Calculate the Cost of Teacher Attrition at your School

In an earlier post,  I examined the “teacher shortage” issue.  One perspective that I presented was that  it was the high rate of teacher attrition causing the shortage.  Rather than retaining beginning teachers through mentorship and professional development, teachers are left struggling, eventually with 50% leaving the profession within the first 5 years.  To replenish these teachers leaving, we hire new ones, again providing the same level of dismal support as their predecessors.  Not only is the cost of this cycle detrimental to student achievement (with the loss of experience and knowledge from the outgoing teachers), but there is a significant monetary cost as well. 

Using the calculator below, you can calculate the cost of your school’s attrition.

http://www.nctaf.org/resources/teacher_cost_calculator/school_calc_sdp.asp?clear=yes

I am left with asking, when will school districts and state education agencies begin to make a real, sustained effort to retain our teachers?