Question 5) What is your opinion on the concerns of teacher retention?

What ideas would you bring to the table to address this crisis? Okay, I am answering the least controversial question first! I would actually like to win this race, Kilroy, but you have thrown me into the lions den. Nonetheless, you do deserve honest answers, so here I go. Teacher retention and stability are highly correlated with student success and achievement on both domestic and international levels. Furthermore, research suggests that student perception of school climate is highly correlated with student success. This means that kids need to see the same people day in and day out, in order to build relationships of trust and longevity, and students also need to feel important and valuable, as do their parents. The mere perception of trust leads to heightened academic progress. This is important. Therefore, creating long-term educator, administrative and staff stability along with a school culture which accepts and celebrates our children from every background is of paramount importance. This means that not only does the school need to be stable, but that the people who work in the school everyone from the administrators to the custodians, from the secretaries to the educators, to the men and women who work in the cafeteria to the bus drivers should be familiar with and comfortable meeting students where they are, and not judging them. This often requires at least a modicum of professional training and development. Therefore it is imperative to focus on enhanced and more meaningful professional development for educators. In discussing professional development with teachers, it's clear that they crave valuable training, but I'm not sure the training opportunities we provide staff now are differentiated enough to meet the needs of their students. This needs to be addressed and changed. Embedded in Kilroys query regarding teacher retention is a more profound and perplexing question, one which signifies that teacher retention is not merely or even really about JUST educator retention, but is rather about the difficulties many experience when they are placed in very challenging work environments. Because the truth of the matter is, at the end of the day, we do not have issues retaining teachers in work environments where we feel safe, have pleasant working conditions, where students come from families which are abundant in resources and support, and where teaching is less worrisome because students enter the classroom prepared well beyond their grade levels. Lets talk about the real issue. We have trouble retaining teachers who work in difficult environments. We have trouble retaining teachers in high poverty schools. We have trouble retaining teachers in areas in which they feel physically uncomfortable. We have trouble retaining teachers who are not treated well by the administration. We have trouble retaining teachers when they have no voice.

The trouble we have then is not really about retention. Retention is a symptom of the problem, but not the actual root of the problem. One of the many real or root problems is concentrated poverty. Lets talk about that. Could we create policy to address concentrated poverty with the desire to reduce such high levels? I asked our previous secretary of education this very question at the University of Delaware last year, and was told that choice allowed mobility so if we did not want our kids in poor schools we could opt out of them. This however, does not solve the issue of concentrated poverty, which would still exist, regardless of the number choiced out. Choice, then, doesnt really address concentrated poverty. And, for the record, I think we should have educational choices (so lets lay that baby to rest right here). How then, can we really address the issue of concentrated poverty? I dont have perfect solutions, but I do have suggestions -- and I dont think we need rocket science to find a workable plan. Why not take a school which functions below capacity, like Warner, and place a TAG program there? Students would not be displaced, and we could draw in students from different backgrounds and socio-economic classes to increase diversity in terms of many factors, including geography. PS DuPont has such a program, and it has been well received within the community. Not only that, but it draws in MANY students from other districts, namely Red Clay. The time has come to stop dancing around issues. Lets lay them bare on the table and tackle them one by one. It is time to be courageous. Our kids deserve the future, not the past; and I, like many others, believe they are worth it.