On finding great teachers
Especially as a new school, prospective parents ask us lots of questions on a wide range of subjects. But one question rarely emerges, though it’s the question I consider perhaps most important of all: “How will your school attract and retain the best teachers?” There are a handful of common answers one might hear, such as, “We offer competitive salaries” or “competitive benefits” or “a collaborative work environment.” But, offering these – or at least claiming to – is standard, so this response simply means the school is on par with all the other schools. So, how will your school attract and retain the best teachers?
At VISST, a big part of the answer comes from a seemingly unexciting statistic: teachers at VISST have 100% to 200% more “prep time” compared to most other schools. Prep time refers to the hours in the school day when a teacher is not in the classroom. The majority of BC teachers are in the classroom for close to 90% of each school day. This leaves them with only a few hours per week for everything that needs to be done besides teaching: staff meetings, emails, assessing student work, lesson planning, writing report cards, etc. But where then is the time for creating new and innovative lessons, or interdisciplinary projects in collaboration with other teachers? These tasks would have to be done in the evenings and on weekends, if they are done at all. Even the routine non-classroom activities may well seep into one’s personal time. This is not an attractive proposition for teachers. Not only does it result in the stressful and demotivating sensation of running on a treadmill month after month without truly moving forward, but what inevitably falls off the plate is some of the most fun and meaningful work teachers can partake in: innovating.
By providing VISST teachers with significantly more prep time, we allow our teachers the breathing room to step off the treadmill and start finding (and creating) more inspiring paths to great education. There is time to think big, to consider the latest technologies and their impacts on society, to collaborate with other teachers in designing projects, to learn new skills, and to meet with partners in the community. Prep time doesn’t sound exciting, and perhaps this is why it’s rarely talked about. But adding prep time is the fundamental shift that enables many of the most exciting opportunities at VISST.
Of course, prep time affects the bottom line: if teachers teach less, we need to hire 20-30% more teachers and this increases our biggest expense, teacher salaries, by approximately 25%.† But we believe it’s the most important area where we can allocate funds, along with student financial aid (I hope to write a blog post on this, too). If an independent school in your neighbourhood has a sports stadium costing 8-figure amounts and their teachers are given hardly any prep time, I encourage you to question the priorities of that school. And I do not mean to pick on sports either – even as a STEM school, I would say the same for a $10 million science lab. Yes, having that science lab would be amazing (and I hope VISST does one day!), but I’d rather have teachers with the space to do their best work. Our priorities are set by the commitment statements on our website, one of which is to support our teachers in doing work they are proud of. Innovation, collaboration, and pride in a teacher’s work are good things. And good things take time.
†Quick calculation: if teachers teach 70% of the school day instead of 88%, then 88/70=1.25 or 25% more teachers needed.
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