Memorandum submitted by Professor Alistair
Ross and Dr Merryn Hutchings Institute for Policy Studies in Education,
London Metropolitan University
A. BACKGROUND
AND EVIDENCE
BASE
1. The Institute for Policy Studies in Education
is one of London Metropolitan University's Research Institutes.
We have carried out a number of recent investigations into teacher
supply and retention, including a study of six London LEAs commissioned
by the Teacher Training Agency (Hutchings et al, 2000,
2002), a study commissioned by of 22 LEAs (McCreith et al,
2001) and research specifically focused on teacher retention (Dalgety
et al, 2003a). We have also examined aspects of teacher
careers and retention in relation to specific groups: eg minority
ethnic teachers (Ross, 2002a, Dalgety et al, 2003b); supply
teachers (Hutchings, 2000, 2002b); and teachers of modern foreign
languages (Adams, 2001, 2002); and in relation to specific needs:
eg church schools (Ross, 2000,1, 200b, 200c), inner and outer
London (Hutchings et al, 2000). In addition we have recently
analysed policies in this area across the UK in the OECD Country
Background Report Attracting, Developing and Retaining Effective
Teachers in the UK (Ross and Hutchings, 2003). We draw on
all these studies in presenting this evidence.
B. RETENTION
IN THE
SCHOOL, THE
REGION OR
THE PROFESSION?
2. Teacher retention is a concern at a number
of different levels:
2.1 School level: It is obviously
healthy to have some turnover of staff in order to bring in new
ideas, and teachers need to experience different school environments
as part of their professional development. However, too much turnover
is problematic in terms of continuity and stability for pupils,
and time and financial costs of advertising and appointing new
staff. We have found that there is considerable variation between
schools in the proportion of teachers leaving posts, and in a
few cases the proportion is so high (up to 56% in a year) that
it must negatively affect pupils' experience (Hutchings et
al, 2000).
2.2 Regional level: Teachers have
been shown to be a relatively immobile workforce. In general they
are likely to relocate only to gain promotion to senior management
posts. However, regional retention has been a considerable concern
in London, and to a lesser extent in some other large cities.
2.3 Maintained school sector teaching
level: It is inevitable that teachers will leave schools to
work in other educational roles, for example, as advisors or in
HE. It is more problematic when they leave the maintained sector
to teach in private schools, or through supply agencies, or to
take up other careers. The high proportion of teachers leaving
before age 60 is also a cause for concern. Ralph Tabberer has
argued that teaching should not be seen as a lifelong career but
rather as a job that people do for a few years. This may be in
many ways a desirable scenario, particularly if those entering
teaching bring with them experience from other sectors. However,
if teaching were to be viewed in these terms, this would give
rise to major concerns about the feasibility of attracting enough
people into the profession and the cost of training them.
3. Our research has demonstrated that the
reasons why teachers stay in secondary teaching or leave are different
at each of these levels:
3.1 The major incentives to stay in a particular
school are the school ethos and colleagues, and effective school
leadership and management (seen by teachers in terms of communicating
effectively with staff and supporting them in a fair and consistent
way). These factors also act to attract new staff. The main "push"
in decisions to leave a particular school relate to dissatisfaction
with poor management and leadership.
3.2 The major incentive to stay in any particular
region is the location of friends and family. Research in London
shows that many London teachers also see teaching in a multicultural,
multilingual environment with many cultural opportunities as reasons
to stay in London. The main reason to leave London is the cost
of housing. Despite various policy initiatives and pay increases,
this remains a very strong disincentive to making a teaching career
in the capital. Other reasons to leave London include pupil behaviour,
and the additional pressures and workload created by the ongoing
teacher shortage in the capital. The resultant high turnover of
temporary and overseas-trained teachers puts more stress on permanent
colleagues.
