Why Try to Keep Teachers from Leaving When They Already Have Another Offer?
In this video, Dr. Justin Baeder argues that by the time a teacher has another job offer, it's too late — the time to retain them was months earlier.
Key Takeaways
- Retention happens before the job offer - Counter-offers and last-minute pleas are too late
- Fix the conditions year-round - Teachers who feel valued and supported don't look for other jobs
- Don't waste energy on retention you've already lost - Invest in the working conditions that prevent teachers from wanting to leave
Transcript
Can we just completely get rid of this idea of holding a teacher's contract or even going after their certification if they try to take a different job with a different district after a certain deadline?
This is a practice that apparently occurs in multiple states that just boggles my mind that districts would want to hang on to employees who want to leave I can force them to stay after they have an offer from another district because it's after some sort of deadline.
And usually that deadline is in the spring, like May or June, while school is still in session or pretty soon thereafter.
And of course, schools have to hire lots of people after that.
And I understand, you know, the origin of these policies probably is that schools want to minimize movement as much as possible, especially last minute hiring needs that, you know, are just going to be very difficult to fill.
But I don't know that this is really a productive way to do that, right?
I get the idea of wanting to hang on to people, but I think your opportunity, your window of opportunity for hanging on to someone ends when they start looking for another job.
Like you've kind of missed your opportunity.
Like you've lost them by that point when they start looking for another job.
And the idea that you can just kind of hold on to somebody by threatening to have their certification revoked or by refusing to release their contract at the district level That just does not make a lot of sense to me.
And I was reading a post about how a superintendent was refusing to sign off on just such a move.
And I get that those policies might not go away anytime soon, but I think just voluntarily, we can say as a profession, this is a professional courtesy that everybody deserves.
And if we want to show what kind of people we are and how much respect we have for teachers, I think the right thing to do in that situation is to let them go.
Like, I do not want to hang on to somebody.
Like, do you want somebody working in your building who doesn't want to be there, who has gone out of their way to apply for jobs, to interview for jobs and has received an offer?
Like, do you really want to force that person to stick around for another year or, just be petty and vindictive toward them if they do leave and kind of go after their certificate.
Like what is gained by that?
Like, do we, do we want to take teachers out of the applicant pool or out of the workforce by going after their certification?
Like, We have few enough people as it is.
The way you keep people is not to exercise power over them.
The way you keep people is to give them good working conditions.
Good working conditions are what people are seeking when they're seeking a new job.
And it may be that their commute was too long.
It may be that for their family, it was more convenient to be in a different school, but You know, there are a lot of working conditions that we have control over as schools and as districts.
And that, I think, is where we should put 100% of our focus when it comes to retaining staff.
This idea of just pulling somebody's certificate or hanging on to their contract just seems like a complete waste, just a completely misguided focus.
Let me know what you think.