INDIANAPOLIS | State schools chief Glenda Ritz brought together 50 education leaders from across Indiana Friday for the first of six meetings over the next three months aimed at crafting legislation to address the teacher shortage.
The Democratic state superintendent of public instruction immediately sought to put to rest partisan murmurs about the unusually large membership of her Indiana Blue Ribbon Commission on the Recruitment and Retention of Excellent Educators.
"We need that many voices to talk about such an important issue," Ritz said. "This is not a study committee...its purpose is to provide strategies toward action."
The first session was devoted to teacher retention. Officials with the Indiana Department of Education presented data showing about 19 percent of Hoosier teachers leave their jobs every year.
First-year teachers in high-poverty schools were most likely to quit, with 29 percent leaving their school corporations by the end of the academic year — though some found jobs at other schools.
Several region schools had even lower retention rates from 2012-13 to 2013-14, including: Lincoln Achievement Center, Gary, 51 percent; Lighthouse Charter School, East Chicago, 45 percent; Block Middle School, East Chicago, 42 percent; and New Tech Innovative Institute, Gary, 39 percent.
Ritz said while most of the attention on the state's teacher shortage has focused on fewer new teachers entering the profession, she said it's just as important that Indiana figure out how to keep the state's experienced educators on the job.
"Once you hire a teacher, and once you know that they are good, you want to keep them," Ritz said. "So what is it that we need to put in place to be sure that happens?"
Suggestions devised by commission members organized into small groups ran the gamut from more consistent pay raises to greater freedom to teach; increased professional development opportunities, mentoring and classroom management training to more in-school preparation time.
The commission did not settle on any specific recommendations Friday, but plans to see if its Sept. 24 session on teacher recruitment produces any matching ideas.
Ritz said she is confident the abundance of proposals generated by commission members can be whittled down into specific suggestions for consideration by the Republican-controlled Legislature, which next month will convene its own teacher shortage study committee.
"In education, it seems like everyone wants a quick fix, and it just doesn't work like that," she said.