Education's Workforce Tsunami

We start with a “workforce tsunami” that is about to sweep away the basic underpinnings of our teaching-era schools. As shown in the “Did You Know” video on this page, over 1.7 million teachers and principals - more than half of today’s educators -are eligible to retire in less than ten years. On a small scale, retirements can make room for new teachers with fresh ideas, optimism, and enthusiasm. But when the scale is so large and you combine these retirements with the reality that 1/3 of new teachers leave in the first three years, we are pouring water into a bucket with big holes, draining teachers faster than we can replace them.

What will happen if half the nation’s teachers and principals leave their schools – taking decades of experience with them, and leaving behind a generation of young, inexperienced, and highly mobile teachers in their wake? Will this destabilize the education workforce—or provide an opportunity for innovative staffing solutions?

What’s the educator profile in your community –how many seasoned educators are approaching retirement? How many once-eager novices left before they had a chance to become top-notch teachers? Are there staffing policies that encourage experienced senior teachers to remain while taking on new roles-- teaching mentor, learning coach, content expert—perhaps on a flexible or part-time schedule? Or are pension policies forcing out the experienced, high quality teachers you’d like to keep? Are the skills of young teachers or second career entrants being shared with colleagues in learning teams? What is happening in your state, district, or school—and what would you like to see happen?