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News & Editorials
Teacher Retention
by Anthony Agrella
 "Welcome to the English Department at Natomas High School. I am
Anthony Agrella, the department co-chair. I'm pleased to meet you and look
forward to working with you this year." This is a scene that has repeated
itself far too many times at Natomas High School. Since coming to Natomas
Unified School District in 1996, I have had over thirty colleagues in the
English Department at NHS. This astounding number is in a department that has
averaged ten teachers on staff per year. When the 2005-2006 school year starts,
I will have seen ten new teachers enter the department in less than two years,
with five of those teachers starting after the beginning of a school year.
While there are many possible reasons for the alarming lack of
teacher retention in NUSD in general, and at NHS in particular (roughly ten
teachers remain in all departments at NHS that started either the same year
that I did or were here prior to my arrival, and not once has the English
Department remained unchanged in consecutive years), and while it has had a
dramatic effect on the continuity and development of departments and on sound
teaching practices and methodology, the biggest impact is clearly on those that
are the reason most teachers enter the profession: the students.
When school years start without permanent and fully and properly
credentialed teachers, there is a tendency to have a lack of structure and
continuity in the classroom. Thus, the likelihood of students acting out
becomes greater. How many of us remember the gleeful, mischievous attitude that
would come over us during our school days when we heard the phrase, "We have a
sub!"? Imagine if you heard that phrase in the same class every day for a
semester! That is a dilemma that far too many of our students have faced and
will continue to face unless things change in Natomas Unified School
District.
With the incessant teacher turnover and the fact that we
continually start school years without permanent, fully and properly
credentialed teachers, our students, your children, are suffering. Your student
might not be the one acting out in class with the substitute teacher, but
others are acting out, disrupting class, being sent out of class, being
referred to the office, being given detention, or even being suspended from
school. How can this possibly be beneficial to the learning process of our
students? We know the answer, and it is quite simple: It can't!!!
Instead of substitute teachers handing out detentions, it is my
deep and profound desire to establish with my fellow English Department and
Natomas High School colleagues, true and meaningful collegial relationships
that last more than a year or two - relationships that work to the benefit and
betterment of our students, your children.
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