I was asked to give my perspective on why Teachers are leaving the field of education and why schools are having a difficult time filling those positions.
There isn't one or even two solid answers and so I thought about it and came up with about 8 interconnected reasons with some of those playing a much larger role than others. I do believe that two of the biggest and loudest reasons for the leaving and inability to hire replacements is connected to compensation and escalation in student behavior (and I'm not referring to Special Education identified students and I explain why in the video). But, there are other areas that, whether apparent or not, intersect and/or are contributing factors to the two main areas.
So, (1) high stakes testing stripped teachers of their ability to "teach" and be fairly autonomous instead of being made to teach towards a test that only means something to the institution and not necessarily the individual teacher or the students. (2) The Politization of our schools is another reason and the intolerable extremism that has creeped in parading around as "tolerant" yet is extraordinarily intolerant and, as a result, polarizing, separatists, selectively discriminatory, bullies and bent on brainwashing children with their ideology (which creates battle lines between parents and the school... though it might only be a handful of ideologues responsible). This intersects with numbers 4, 7 and 8.
(3) Zero Tolerance policies (4) Refusal to address student behavior (not IEP identified students because the IDEA has a defined process and set of procedures that, if followed correctly and is data driven, will move children along the Least Restrictive Environment to where they are not impeding the learning of other children). But, the school can't do the same for nondisabled students that, due to environmental/social factors that have fostered and exacerbated and fueled this problem, won't be addressed by many school administrators. They are immobilized by this problem and teachers are rightfully afraid and aren't being backed up and supported. But....the easy thing for social media and some teachers/administrators to do is to target and blame the SPED kids and that's simply wrong... if they see this as a problem then it's their own fault and the incompetence of the law and how it works. There is a process to address this but it needs to be followed and far too many educators are ignorant of this area of the law and then blame the student.
(5) Compensation/teacher value/Union limitations. Our teachers and Aides need to be paid more but it needs to be connected to knowledge/competence/training and maturity than how much oxygen you can breath compared to the teacher across the hall that is a better teacher with less years.
(6) Bad Leaders/Administrators. We don't have a lot of good examples of what a good leader is in our America of today but bad leaders are bullies and make threats and heavy handed tactics as a means of cheap control. You can always see a bad leader and nobody wants to work for or with one.
(7) The obsession with too much "security" and introduction of cops in schools. More police and security toys means less money for teacher units, pay increases and materials. There is such a thing as too much "security" and, as a consequence, many schools now make parents feel like they are the ones unwelcome and under suspicion. The schools have curtailed access, are not open and accessible to the communities they serve and lack transparency and openness. As a result, parents have retracted support, carry suspicion of their own and don't feel welcome or a partner in the education of their children. The equal consequence is that teachers then get the impression that parents don't care, aren't partners in their children's education or in disciplining their children.
( This is a carryover of number 7 that the less transparent and open a school the more it replicates and behaves like a prison. It severs the connection between the school and parents. The parents don't feel involved and are often in the dark. As a result, parents are suspicious of the discipline being handed out to their children... to where they want to side with their children initially before supporting the actions of the school (which is natural when you don't have that connection). They also don't know how to help support the education so it sends a very real impression to the teachers that the parents don't care, aren't partners and won't support them.