3.3 The main incentives to stay in the teaching
profession are the satisfaction of helping pupils learn, the pleasure
of teaching a particular subject, and a sense of vocation. Teaching
is seen as worthwhile when there are opportunities to be creative
and to exercise autonomy. Teachers generally enjoy their day-to-day
work in school. It is undoubtedly true that effective leadership
can create an environment where teachers are energised and enthused,
and are unlikely to leave the profession, but it is also vital
that government policies should support this. However, it is paradoxical
that the main factors that cause teachers to leave the profession,
which are now well-rehearsed, all result directly from past and
current government policies. Chief among these is workload, but
other concerns are the on-going stream of government initiatives,
and the current regimes of assessment and inspection of pupils,
teachers and schools. While pay is not the main incentive to leave
the profession, teachers believe that higher pay would be helpful
in that it would make them feel their efforts were valued. However,
it should be noted that many of those leaving the profession take
up jobs which, at least in the first instance, pay less than they
were earning in teaching.
C. VARIATION
ACROSS DIFFERENT
GROUPS OF
TEACHERS
4. It is important to note that factors
relating to retention in the school, the region and the profession
do not operate uniformly across the profession, but impact differently
on different groups of teachers (by school sector, age, experience,
career stage, etc). Some examples from our research findings illustrate
this point.
5. While pay level is a greater concern
for inexperienced teachers, those with more than 25 years experience
are more likely to stress the negative effects of inspection and
assessment regimes. Some older teachers can also feel that their
experience is not valued or drawn on.
6. We have found some significant differences
in the views of teachers from different ethnic groups. If we are
to have a teaching profession that is representative of the communities
it serves, it is particularly important to take on their views.
We found, for example, that black teachers were more concerned
about levels of pay and prestige than their white counterparts,
and that they felt more strongly the need for support in behaviour
management, and for increased levels of classroom and ICT support.
7. Those who are most affected by the high
cost of housing in London are teachers a few years into their
careers, who are now ready to have families. This is the group
that are the potential leaders and managers of the future. Indeed,
our survey showed the highest level of concern about housing costs
among deputy heads. This creates a particular imbalance in the
teaching force of London, where young teachers predominate, the
current leaders are due to retire in the next fifteen years, and
there is likely to be a very small pool of teachers to draw on
to replace them.
D. GOVERNMENT
POLICIES FOR
RETENTION
8. Recent government policies have addressed
the various issues around teacher retention in a coherent way,
addressing in particular the major issues of workload, quality
of school leadership, and pupils' behaviour, and also taking on
the regional concerns of London through the recent pay settlement.
9. However, the current workforce remodelling
is inevitably creating additional demands on teachers in the short
term. For example, while teaching assistants are very welcome
in terms of the additional support they can offer pupils, research
has shown that managing them creates more work for teachers, rather
than less (Lee, 2002). It is crucial that such additional demands
are adequately supported in both financial and human terms. The
current budget shortfall in many schools can only lower morale
and decrease retention.
E. GROUPS THAT
NEED FURTHER
ATTENTION
10. It is helpful to identify particular
groups of secondary teachers in the analysis of retention. There
is a complex interaction of gender, age-cohort, position in the
hierarchy of promotion and expectations, which suggests that certain
groups need to have retention issues addressed in specific ways
(Ross, 2002b).
Age considerations
11. The age of secondary teachers is of
particular concern. Figure 1 shows the well-known age distribution
of the secondary school workforce, included within which are the
numbers of teachers who are head, deputies and assistant heads.
12. Clearly, this "demographic time-bomb"
has important implications for the numbers of teachers that will
need to be recruited. Figure 2 shows the current numbers (2001)
of secondary teachers entering and leaving the profession. This
shows that after about the age of 30, leavers and joiners are
approximately in balance to the age of 45, when the numbers leaving
begin to outstrip those moving into the profession.
13. In addition to the concern that the
number of teachers retiring over the next decade will require
the recruitment of larger numbers of secondary teachers, there
must also be particular concern about the consequences of this
for the future leadership of our secondary schools.
