“I believe the children are our future. Teach them well and let them lead the way.”

—Lyrics from “The Greatest Love of All,” written by Linda Creed and Michael Masser; performed by Whitney Houston

The children will lead us, but first we must lead them and prepare them to become our future leaders. Education, both in the formal setting of schools and in all facets of everyday life, develops our future leaders. This huge and vastly important challenge requires the collective work of everyone. Educating students and developing future leaders doesn’t just happen at school: It takes the hard work of the entire community—parents, teachers, school administrators, religious organizations, businesses, and the larger community as a whole—all working together for our future.

Leadership is needed if our society is to become scientifically literate and to prepare professionals for the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) career world. Science is analogous to the party game “Six Degrees of Separation” in which a player is challenged to link two movie actors by naming no more than six movies, the idea being everyone in the film industry is connected. Similarly, all things lead to science; virtually everything can be linked to the vast world of science in some way, even if they have six degrees of separation. Our nation’s quality of life, as well as its economic stability, relies heavily on the world of science. Enter the science teachers; we are truly the leaders on this quest for scientific literacy.

Our country must invest in our science teachers to support this quest. My theme as NSTA President this year, “The 3Rs of Science Teacher Retention: Resources, Respect, and Renewal,” focuses on the importance of retaining teachers, both new and veteran, once they are recruited into our schools. This goal has assumed even greater importance with the radical cuts virtually every school district has faced over the last year.

Crunching the Numbers

I did a bit of research recently. A 2007 report from the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future (NCTAF) challenges the nation to provide every child in America with 21st century teaching: Create strong learning teams in schools; close the gap between teacher preparation and practice; support professionally rewarding teaching careers; develop authentic teaching standards and learning assessments. A section of the NCTAF’s website includes a link to a program for calculating the estimated teacher turnover costs to both urban and non-urban school systems (www.nctaf.org/resources/demonstration_projects/turnover/TeacherTurnoverCostStudy.htm). The calculations include funds needed for recruiting, hiring, processing, and training a new teacher. This method calculates both the central office (CO) costs as well as costs to the schools.

I entered data for an urban Fictitious School District (FSD) with 50 schools losing an average of five teachers per school (a total of 250) per year. I was pretty amazed at the results. The total district cost of turnover for this urban FSD equaled nearly $5.7 million ($2.2 million in CO costs + $3.5 million in school costs). That’s a pretty big chunk of change! The average cost to the urban school system for each departing teacher is $22,850—and this figure doesn’t begin to account for the damage to student learning from the disequilibrium resulting from “revolving-door” teachers. Comparative figures for non-urban school districts are not as high but still disturbing: For FSD #2, a non-urban system with 15 schools also losing five teachers per school annually, the total district cost of turnover is $963,750 ($468,740 CO in costs + $495,000 in school costs). That’s $12,850 per departing teacher for non-urban schools, another big chunk of change.

Retention is a major issue deserving attention. The above statistics alone justify focusing on reducing turnover rates. The average percentage of teachers leaving is 12.5%. If turnover were reduced by 30% in our FSDs, that urban school system would save $1.7 million annually; FSD #2 would see savings of $289,125. That is something to work toward. As you return to your workplaces this fall, I challenge you to work with your schools and take some action to increase teacher retention!

Excellence, Innovation for All

The NSTA mission statement, “…to promote excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all,” means just that: All our children are our future, and they will lead the way. We must invest in our future so all students will be scientifically literate and prepared to lead. If our schools are to focus on science, then appropriate funding for science, preK–16 and beyond, must support that. The Coalition on the Public Understanding of Science (COPUS), a grassroots network of more than 400 organizations representing universities, educators, science centers, industry, and governmental and other groups and agencies, declared 2009 the Year of Science. I am most hopeful this movement will help rekindle the support needed for science understanding in our country—the kind of support we saw in the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s. This organization, along with other indicators such as the current administration’s support of science, gives me hope that science will resume its place of prominence in our country. In the words of a bumper sticker I once saw, “I look forward to the day when the military must hold bake sales to raise funds and all the schools have as much money as they need!”

Resources

Coalition on the Public Understanding of Science. www.Yearof Science2009.org

National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future. 2007. The cost of teacher turnover study and cost calculator. www.nctaf.org/resources/demonstration_projects/turnover/TeacherTurnoverCostStudy.htm