The National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future (NCTAF) has sounded the alarm: more than a third of the nation’s veteran educators could retire in the next four years. And when they go, they’ll take with them vast stores of knowledge that could be put to use fostering the next generation of educators.
NCTAF says that the teaching profession is “collapsing at both ends” as accomplished educators still in their 50s prepare for retirement and about a third of beginning teachers leave in the first five years due to lack of support, substandard working conditions, and low pay. The faltering economy may keep veterans in their jobs a few years longer, but the relief will be temporary, at best.
The high attrition rate of novice teachers combined with the experience lost due to the early retirement of experienced teachers could be devastating in terms of the overall quality of teaching, the report warns. In the report Learning Teams: Creating What’s Next, NCTAF says the way to stem the tide of lost experience is to reorganize schools around learning teams and modify retirement policies to allow the best veteran teachers to stay on and coach newcomers.
The report urges policymakers to use stimulus funds to lay the groundwork for a system that would allow teachers nearing retirement age to transition to more flexible, part-time work arrangements that provide them with a chance to pass on what they’ve learned and continue helping kids. Teams of carefully selected veterans and beginners would work together, sharing their skills and knowledge, for the benefit of students.
The team approach would not only mitigate the brain drain that may be coming as veteran educators retire; the increased level of support would also help new teachers improve their effectiveness and may contribute to reduced attrition rates in their ranks.
This is not the first dire prediction about potentially devastating teacher retirements. A 1999 U.S. Department of Education study warned that millions of teachers were on the brink of retirement. Teachers did not retire in droves, leading some to speculate that the latest warnings might also be a bit overblown.
On top of that, the recession may actually temporarily ease teacher shortages as more new college graduates and out-of-work professionals seek the relative security of teaching jobs.
Still, experts say, retirements will rise in coming years and school leaders and policymakers would be wise to develop phased retirement systems to allow cross-generational training to occur.
—“Report Envisions Shortage of Teachers as Retirements Escalate,” by Sam Dillon, The New York Times, April 7, 2009.
—“A ‘tsunami’ of Boomer teacher retirements is on the horizon,” by Jeanette Der Bedrosian, USA Today, April 6, 2009.
