Increasing Number of Teachers Quitting Houston Schools

The number of teachers who have left their jobs this year has gone up by more than thirty percent in Houston, KHOU.com reports. According to the data released by the Houston Independent School District, at least 300 faculty members have quit so far — an increase of 66 over the same period last year. Those [...]

Those leaving could probably relate to the sentiment expressed by a Jacob Santillan – a veteran of the U.S. Army – in a resignation letter that has been making the news all over Houston. In it, Santillan described the conditions as untenable, and said that he preferred going back into combat to ever teaching in a public school classroom again.

After spending only a single semester teaching in a HISD middle school, Santillan has had enough. And he believes that there are a growing number of teachers who feel exactly as he does – warning district heads that unless things change, they would continue to lose teachers Houston desperately needs.

In my 30 years, I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Gayle Fallon, president of the Houston Federation of Teachers, the local union.

“Just quit. Not retired, not fired, quit,” Fallon said.

So, the question is why?

“One of them told us ‘I’m not going back to a place I dread,’” Fallon said. Teachers’ e-mails and phone calls to their office complain of “bullying” and “intimidation” by principals.

HFT Grievance Officer Joanna Pasternak echoed Fallon, saying that people who have been contacting her have complained about being mistreated and losing the joy that teaching used to bring them.

HISD Spokesman Jason Spencer isn’t convinced, however. Far from believing that the district is losing its best and brightest, Spencer thinks that the high attrition numbers prove that the move by the district to put a “tighter leash” on its teachers is working. A higher number of quitters is a natural consequence of holding them accountable for the job they do, he points out.

HISD recently launched a new teacher appraisal system, claiming to put a tighter leash on poor performing teachers.

“Principals and assistant principals are having tough conversations with teachers who are not making the progress parents expect them to make, and those conversations are not comfortable,” Spencer said.

According to the union, “not comfortable” is an understatement. Union says that the system is unfair, subjective and needlessly punitive – straying far from the performance criteria adopted by the State of Texas and used in districts outside Houston.

If length of tenure correlates with quality of instruction, then it appears that the new evaluation system is driving away more than just under-achievers. A full quarter of teachers who have resigned have been on the job for a decade or more.

Comments

Margaret E Bailey

January 11, 2013 at 2:04 pm

Spencer either does not know what he is talking about or he is putting a deliberate spin on the current practice of getting rid of the tried and true veteran teachers and replacing them with people for the Teachers of America program. I had some of the highest ratings and test scores in the District in English and had done so for over 20 years. I was targeted last year and my previously awarded excellent teaching skills were evaluated as substandard . I was bullied and threatened, finally culminating in lies told by a fellow teacher. I was given a choice. Retire or be fired. My story was and is repeated across the district. It is the poor, ineffective teachers who are offered a deal by the principle to turn in and lie about better teachers so that principles can be in compliance with the Board and Dr. Grier’s policies as well as be rewarded monetarily. All of the worst and most ineffectual teachers were still on board when I retired at the end of last year and my school had lost all of its best and most seasoned veterans with the exception of one or two. This is a plan and District spokes people are lying to the press.

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- Sarah
  
  February 8, 2013 at 6:33 pm
  
  Ma’am, while I believe that there is bullying and harassment, as I experienced it in a poor district in my years teaching, it troubles me that you claim to be an excellent English teacher and have misspelled PRINCIPAL and PRINCIPLE–twice. There are other problems here in your written comments that make me wonder if you were as excellent as you claim.
  
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William

January 12, 2013 at 2:56 pm

I am not in Texas, but am in Colorado. I resigned at the end of last year because of the demoralizing conditions, and I have taught for 26 years, continue to work for International Baccalaureate, and am considered an excellent teacher by everyone I know. The teachers who are having “success” are the ones who are keeping their mouthes shut and teaching to the test, don’t you kid yourself: I know dozens who said they would go with me if they could afford to lose their job. I believe in preventative care; I couldn’t afford the mental and physical health costs of living under that sort of unsupportive administration. This is a serious national problem, this business of schools becoming businesses. So much for love of learning, which we all know is what everyone desperately needs.

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Bat

January 14, 2013 at 9:32 am

I am a military veteran and I taught science in an inner city high school and enjoyed every moment with the students. I had an administrator who practiced imtimidation as a rule. I had a test prep class added to my duties and I was able to help 94 out 108 pass the test who had not passed previously, and yet she still tried to put me on a “growth” plan to tie me to the school. I have of course quit teaching and gone into the business where there is less coniving and backstabbing than in HISD!

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