Ever since the pandemic, there have been two big staffing issues at Oakland Tech: hiring enough credentialed teachers, and teacher retention. For example, if you’re in the Fashion academy, you’ve probably noticed that there’s a new FADA Fundamentals teacher every year. Perhaps you’re in a senior capstone class with a permanent substitute. You’re probably wondering to yourself, where are all the teachers?
To understand the staffing situation better, we asked Ms. Jah-Yee Woo to provide some context. Since 2019, Ms. Woo has been a teacher on special assignment to support new teachers. We’ve also asked Computer Science Academy teacher Ms. Christina Ong for her perspective.
“Over the past 10 years, OUSD has had a retention rate of 83%, so that means that about four out of five teachers return,” Ms. Woo said, “which also means one out of every five teachers leave.”
Numerous OUSD high schools share similar patterns of depleted first-year retention rates. At Oakland High, there’s an 81.5% first-year retention rate. At Skyline, the rate is 80%, and Tech is 85%. That number drastically decreases as time goes on. The third year retention rate for Oakland High is 56%, and Tech is 61%. According to the 2023 teacher retention survey, the four largest reasons for teachers leaving, in order, are housing affordability, salary, work-related stress, and inadequate resources. This shows that it’s not just a Tech issue. There’s a systemic component like housing, and an OUSD component like salary.
A first year teacher in OUSD makes $62,000 annually, which amounts to about $5,100 a month. According to Zillow, the median rent in Oakland is $2,281. This means that at least half of the new teacher’s monthly salary will go towards rent alone. Certain people have certain living standards. Some teachers may lean on their spouses to help pay rent. Otherwise, they’ll have to try to find the cheapest and probably not the most desirable apartments.
“It’s definitely a challenge,” Ms Woo said, “I know a lot of teachers who work multiple jobs during the school year and over the summer in order to maintain basic necessities of housing, food, and insurance.”
San Leandro’s school district has a starting salary of $84,000. Hayward’s starting salary is $82,000. Both are $20,000 more than OUSD’s starting salary. The only upside is that OUSD includes benefits such as healthcare and dental care, while the districts mentioned before do not. Besides that, OUSD simply does not provide a competitive salary for new teachers.
Some new teachers are going straight to class right after they are done teaching at Tech because they are not fully credentialed yet. The one year program to receive a preliminary credential adds an additional expense to an already tight first-year budget. To clear the preliminary credential takes hours of labor and meeting time over the course of years.
To sum it up, a first-year teacher must teach class, while learning how to teach on the job, while going to class after school for their credential, all while budgeting their finances to make ends meet. And on top of all that, often their classrooms don’t have all the supplies they need. They have to pay out of pocket for books and other lesson materials. It’s a lot of work-related stress. It’s a lot of expectations in a not very ideal work environment.
“Teaching is a tough job,” Ms. Ong says. “It’s tiring, there’s burnout, you really need to have a community that supports you.”
According to the retention survey, the number one reason teachers stay at Tech is because of strong relationships with students and families. In order for us to keep our teachers around, we must strive to become better students to support them. Be understanding and empathetic for what our teachers are going through. At the end of the day, they’re here for us, so let’s be there for them.