Chicago Teachers on Residency and Retention
Noticing my questions about the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future report on teacher retention, Alexander Russo asked his Chicago readers to comment on the effect of the city’s residency requirement – an effect that went unexamined by NCTAF. If the first anecdotes are any indication, it’s a big factor.
One commenter mentions an annual high school job fair:
“Nobody out of the thousands of prospective teachers at the thing thinks about teaching in Chicago. The reasons are several, but one of the biggest is the residency requirement. I’ve attended three of these things over the past four years.”
Another mentions the real estate market:
“The fact is, Chicago real estate has gone up over 100% in the past 4 years. It is just bad timing for a new teacher and first time homebuyer. I read an article in the Tribune about a shortage of nurses in Chicago. The number 1 reason was housing.”
The point is that the NCTAF report chose two districts out of five (and by far the two largest ones) with an unusual characteristic affecting teacher retention and failed to account for it. But they did have time to dream up a Teacher Turnover Cost Calculator.
