Teachers are leaving the profession in record numbers, especially in rural Pennsylvania, and researchers say school districts and lawmakers can help reverse the trend.
A team of researchers at The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford recently shared their findings in a report published in the journal “Educational Studies.”
“The teacher crisis has reached catastrophic levels," said Jonathan Chitiyo, an education professor at Pitt Bradford, the director of the campus's teacher education program and the report’s lead author.
Chitiyo said his team surveyed 90 teachers in rural school districts throughout northwestern Pennsylvania. They found teachers leave for several reasons, including low pay, lack of resources and not feeling recognized for their work.
“If there’s high turnover in these schools, it's going to really affect the economy of these rural communities," Chitiyo said. "And most of the time, some of these rural communities have the most vulnerable populations.”
The survey also found geographic isolation and not feeling a sense of belonging to a community can contribute to rural teacher loss.
William Clark, another author on the report, said school districts can help integrate new teachers into the community in a few ways.
"Making sure they feel welcome at home football games, whatever may be the big local event that everybody attends that they may not be aware of," Clark said. "Make sure they get invited. Make sure when they're invited, they get shown around to people and introduced to people in the community so they begin to feel a sense of belonging.”
Clark and Chitiyo also said school districts and lawmakers should invest more in school facilities, instructional resources and teacher incentive and mentoring programs.
Salma Shaik is the report's third author. The authors said they were inspired to research rural teacher retention as their campus, Pitt Bradford, is in rural McKean County.
