My View: Six ways to retain great teachers – Schools of Thought - CNN.com Blogs

My View: Six ways to retain great teachers – Schools of Thought - CNN.com Blogs:

My View: Six ways to retain great teachers

By Katy Farber, Special to CNN

Editor’s note: Katy Farber is a sixth grade teacher in Vermont. She is also an author, speaker and blogger.  Her first book, Why Great Teachers Quit and How We Might Stop the Exodus, was released in July byCorwin Press.  Her second book, Change the World with Service Learning:  How to Organize, Lead and Assess Service Learning Projects, was released in January 2011.

A big part of the national conversation about education is how to attract the best and brightest teachers to the profession. It is a favorite line of many a politician. While that is well and good, it seems that many policy makers and education experts are missing the point: how to keep good teachers in our nation’s classrooms once they are actually there.

With about one-third of our teachers leaving the profession in their first three years, and even higher turnover rates in some urban areas, this is a pressing issue in American education that isn’t getting much attention.