ESU survey to examine teacher retention

Church, an associate professor in the Teachers College, has been hired by a consortium of education groups to survey every school district in Kansas about teacher retention rates. The deadline for completing the survey is mid-November.

“This was an issue in the area of recruitment and retention that was probably already in motion prior to the pandemic,” Church said Friday.

But COVID-19 gave many teachers from the baby boom era an added push to leave the classroom due to the stresses involved with virtual learning.

State Education Commissioner Randy Watson said last week that the number of teacher vacancies across Kansas had jumped by 62% since last fall, and now tops 1,250.

Church noted that a large number in Kansas were eligible to retire, anyway. But his research also has found “changing desires” among younger teachers.

“There are some generational pieces that are also changing in what people are looking for at work that are also at play,” he said.

The statewide survey could reveal if there’s really a U.S. 81 divide in terms of education. Church said smaller districts in western Kansas have a greater challenge in hiring and retaining teachers.

“However, we’re starting to see challenges even in districts that would be in more traditionally larger and more sought-after locations,” Church added.

Church’s goal with what he calls the Kansas Teacher Retention Initiative is to put harder numbers on that challenge.

Emporia Public Schools had four open positions posted Monday at the high school and four at the middle school. Several of those openings were for “paraeducators” who serve as teacher aides.

Church’s survey is designed to go beyond retention numbers, to examine what educators consider the most and least rewarding aspects of their job.

“It’s essential for us to hear from teachers about their experience,” Church said. But the survey is for others: “substitute teachers, classified staff, paraprofessionals, bus drivers, administrators.”

Church, who once served as an interim superintendent in Leavenworth schools, hopes to have “state-level results” early next year, along with local-level results for areas with strong response rates.

“Our focus is participation and responses, as well as being able to establish a baseline for this data,” Church said.

Church has been working on the survey for about a year. He thinks educators can finish it in about 10 minutes, starting a project with similar surveys conducted every other year.

Church’s work was commissioned by the Kansas National Education Association, the Kansas Association of School Boards and United School Administrators Kansas.