Why teachers quit: 'It was the wild West'

One Wisconsin teacher needed 66 stitches and foot surgery after breaking up a fight between five students, but that's not why he retired early, he told interviewers. It was the administration's failure to enforce the no-cellphone policy.

In a new report from the Badger Institute, Teachers in Flight, former teachers talk about why they decided to leave their jobs. It focuses on the Beloit district, where teacher turnover averages 24 percent, much higher than the state average, but also includes conversations with teachers from around the state.

A second-grade teacher whose student brought a gun to school retired five years earlier than she'd planned because teachers weren't allowed to eat lunch during lunch time at their desks. " I was a 60-year-old woman standing in a closet eating a salad. And I thought, ‘This is ridiculous.’”

Another complained that behavior expectations kept changing. Instead of automatic punishments for disrespect, insubordination and violence, teachers were told to "have a buddy role."

The first thing is you need to give an in-class warning. Then you need to give them a buddy room when they fill out a reflection sheet. Then they need to come back and you need to talk to them about the reflection sheet.’ … I have a class of 35 kids. So you want me to pause my class and do that every time there’s a disruption in my class and then have like a two- or three-minute meeting with that kid — while I’m teaching the class. I’d be in the hallway trying to have this mini conference … then the classroom is a zoo.

Salaries were not the driving factor, the report found. "Teachers leave when schools are mismanaged, when disorder isn’t properly handled, when they’re prevented from doing the work they chose," writes Patrick Mcilheran. "Especially poignant: the affection many departing teachers still had for the places they were leaving."

"Revolving door management" was a complaint for many of the teachers who left, writes AEI's Robert Pondiscio. The new superintendent would launch a new initiative, which would be abandoned a few years later. "One teacher reported working under six superintendents in 11 years; another worked for 14 different principals."

Student behavior has become worse in recent years, and administrators' response has become weaker, teachers said. Behavior was "the wild west," said one former teacher. “We had to fill out eight, nine different steps before we could even consider sending the kid to the office."

When a third-grader was throwing chairs, the teacher was told to evacuate the other students in the classroom, another former teacher said. It happened "at least once a week."

In addition, the ex-teachers said that parents were harder to reach and less engaged, and more children from unstable families were enrolling.

Because of staffing shortages, they had to give up planning periods to cover for absent colleagues.

Nearly half of California teachers plan to leave the profession in the next 10 years, according to Education Week's Teacher Morale Index. Nationwide, one in three are planning an exit.

While teachers with less than three years experience have a positive attitude, morale drops sharply for teachers with three to nine years of experience, the survey found. Morale is also lowest for social studies, science and elementary teachers, and for teachers in urban districts.