14. 86% of all current secondary head teachers
have 20 or more years' teaching experience, as do about 75% of
all deputy and assistant heads. Thus a very great proportion of
our secondary school leaders—a body of 15,100 teachers—are
drawn from the body of 70,100 teachers with 20 or more years'
experience. In addition, we currently have 23,900 teachers with
senior management responsibility allowances (4 or 5 points). These
largely constitute year heads and heads of large departments,
and many of them are also among the most experienced teachers.
In 10 years time, the vast majority of all these teachers in leadership
positions will have left the profession. However, because of the
existing age structure of the profession, in 10 years time the
number of secondary teachers with 20 or more years experience
will have fallen from 70,100 to only 42,200. At that date, we
will not need substantially fewer heads or deputies or other senior
managers. Therefore, to fill the senior posts in our secondary
schools in 10 years time we will need about 39,000 teachers (head,
deputy, assistant, management responsibility 4 and 5). But we
will only have 42,200 teachers with 20 or more years' experience,
not all of whom may wish to take on management responsibility.
This will place severe demands on our pool of experienced teachers.
15. Inevitably we will have to fill some
posts with younger, less experienced teachers. They will be well-trained,
and doubtless as efficient and competent as are the present cohort.
However, the appointment of younger teachers to senior management
positions may also impact on their younger colleagues, who may
see fewer possibilities for promotion themselves in that many
senior posts will be filled by colleagues who have a longer prospective
working life.
16. Particular emphasis therefore needs
to be placed on retaining teachers currently in the 35-45 age
range, a number already in short supply, but critical for future
school leadership.
17. Finally, in this consideration of age-effects,
long term consideration should be given to the effects of recruiting
large numbers of teachers over the next decade, to replace those
retiring. Given current trends (Figure 2), these are very likely
to be under 34 years of age. This will be followed by a decade
of recruitment in the period 2012-22 when we will need to recruit
relatively few secondary teachers, because few will then be retiring.
Recruiting a large number of teachers in a relatively narrow age-band
is likely to recreate the current skewed distribution in the future.
Gender considerations
18. Male teachers in secondary education
are more likely to be found in the older age cohorts (Hutchings,
2002a). The Teacher Training Agency is making strenuous and, to
an extent, successful efforts to recruit a higher proportion of
men into initial training. But, nevertheless, the secondary school
profession will become increasingly feminised in the coming decade.
Yet many of the senior positions in secondary schools are disproportionately
held by men. Of secondary teachers between 40-59 years of age,
44% are men. Yet men hold 68% of all secondary headships, and
63% of all deputy headships. The relatively new grade of Assistant
head, to which all appointments have been made in the past three
years, is 69% male. This pattern is not one likely to act as an
aid to retaining female teachers, who will be increasing as a
proportion of the workforce.
Subject specialisation
19. This is not an area on which our research
has focussed in depth. Nevertheless, it is worth reminding the
Committee that while 60% of all secondary teachers are over 40,
this proportion rises to 62% of design and technology teachers,
63% of mathematics teachers, 65% of chemistry teachers, and 68%
of physics teachers. Retention measures may need to be particularly
focussed on younger and mid-career teachers in these disciplines,
because it will be a considerable challenge to replace those who
will be retiring, and thus it is likely that there will be greater
shortages in these subjects in the future.
Ethnicity issues
20. There are particular concerns about
the low proportion of minority ethnic teachers in the profession.
No figures are maintained nationally, but we have recently estimated
that the total number of black and other minority ethnic teachers
in England is 9,100 (Dalgety, Maylor and Ross, 2003b forthcoming).
This represents 2.4% of the teaching force, compared to 9.1% of
the working-age population of England (and 12.9% of the school
population). These minority ethnic teachers are broadly distributed
between primary schools and secondary schools much as the white
teaching force, but they are particularly concentrated in certain
regions: London, where they form 7.4% of the workforce, followed
by the West Midlands (2.0%), Yorkshire and Humberside and the
East Midlands (1.5% in each).
