Every summer, the five core members of our teacher leadership team at Arlington Heights High School plan for the new year. We meet at places like Potbelly's and catch up on vacations and stories. Then, we look at our "How Long 'til They Bail" list. We start making this list every spring, and by July, we usually have a pretty good idea of who among our colleagues is out. Who retired? Who quit? Who hasn't found a new job yet and is hanging on, unhappy, with a foot out the door?
When we met to plan for the 2015–16 school year, we were feeling especially down. Though our leadership team of 15–20 classroom teachers serves as a consistent voice for resolving issues and has a seat at the table for most academics-related administrative meetings, we knew based on our list that we had a problem, and it felt like a problem out of our control. Our large urban district had a significant problem with teacher retention, and it had become one of our biggest frustrations.
The high school, where we all teach, had been rocked by several scandals in the last decade and made the local headlines a few too many times. Continuing churn within our building and district administrations posed an additional challenge. Every year, we saw somewhere between 20 to 30 percent teacher turnover, and while some of that was natural attrition and retirement, many educators just didn't want to be on our campus. Those who stuck around had to train a constant stream of newbies, who were often alternatively certified, which added a new set of challenges.
A Pressing National Problem
Nationally, teacher turnover is a huge issue. A 2017 report by the Learning Policy Institute found that teacher turnover rates have increased significantly since the early 1990s (Carver-Thomas & Darling-Hammond). Attrition drives 90 percent of the demand for hires. In our local context, we didn't have the power to raise teacher salaries or decrease class sizes. But we knew that teachers' sense of trust and confidence in the school climate is important for retention. Research done in the Chicago Public Schools system by the University of Chicago Consortium found that both principals and teacher leaders affect student achievement through the learning climate, which also improves teacher retention (Sebastian, Allensworth, & Huang). As teacher leaders, climate is the lever that we can most easily pull.
So, instead of concentrating on why people left, we asked ourselves: Why did we stay, despite knowing we could find opportunities at other schools? One of the main reasons was our bond with one another. We had colleagues with whom we strongly connected, those who provided the shoulder to cry on or the kick in the pants to make it through tough weeks. We ate lunch together and shared little moments that built friendship. The five of us are very different people who probably wouldn't have connected outside of teaching, but within school walls, we all wanted to solve problems that affect our students' achievement.
A Structure for Peer Observation
Our campus, according to our motto, is a place where students are "known, valued, and inspired." How does a school replicate that feeling for its teachers, too? We decided to pair our best teachers with our newest teachers and allow them to observe one another's classrooms with the hope that both teachers walked away with new ideas they could use. To create the pairings, we sent out a survey question during an advisory period to all 1900 students: "Which of your teachers best represents excellent teaching?" After delivering the notes to teachers as an injection of goodwill, we invited the top 25 teachers on the list to participate in the peer observation program.
Our next question was how to make peer observation a two-way learning experience instead of a mentor-mentee relationship (a past mentor-mentee program had mixed results). In our district, as in most, the term "observation" carries a stigma. Many teachers worry that to be observed is to be judged. In their book Thanks for the Feedback, Harvard Law School lecturers Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen warn that a foundation of trust is key before most people can accept coaching feedback.
We looked for commonalities that we hoped would facilitate bonding—shared past military service, shared coaching experiences, floating teachers without their own classrooms, those who taught the same grade level. We intentionally tried to match up those who did not teach in the same department or teach the same content to move teachers outside of their regular interactions.
We also looked to other schools that had already developed peer observation strategies. On Twitter, the hashtag #observeme shows door signs teachers use to invite others into their classroom. Before and after rounds of peer observation, the teacher leaders on campus would send out staffwide email invitations with the subject line #observeme (watch a cool lesson I developed) or #observethem (watch students show off what they have learned). Anyone who wanted to see these lessons could visit for a few minutes or a whole period. Several department chairs encouraged their teachers to use professional learning community (PLC) time to take advantage of the observations.
Soon, both new and experienced teachers around the building were sending out hashtag emails, along with pictures of students' accomplishments. There were more conversations around instructional methods and classroom management. Teachers were still not comfortable asking others to give feedback, but we were sharing ideas, talking to each other, and reconnecting. An experienced math teacher who watched a newbie English teacher's class decided to adapt the popcorn reading strategy to solve math problems one step at a time. "I never in a million years would have thought of that on my own," she said.
The process also exposed those who had once felt isolated. One teacher who now participates in peer observation shared at a faculty meeting that no one aside from her formal evaluator had ever come into her room in six years. Teachers in some departments are creating Google folders to better share ideas, and more experienced teachers are quick to "adopt" other new-to-campus teachers as friends and colleagues. We are working this year to add cross-departmental peer observation into our PLC time as a regular component, which we hope will continue to improve retention and climate.
Finding Your Work Family
Peer-to-peer connections can help us support one another to stay in teaching. Early-career teachers with amazing ideas who are overwhelmed by the sheer amount of paperwork. Mid-career teachers who love the classroom but are contemplating moving to administration because they could "do more." Experienced teachers who are feeling passed over because they don't use technology or don't know how to teach "these" kids anymore. Why not give them all the opportunity to watch one another do incredible work?
Teaching is a hard job. "Go home and cry" hard. "Can't just leave it at school" hard. "Break your heart" hard. We all need to find those people who get it. Those who understand what you do and who you are and why you come back every day. Let's start finding one another.