Thompson: Ending Career Teaching -- On Purpose

It is bad enough that Colorado Senator Senator Michael Bennet  (CNN video) has seemingly given up on creating a profession of career teachers.   It takes three years for a newbie to find the school's restroom, but Bennet wants a system where teachers last for seven years or so and that's it.  I can't see how an urban school could function effectively without a cadre of teachers who had taught the current students' siblings, cousins, and parents.  Bennet's defeatist approach wouldn't even really  address the turnover rate in the inner city where half of teachers leave within five years.  But John Merrow has data that shows how close we are to Bennet's dystopia.  In 1987 the mode for teachers' years of experience was 15 years, which means that there were more teachers in their 15th year than any other year.  "The latest mode — believe it or not — was one year! In 2007, our schools had more first-year teachers than any other kind!" - JT(@drjohnthompson) Image via.