LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) - Records show more teachers have resigned from their jobs in Lafayette Parish public school classrooms in the past two years than have resigned in any comparable period in recent history.
The reason for it is in dispute.
A teacher union representative tells The Advocate (https://bit.ly/1grbNlt ) an unpopular teacher evaluation system and state-mandated policy changes are prompting more teachers to resign, but school system administrators say teachers are citing other reasons for leaving.
According to data compiled by the Lafayette Parish Association of Educators, a total of 343 teachers resigned between January 2012 and December 2013. That compares to 225 resignations in the three-year period between January 2009 and December 2011.
Rodolfo Espinoza, a Lafayette High School teacher and president of the Lafayette Parish Association of Educators, said the growing number of resignations is cause for alarm and signals a crisis in the parish school system.
Espinoza contends that more teachers are leaving because they are unhappy with the new COMPASS teacher evaluation system, overtesting of students and what he described as the ill-planned implementation of the Common Core State Standards.
“The increases coincide with the policy changes,” Espinoza said.
Superintendent Pat Cooper said he doesn’t dispute the accuracy of the number of resignations and retirements reported by the association.
However, Cooper said policy changes aren’t driving the numbers up, based on the reasons teachers have given the school system for leaving.
In the 2012-13 school year, the district started asking teachers to report their reasons for resigning. Cooper said the majority last year and continuing this year “are not saying it’s bureaucracy or the evaluations or COMPASS or Common Core.”
In the 2012-13 school year, and as of Dec. 31 in the current school year, the top three reasons teachers gave for resigning were family care/personal issues, relocation due to a spouse’s job and to go work for another school system.
Other reasons reported included: accepting a better-paying job, work pressure, professional growth or pay, personal health, continuing education, career change out of teaching, the commute and joining the military.
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Information from: The Advocate, https://theadvocate.com
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