When the teachers are away, students suffer the consequences
Today's editorial
indystar.com 7, 2005
Our position is: Stemming teacher absenteeism and better pay for hard-to-fill teaching spots are keys to improving IPS students' academic performance.
Crispus Attucks eighth-grader Rebecca Green spent much of seventh grade wondering "why they didn't get someone who was educated" to teach her classes.
For two months, a substitute taught her English class. She says students were often told to sit down when they asked questions. In all, five substitutes rotated in and out of the class because the regular teacher was "out most of the time." Sometimes, she says, the "substitutes didn't even show up."
For students of Indianapolis Public Schools, Green's experience is all too common. The district's heavy reliance on substitutes means students often are taught by less-qualified, ill-prepared educators. Learning decreases. Discipline problems increase. And the risk rises that many of IPS' hardest-to-reach students will eventually drop out.
On any given day last school year, at least 14 percent of IPS' 39,000 students attended classes without a regular teacher. Substitutes filled 275 classrooms on an average day. At least 5,500 students a day -- based on the lower end of IPS' student-to-teacher ratio -- were without regular teachers.
An average of 8.5 percent of IPS teachers were absent from class each day last school year, according to a Star Editorial Board analysis of school district data. That's higher than the average teacher absentee rates for school systems in Seattle, St. Paul, Omaha and Minneapolis -- all of which have slightly larger student populations. Private sector firms experience a 2.4 percent average absentee rate.
IPS' average of 11 days absent per teacher is higher than all the districts surveyed except for Minneapolis.
The absenteeism is especially astounding considering the built-in time off that comes with teaching.
IPS also relies heavily on substitutes to fill open positions. With the start of a new school year only 11 days away, IPS still has 29 teaching positions vacant, nearly all in hard-to-fill areas of math, science and special education, according to Jane Hart-Ajabu, the district's interim human resources chief. She thinks most of those spots will be filled.
But a rash of abrupt departures often occurs in September. Sixty-six teachers resigned or retired in the opening weeks of last school year.
IPS' pool of substitute teachers has grown by a third, to 1,100, in the past five years. The job requirements are low -- just 60 college credits and the ability to pass a criminal background check. Few substitutes meet the standard of "highly qualified teachers" called for in the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
Longtime IPS substitute Stephanie Patterson says subs often aren't told if they're simply filling in for a regular teacher or are joining a revolving door of replacements. If lesson plans haven't been laid out, Patterson says, "you go in and do the best you can."
For some students, having a substitute may be seen as a chance to relax and watch movies. But many understand they're missing out on the opportunity to learn. "They're quite concerned and rightly so," says Patterson, because "they like the accountability and the discipline."
As Education Trust Director of Policy Research Kevin Carey, a former adviser to the late Gov. Frank O'Bannon, points out, teachers have to know and understand their students to improve their academic performance. Absenteeism short-circuits academic success.
A study by state education officials in Massachusetts showed a correlation between teacher absenteeism and low test scores. UCLA Professor James Bruno found the same thing three years ago. Two decades earlier, a team led by Cornell education researcher Ronald Ehrenberg linked high teacher absenteeism to high levels of skipping school by students -- a harbinger of a student becoming a dropout.
The consensus among education scholars and reformers is that for the poorest and lowest-performing students, a high-quality teacher can make the difference between graduating and dropping out.
Absenteeism and teacher shortages are by no means limited to IPS. Students in high-poverty urban districts, according to the Education Trust, are 77 percent more likely than those in more affluent school systems to end up with teachers leading courses in subjects for which they were neither trained nor certified.
Why are teachers absent so often? As with any employees, illness, jury duty and family leave account for some days. As does training, which in IPS often takes place during the school day.
Generous leave policies also are a factor. IPS teachers receive between 11 and 13 sick and personal leave days each school year. Unlike in many private businesses, IPS teachers are allowed to accumulate unused sick days year after year. School principals also can grant teachers an unlimited number of days for personal development.
Poor working conditions in the district's antiquated buildings -- and the lack of air conditioning -- mean teachers are more apt to take sick days or quit altogether. Peggy Hattiex-Penn, president of the Indianapolis local of the Indiana State Teachers Association, complains that, "You're swatting flies. You're swatting bees. You know, these aren't the best conditions."
IPS and other urban districts also must battle a mind-set that they're merely gateways into teaching. A rookie, according to the Education Trust's Carey, can "make their mistakes on IPS students, they learn from their mistakes and take those lessons" to suburban schools.
What can be done to keep teachers in class? Offering higher salaries for hard-to-find math and science teachers could help alleviate shortages. But it's a move teachers unions have fought vigorously.
New IPS Superintendent Eugene White has committed to move training sessions from school days to keep more full-time teachers in class.
Capital improvements, paid for with last year's $200 million bond issue, should help IPS improve teacher morale.
Yet, more must be done, including better tracking of how much time is spent on professional development and ending the ability to roll over sick days. Incentive pay for teachers willing to accept the challenge of instructing at-risk students also is critical.
Most IPS students have the ability to learn. But they won't if full-time teachers aren't in classrooms more often. Reducing the high teacher absentee rate is one more essential step in closing the wide achievement gap and lowering the dropout rate. |
