BISMARCK — North Dakota teachers are retiring early, but not necessarily taking higher-paying jobs, data presented to the task force on Wednesday, April 3, shows.
Since 2016, the average age of teachers leaving North Dakota to retire or leave the profession has dropped 12 years to 42, according to information from the North Dakota Statewide Longitudinal Data System.
At Wednesday's Teacher Retention and Recruitment Task Force meeting, data scientists and subject matter experts presented to task force members the results of their research on teachers who leave, their pay at departure, and the benefits of mentoring in retention efforts.
Sam Unruh, a data scientist with North Dakota's IT department, said he was able to determine that teachers have been retiring much earlier over the past seven years, with many earning the same amount or slightly less in new jobs. Stated. His study used data from the Department of Public Instruction, the North Dakota Educational Standards and Practices Board, and the Department of Employment Services.
“If you look at the 30- to 45-year-old age group, there wasn't much change from 2019 to about 2020,” Unruh said. “You can't blame it all on COVID-19, but it certainly seems like something changed at that point.”
Unruh added that he doesn't think pay adjustments should be used as a retention tool just because a retiring teacher didn't have a high-paying job at the time of retirement.
The median years of experience for teachers who retired or left the profession also decreased from a median of 23 years of experience in 2007 to 9 years of experience in 2023.
The study found geographical differences in teacher retention rates between 2006 and 2023. Teachers in the northwestern part of the state have fewer years of experience before retiring, which is likely related to oil activity, the report said.
Erin Jacobson, coordinator of the North Dakota Teacher Support System, said providing mentoring to first- and second-grade teachers improves retention rates compared to teachers without mentors. She also pointed out that mentors do not evaluate new teachers or report their conversations to administrators, but are there to provide professional guidance.
“What we found is that when used that way, it becomes an empowering tool,” Jacobson said.
She added that new teachers typically need the entire first semester before they feel comfortable enough in the classroom to begin making adjustments from constructive criticism from their instructors.
According to the report, teachers who participate in mentoring programs are 6 to 11 percent more likely to continue teaching beyond 10 years than those who do not participate in the program. The biggest difference between mentored and non-mentored teachers is in the sixth year, with mentored teachers having a 15% higher retention rate.
“This shows it's worth the investment,” Jacobson said. “You don’t have to be in a mentoring program, but if teachers have that kind of support, you’ll see that person come in… get feedback… and they’ll stay longer.”
Ellie Shockley, an institutional researcher with the University System of North Dakota, said she estimates that more than 10,000 people in North Dakota are certified and licensed to teach but are not currently teaching. According to her data, about 26% of them finished their teaching careers between 2017 and 2022. Meanwhile, 12% of these teachers left the profession between 2006 and 2017, with the majority of those leaving the profession being over 55 years old.
Shockley added that this statistic includes only teachers with teaching licenses and does not include teachers with interim substitute teaching licenses.
“When it comes to substitutes, they haven't been consistently recorded, so DPI is moving towards increasing the recording of people in that role,” she said.
The Teacher Retention and Recruitment Task Force has two more meetings scheduled before a report on its findings and possible solutions will be submitted to Gov. Doug Burgum at the end of September. The next meeting will be held on June 3rd.
This article was originally published on NorthDakotaMonitor.com
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