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Fewer teachers leaving after first year, panel told Wednesday, May 7, 2008 By Rob Moritz Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - The number of public school teachers leaving the profession after their first year has dropped considerably in the past six years because of a more than 20 percent hike in minimum teacher salaries in 2004, officials told legislators Tuesday. Beverly Williams, the state Department of Education's assistant commissioner for licensure, said nearly 20 percent of first-year teachers in 2001-2002 did not return the next year, compared to just 7.1 of the teachers who started teaching last year. "This is a positive report ... (retention) improves the quality of instruction," said Sen. Jim Argue, D-Little Rock, chairman of the Senate Committee Education. The Senate committee and its House counterpart agreed in a joint meeting to allow a task force to look at creating a state teaching certification program for young children from birth to pre-kindergarten. During the meeting, Williams presented lawmakers with a chart showing the number of first-year teachers in the state each year since the 2001-2002 school year and the percentage of those who returned to teach the next year. "Over these six years, our retention of Arkansas teachers was only about 80 percent the first year, but in these last four years we've been over 90 percent at which we are retaining teachers," she said. Williams then showed the committee a chart showing how the minimum state teacher salaries have risen from 2000-2001, $21,860 for first year teachers with a bachelors degree and $25,139 with a masters degree, to the current school year, $28,897 for a bachelor's degree and $33,231 for a masters. The chart also showed a 21 percent hike in minimum teacher salaries for first-year teachers with a bachelors degree, and a 22 percent hike for first year teachers with a masters degree. "The smallest loss of teachers was that year, 04-05, when they had a 21 percent raise," she said. Along with raising teacher salaries, Williams said inception of a mentoring program for first-year teachers also may have contributed to greater teacher retention. "This makes me feel real good," said Rep. Janet Johnson, D-Bryant, a public school teacher. "This is a really big jump." Also during the meeting, the joint committee approved an interim study by Rep. Nancy Blount, D-Marianna, which creates a task force to study the development of a birth-to-kindergarten teacher license in the state. Blount said such a program would allow for day care teachers to receive further training in how to teach children too young for preschool. Sen. Dave Bisbee, R-Rogers, spoke against the proposal, saying the state constitution requires public funding for pre-k through 12, and that adding birth-to-kindergarten might require changing the constitution. Argue said that and other concerns would be addressed by the task force. |
