Teacher Retention in a Teacher Resiliency-Building Rural School

Prescriptive collaboration was evident at Nurtureville because of the state mandated accountability program. However the emphasis was not placed on the transmission of knowledge through state mandated instructional programs that tend to rely on lecture and rote learning. To be sure, traditional teaching methods were apparent, but they were used within the orbit of non-traditional strategies related to discovery and constructivist methods that focus on the student as a worker rather than passive recipient. As one teacher indicated, "Of course we must be ever mindful of the state accountability program, but at Nurtureville we encourage one another to make learning fun, and teachers doing all the talking, is boring." Another teacher added, "Our principal says you can't keep students engaged if you stand in front of them all day." Our observations also verified that teachers integrated lecture with other methods of instruction.

When the first three dimensions of collaboration are prevalent, as is the case with Nurtureville Elementary, the prescriptive dimension is still apparent but will not be the sole driving force that promotes adult-to-adult interaction. With less emphasis on prescription, the teacher stress level is significantly reduced.

High expectations. Within this dimension, the focus of the questions was on the following two barriers to high expectations: (a) Do reward systems recognize individual efforts? and (b) What level of output is used to shape group norms? These barriers greatly influence the interaction between student achievement and teaching quality. It has been well documented that there is a definite interface between teaching quality and student achievement (Darling-Hammond, & Young, 2002; Ferguson, 1991). Nurtureville Elementary has enhanced this interface by adopting specific philosophies that structure processes and practices that have neutralized effects of these two barriers.

Regarding reward systems and individual effort, the findings clearly suggest that the traditional rewards for Individual (Teacher of the year) and Collective (School of Distinction) efforts are part of the life of Nurtureville. However, this discussion addresses the underlying philosophy that provides the foundation for these rewards. This philosophy encourages the teachers to maintain a collective focus-a focus on the children. This focus eliminates "blaming the victim" issues that frequently enter discussions related to high stakes accountability and student achievement. Every teacher we interviewed in the small groups indicated that they felt responsible for making sure that all students were successes. In fact one teacher articulated the feeling of the teachers by using a time honored cliché: "We believe all children can learn, if given enough time."

This collective focus on children reduces the teacher isolation that is so prevalent in traditional schools and leads to a highly competitive reward system. In these schools, teachers tended to be responsible for only those students under their tutelage. Consequently the reward systems tended to favor these teachers who had the "best children." At Nurtureville, there are no classes exclusively for the best children so the rewards are for the team effort. Even the Teacher of the Year award is based more on involvement in the life of the school rather than on instructional excellence (Team award).