These facts led to the following letter today to the DISD Board of Trustees:
Dear President Solis and
all DISD Trustees,
It appears that the
quality of the teacher candidates being hired by DISD has gone down
significantly since 2012 based on the almost ten-fold increase in the number of
teachers leaving within 3 months of being hired. Should this massive
increase be one of the factors included in the current HR investigation?
While teacher turnover has doubled over the past 6 years, the number of new hires leaving DISD within 90 days during the first half of the school year has increased almost ten-fold. That would indicate that the quality of candidates being selected is going down. This pattern was first noticed by studying those teachers who leave during the first half of the school year which for this study was defined as 8-19 of each school year through January.
While teacher turnover has doubled over the past 6 years, the number of new hires leaving DISD within 90 days during the first half of the school year has increased almost ten-fold. That would indicate that the quality of candidates being selected is going down. This pattern was first noticed by studying those teachers who leave during the first half of the school year which for this study was defined as 8-19 of each school year through January.
In the 2010-11 school
year, 11 teachers with 3 months or less tenure left from 8-19-10 through
January 2011.
In the 2011-12 school year, 10 teachers with 3 months or less tenure left.
In the 2012-13 school year, 34 teachers with 3 months or less tenure left.
In the 2013-14 school year, 80 teachers with 3 months or less tenure left.
In the 2014-15 school year, 97 teachers with 3 months or less tenure left.
This means that the number of classrooms suddenly without their newly hired teacher during the first half of the school year has increased almost tenfold in DISD since 2012. This is part of the explanation for the drop in student achievement that will probably be continued for the second year with this years STAAR tests when you compare Dallas ISD with the rest of Texas.
The file used to secure this data was open records request #13765. Since it is a rather small file it is attached if you want to double check these numbers, or search out other patterns. This file is a listing of all separations since 1-1-2010 through 2-6-2015 with type of separation given along with hire date and school.
There are certainly many other conclusions that need to be studied with this valuable set of data such as which schools are suffering the worst turnover. Is the most severe turnover being suffered by the most poverty stricken segments of the DISD student body?
In the 2011-12 school year, 10 teachers with 3 months or less tenure left.
In the 2012-13 school year, 34 teachers with 3 months or less tenure left.
In the 2013-14 school year, 80 teachers with 3 months or less tenure left.
In the 2014-15 school year, 97 teachers with 3 months or less tenure left.
This means that the number of classrooms suddenly without their newly hired teacher during the first half of the school year has increased almost tenfold in DISD since 2012. This is part of the explanation for the drop in student achievement that will probably be continued for the second year with this years STAAR tests when you compare Dallas ISD with the rest of Texas.
The file used to secure this data was open records request #13765. Since it is a rather small file it is attached if you want to double check these numbers, or search out other patterns. This file is a listing of all separations since 1-1-2010 through 2-6-2015 with type of separation given along with hire date and school.
There are certainly many other conclusions that need to be studied with this valuable set of data such as which schools are suffering the worst turnover. Is the most severe turnover being suffered by the most poverty stricken segments of the DISD student body?
Hopefully
this data is helpful in the exceptionally difficult job you
face. It is strongly recommend you advise Mr. Singleton of this
pattern of poor hires if he has not already noticed it. The quality of
the new teachers being hired as reflected in this pattern certainly should
merit research so it is not continued.