21. Our research (Ross, 2002) suggests that
the level of retention for minority ethnic teachers is broadly
comparable to that of white teachers. However, there are major
issues in relation to promotion patterns that are likely, if they
continue, to have a significant effect on future retention. Currently,
of teachers who have between 15-25 years teaching experience,
16.9% of white teachers are in positions of head teacher or deputy
head (primary and secondary phases). Only 11.1% of black teachers
with equivalent experience, and 9.6% of Asian teachers, are in
similar positions. Perceptions of this may affect the career decisions
of the increasing numbers of minority ethnic teachers currently
being attracted into teacher training. While the NCSL is currently
addressing this issue through programmes such as SHINE, it is
crucial that it continues to be given high priority.
REFERENCES
1. IPSE Research
Adams, J (2001) Modern Foreign Languages:
Teacher Supply and Retention Report for TTA
Adams, J (2002) "The Case of Modern Foreign
Languages", in I Menter, M Hutchings & A Ross (eds),
The Crisis in Teacher Supply: Research and Strategies for Retention,
Chapter 8, Trentham, Stoke-on-Trent.
Dalgety, J, Hutchings, M and Ross, A (2003a)
Teacher Retention in Seven Local Educariuon Authorities. London:
IPSE
Dalgety, J, Maylor, U and Ross, A (2003b, forthcoming)
Minority Ethnic Teachers in England A Report for The General Teaching
Council for England London: GTCE
Hutchings, M (2000), "The role of agencies
in teacher supply in London", paper presented at the British
Educational Research Association Annual Conference, 7-9 September,
Cardiff University.
Hutchings, M (2002a), "A representative
profession? Gender issues", in M Johnson & J Hallgarten
(eds) From Victims of Change to Agents of Change: The Future
of the Teaching Profession, Chapter 7, Institute for Public
Policy Research, London.
Hutchings, M (2002b), "The Careers of Supply
Teachers", paper presented at the British Educational Research
Association Annual Conference, 12-14 September, Exeter University.
Hutchings, M, Menter, I, Ross, A & Thomson,
D (2000), A Study of Six London Boroughs: Supply and Retention
in London 1998-99, Teacher Training Agency, London.
Hutchings, M, Menter, I, Ross, A & Thomson,
D (2002), "Teacher supply and retention in London: Key findings
and implications from a study carried out in six London boroughs
in 1998-2000", in I Menter, M Hutchings & A Ross (eds),The
Crisis in Teacher Supply: Research and Strategies for Retention,
Chapter 8, Trentham, Stoke-on-Trent.
McCreith, S, Ross, A & Hutchings, M (2001),
Teacher Supply and Retention: A Study of 22 LEAs, 2000-01,
Institute for Policy Studies in Education, London.
Ross A and Hutchings M (2003) United Kingdom
Country Background Report: Attracting, Developing and Retaining
Effective Teachers, OECD
Ross, A (2000a), The Role and Views of the
Diocesan Boards of Education in the Recruitment and Retention
of Teachers (Occasional Paper 3), Institute for Policy Studies
in Education, London.
Ross, A (2000b), The Teaching Force and the
Recruitment and Retention of Teachers in Roman Catholic Schools
(Occasional Paper 4), Institute for Policy Studies in Education,
London.
Ross, A (2000c), The Teaching Force and the
Recruitment and Retention of Teachers in Church of England Schools
(Occasional Paper 5), Institute for Policy Studies in Education,
London.
Ross, A (2002a), "A representative profession?
Ethnic minority teachers", in M Johnson & J Hallgarten
(eds) From Victims of Change to Agents of Change: The Future
of the Teaching Profession, Chapter 6, Institute for Public
Policy Research, London.
Ross, A (2002b), "The history of London
Teachers' Careers, 1970-2000", in I Menter, M Hutchings &
A Ross (eds), The Crisis in Teacher Supply: Research and Strategies
for Retention, Chapter 7, Trentham, Stoke-on-Trent.
2. Other References
DfES (2003) Statistics of Education, School
Workforce, England, 2002, HMSO
Lee, B (2002) Teaching Assistants in School:
The Current State of Play (LGA Research Report No 35), National
Foundation for Educational Research, Slough.
July 2003
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