Teacher turnover totals TRICKERY
It appears something sneaky may be going on at NC DPI and the state board of education with this teacher turnover report. The sycophant mainstream media in our state has lapped this up and regurgitated it to us — without doing ANY kind of digging / verification. Those mean ol’ Republicans are chasing teachers off the job.
The folks at The John Locke Foundation have looked into the situation and found out something interesting that is being “overlooked” by the media: The top reason NC teachers leave their jobs involves taking positions at other North Carolina schools. That information doesn’t fit the statist spin about kids being hurt by teachers leaving their profession in disgust . So, it gets “overlooked.”
Since that report from the folks at Locke came out, state edu-crats have, um, “revised” their numbers on teacher turnover:
A week before each monthly NC State Board of Education (SBE) meeting, state board staff post an agenda and meeting materials on the board’s meeting website. In late October, they posted the annual teacher turnover report. My Carolina Journal colleague Dan Way subsequently interviewed Superintendent of Public Instruction June Atkinson, Chairman of the State Board of Education Bill Cobey, and others (including me) about the contents of the report.
During their interviews, neither Atkinson nor Cobey expressed concerns about the report. Nevertheless, shortly after Way’s Carolina Journal article appeared at www.CarolinaJournal.com, state education officials pulled the report from the November agenda. It was not clear why.
Although pulling an item from an agenda is not unusual, this was not just any item. Politically, the teacher turnover report is used, incorrectly in my opinion, as an indicator of the ability of the ruling party to satisfy North Carolina’s public school teachers. A high turnover rate, for example, would bolster Democrats’ claims that Republican policies are driving public school teachers out of the profession. Obviously, teacher turnover is more complex than that formulation suggests, but nobody ever accused politicians or the mainstream media of appreciating the complexity of the teacher labor market.
Now, a new teacher turnover report has been posted on the SBE meeting website for its December meeting, and it is fundamentally different than the report pulled by Atkinson and Cobey in November.
Magically, the December report shows a significant increase in teacher turnover compared to the November edition. The NC Department of Public Instruction (DPI) added around 325 teachers to the turnover rolls between November and December. In addition, DPI reported nearly 1,400 fewer total teachers in December than in November. By increasing the numerator (turnover) and decreasing the denominator (total teachers), DPI increased the turnover rate by 0.5 percent. What was called a “slight” increase in turnover in the November report has been recast as a “significant” increase in this month’s report. (See Facts and Stats below.)
While the rate is higher in the December report, the story is the same. Most of the state’s teacher turnover falls into two categories — retirement and teachers moving from one public school position to another.
But it is difficult to trust a report that DPI changed so radically from one month to the next, particularly when those changes reinforce their “Republicans are destroying public education” narrative.
Apparently, state education officials pulled the report over concerns that the data in the report was not accurate. Yet, DPI staff had several months to verify the data in the teacher turnover report. The annual report details the difference in teaching positions from March of the previous year to March of the current year. DPI’s Financial and Business Services Division verifies the total turnover with each school district. School district officials confirm the count and assign reasons for the turnover. If DPI staff cannot achieve an accurate turnover count after eight months of work, then perhaps Superintendent Atkinson needs to make major personnel and operational changes to the agency she oversees.
If there were any doubts about the reliability of the data collected and verified over the previous eight months, then why include them in the November agenda in the first place? While state statute mandates that the SBE “monitor the decisions of teachers to leave the teaching profession,” it does not require the SBE to approve the report in any particular month. In other words, there was no need to expedite the report for a November release.
Most importantly, why didn’t Atkinson or Cobey follow up with Dan Way to explain why they decided to pull the report? As far as I can tell, he was the first and only reporter to write about the November turnover report. I suspect that he would have been happy to write a follow-up report that explained the decision to delay its release.
Simply put, concerns about the reliability of the data, even if valid, are a small part of the story. Either DPI staff spent eight months producing a sloppy, error-filled report that required near complete revision, or they made changes that were more favorable to their ideological narrative. Either way, DPI is clearly at fault and should be held accountable for behavior that, in my opinion, borders on fraud.
Facts and Stats
NC teacher turnover, 2012-13: November versus December reports
Category November Turnover Report December Turnover Report Difference Teach in another NC LEA 2,654.0 2,851.0 197.0 Teach in a NC charter school 143.0 145.0 2.0 Move to non-teaching position 1,358.0 1,447.0 89.0 Continue education/sabbatical 234.0 249.0 15.0 Retired with reduced benefits 532.0 574.0 42.0 Teach in a private school 143.0 143.0 0.0 Resigned to teach in another state 451.0 455.0 4.0 Dissatisfied with teaching/career change 874.0 887.0 13.0 Did not obtain or maintain license 42.0 46.0 4.0 Resigned for other reasons 756.0 770.0 14.0 Resigned for unknown reasons 279.0 295.0 16.0 Non-renewal of contract 198.0 175.0 -23.0 Interim contract ended 681.2 649.0 -32.2 Resigned in lieu of dismissal 74.0 87.0 13.0 Dismissed 21.0 17.0 -4.0 Reduction in Force 39.0 33.0 -6.0 Retired with full benefits 1,941.0 1,966.0 25.0 Re-employed retired teacher resign 181.0 174.0 -7.0 Resigned responsibilities/childcare 708.0 716.0 8.0 Resigned family relocation 1,400.0 1,345.0 -55.0 Resigned health issues 217.3 222.0 4.7 Military orders change 108.0 108.0 0.0 Deceased 52.0 55.0 3.0 End of VIF term 86.0 93.0 7.0 End of TFA term 118.0 114.0 -4.0 Total teachers leaving 13,290.5 13,616.0 325.5 Total teachers 96,419 95,028 -1,391 Turnover rate 13.78%. 14.33% 0.55%
The explanation to this fraud is simple–Atkinson is lying and Cobey is clueless. Between lying Democrats and clueless Republican appointees, this is all we can expect.
I would like to see a few more columns added to this sheet…. 2010 data, 2011 data, and 2012 data would be helpful to see the trends in the specific line items…
Does this indicate a one half of one percent change?
What turnover would be expected in other gov or private business of similar size?
Sorry. I was reading the reported turnover difference as the turnover. Certainly 13 or 14 % would seem to be a big difference
But on looking back another question .
Would the number of teachers normally be increasing or decreasing year over year for Nov Dec ?
How does the relate teacher ratio?
I think you’re missing the point. John Locke questions DPI about the report one month. DPI pulls the report. Suddenly, the report gets reissued, and things look MUCH worse AND complement the Dem talking points about the bad Republicans hurting teachers. Neither DPI nor the state board of education can explain why the report — put together over 8 months — changed so dramatically over a 30 day period.