Examining Retention Policies: What Should You Be Asking Yourself?

I attended a great session this week, at the United School Administrators Conference in Wichita, aimed at retaining special education staff. Dr. Victoria White and Dr. Ann George, both of Pittsburg State University, shared research related to special education teacher retention and offered ideas for assessing building and district level policies and procedures that promote retention in their Thursday afternoon session. They discussed ways in which districts can evaluate the feelings and attitudes of special education teachers, as it relates to retention. Below are just a few of the questions that Dr. White and Dr. George suggested in their assessment, which was adapted from the Council for Exceptional Children’s article Retention of Special Education Professionals: A Practical Guide of Strategies and Activities for Educators and Administrators.

• How do you present a “I want you to be here. You are important” attitude to your staff?
• How are you supportive of teacher decisions?
• How do you provide time and opportunities for collaboration among special and general educators?
• How do you provide mentoring experiences throughout your educators’ professional development experiences?
• How do you ensure that all educators are treated equitably?
• How do you ensure that all educators have access to materials?
• How do you ensure that the work environment is satisfying?

These are important questions to consider as we examine our practices related to not only special education teacher retention, but retention of all our education professionals. To read the full article visit the Council for Exceptional Children.