Study: U.S. teachers are absent too many days
A study from the National Council on Teacher Quality looked at teacher attendance for over 234,000 teachers in 40 districts during the 2012-13 school year. Teachers in the U.S’s largest school districts missed an average of 11 days, and 16 percent of teachers missed 18 days or more.
Kate Walsh, president of the Washington think tank that advocates for teachers says, “Big city school districts are striving to improve student achievement, yet they seem to forget one of the most basic aspects of teacher effectiveness; teachers being on the job regularly, teaching kids.”
Nancy Waymack chimes in, “Teacher absences affect student achievement. No matter how engaging or talented they are, teachers can only have an impact if they are in the classroom.”
The cities with the lowest average absences include Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Louisville, Tampa and Washington, D.C. The highest teacher absences occur in Columbus, Cleveland, Ohio, Nashville, Portland, Oregon and Jacksonville.
The study was based on a 186-day school year and did not factor in long-term absences for maternity or paternity leave or serious illnesses.
Absences also cost a lot of money. The 40 districts spent around $424 million to pay substitute teachers.
It was also noted that districts with formal policies to discourage teachers from missing school do not appear to have higher attendance rates over schools without policies in place.
I agree with Walsh and Waymack. Teachers need to make it a priority to be present in the classroom. There are always occurrences where they may be absent a couple of days, but ultimately students need a teacher to be present consistently in order for students to reach their full potential.
Because the common school year gives summer months off for students, teachers have long suffered from a perception by the general public that they are paid full-time wages for a part-time job. On the surface, the absent rate would seem to support the notion that some teachers work in systems that allow them to ‘skip work’ and retain their jobs when the parents of their students would be fired for such behavior. Is this the example teachers should be setting for their students and for their community in general? I wonder how many of these districts would consider students truant with the same absences…
In some states students are required to be present 90% of the time or they won’t get credit for their courses. I would expect teachers to have the same standards or more. However, life happens even for teachers and they are given PTO time for a reason. If teachers are smart and do excellent planning with great substitutes I don’t see how learning is impeded when teachers are gone.
Did the study state the reason why these teachers were absent so many times? I wonder if they would do a follow up on these same teachers in five years and I’m betting that many of them will have burnt out and gone on to something else. I have noticed that just before a career change, the people are normally absent more than they were in the beginning of their career. It would be interesting to follow up and see if that were really the case.
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I wish there was a link to the study since there is little detail on the absences and reasons for them. As it reads now, it can leave people with the wrong impression.
More often than not, teachers are women who are in their younger years–marrying, starting families, caring for young children. I would bet some of my 90+ unused sick days that the overwhelming majority of teacher absences are due to caring for sick kids of their own. Or, at the other end of the spectrum, ailing parents.
BTW, isn’t it interesting that folks are fighting for more time off for women in private industry, but somehow teachers are supposed to be at work every day without fail?