WCCUSD Teacher Exit Interviews Should Be Published Yearly

In the following CC Times article, it is mentioned that a teacher at Hercules Middle High School resigned after being mistreated by their students.

http://www.contracostatimes.com/hercules/ci_25689027/west-contra-costa-seeks-new-principals-hercules…

It is reported that the most frequent causes of teachers leaving their profession are burnout, threat of layoffs, low wages, testing pressure, and poor work conditions.   What about the teachers who do not leave the profession, but simply seek employment at a different school site within the district or at a different district?  Studies have reported teacher turnover rates in low performing school districts to be higher than 20%.  In recent years, the teacher turnover rated in the West Contra Costa Unified School District reached a staggering 43%.

The current School Accountability Report Cards (SARC) do not report the rate of turnover for a particular school site.  They do report average teacher salary, so one can make the inference that the schools with the lowest salary average are not retaining teachers, but the data does not explain why.

In order to address this problem and for there to be true accountability, school districts should be required to share their teacher exit interview data yearly, with personal identifiers redacted.  A personal ID number can be assigned to the interview, one that the teacher themselves can use to later verify that their reasons for leaving or seeking transfer were indeed accurately reported in the published data.  

The WCCUSD Human Resources Director reports that the exit interviews are being performed, but this has not been verified.  Publishing this information would ensure that the interviews are being conducted.  The taxpayer who foots the bill for this problem needs to have access to this information.  The teachers who are placed in difficult situations deserve to be heard, each and every one of them.  Additionally, this same information for exiting principals should also be shared. 

Contact Superintendent Harter (bharter@wccusd.net) and WCCUSD board President Charles Ramsey (charamsey@comcast.net) and let them know you want this information.