in the classroom this year, according to a report released Thursday by the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

That's up from a roughly 27 percent quitting rate for each of the five previous years, according to the report.

The state education department offered no official reason for the rise in teacher resignations, but teachers' unions cited complaints about salaries and working conditions.

"It's a very severe problem. We not only are not able to attract the very best and brightest folks, but when we do attract qualified people, it's so hard to retain them," said Greg Jung, a fifth-grade teacher in St. Louis County who is president of the Missouri National Education Association.

Jung said Missouri's teacher-quitting rate is slightly below the national average, but he attributed the difference to a statistical anomaly, not any better working conditions.

The research for the state report was conducted by Janet Goeller, a former psychology teacher and counselor in a private high school who quit after 11 years.

Teacher burnout

She can understand why new teachers are leaving so quickly.

"I was burned out," said Goeller, director of teacher recruitment and retention for the state education department. "The administration, all the extracurriculars, all the garbage you put up with ... was driving me crazy. It's a hard job, it's a very hard job."

Another factor weighing against teachers are the mounting student loans that many carry after graduating from college.

"A lot of it is the money factor -- salaries," said Luana Gifford, president of the Missouri Federation of Teachers and School-Related Personnel. "A lot of students who leave college and go into teaching, after they're there one-to-five years, they're not able to pay back their students loans."

The state study did not track whether the teachers who quit later entered the private sector or took new educational jobs as counselors or administrators.

Goeller said the teacher retention problem could be addressed partly through better mentoring programs in which experienced teachers help newcomers manage their classrooms and time.

"Mentoring programs, as a rule, are not what they should be," she said. "We do sink or swim methods with teachers. We give them the worst classes, we give them the hardest extracurricular activities and if they make it, great."

However, the creation of any state-funded mentoring program would be difficult because of budget constraints, she said.