Libby educator studies how to retain teachers

Libby educator and coach Brittany Katzer wants to help steer education in a more sustainable direction.

Katzer, the current elementary school counselor and behavior interventionist, also coaches middle school track and field and cross country coach.

Katzer recently acquired her doctorate in Educational Leadership from the University of Montana.

For her dissertation, she looked at the reasons why there is trouble with teacher retention in rural Montana and she hopes to someday have a more hands-on role in a school environment.

Katzer is in her fourth year at the school, and at one point during the COVID-19 pandemic, she became dean of students.

As an assistant to the principal, this temporary role fulfilled her aspirations to work in an administrative role.

However, she noticed school counselors could not be licensed administrators in Montana. She tried to change this policy until, in June 2022, administration roles opened up to councilors.

"At the time, it was like a technicality. Even (with) my experience and my education, I was about to complete my doctorate degree and all of the school work, there was not a pathway," Katzer said.

Being in administration is something Katzer feels a school counselor should be able to be, but the state did not allow it from 2015 to 2022.

"I had supervisors that said, 'You're a good fit,'" Katzer said.

There are no administration openings right now, but with her family living in Libby she has no plans to leave.

"My long-term goal is to be an administrator in the school district, but right now, there's no opening," Katzer said.

She argued that school counselors, the mental health professionals in the building, have as much to offer as fellow teachers. Something that she noticed in her doctorate was how much mental and emotional health comes up as essential to teachers' well-being.

"If I am a leader someday, what can I do to keep the qualified teachers happy and keep them here," she said.

In her dissertation, she wanted to dive deep into the comprehensive solutions and simultaneously narrow her focus to cater to issues at rural elementary schools in Montana.

In doing this, Katzer created several categories and looked at why teachers chose to leave – teachers who were not fired or retired. She talked with at least one teacher from each position, kindergarten through sixth grade and three specialty teachers in music, physical education and special education. The years covered ranged from pre-to-post-pandemic.

Interviewing the teachers was very humbling and rewarding, said. In wanting to find one teacher that had left the profession altogether, she found four.

This trend goes against the previous conception of "once a teacher, always a teacher," Katzer said.

Her dissertation wanted to find out how you retain new teachers.

During her research, Katzer found several reasons why teachers left the profession.

"People do like a passion tax where they pay us less because we're passionate about it," one anonymous teacher said in an interview.

Another thing that may be driving teachers away from the field is the safety of the work environment.

"I had a participant that talked about cops being called to her campus on a daily basis. I had another one say that she was assaulted, that she was bitten. I had another one say she was thrown down the stairs and broke her arm," Katzer said.

Administration changes make a big difference in the school's atmosphere, she said. There seems to be a relationship between administration turnover and teacher turnover.

One possible solution she mentioned was vital mentorship programs, which positively affect teacher retention. According to her research, the most common reason teachers would stay was the students. Often teachers form lifelong friendships with particular students, which can be very rewarding.

"I didn't expect this when I chose this dissertation topic. I didn't expect to become so passionate about it, but we need to listen and we need to listen to what are the people who are doing this day-in and day-out and what are they saying," she said.

Exit surveys are a possible solution, she said. An exit survey can make determining what a teacher thinks as they leave easier.

"We don't know why. I don't know if teachers would be totally honest, but if it were anonymous, that would be better," she said.

When teachers leave, they keep it professional. She doesn't know if that's a good thing because if school administrators know what to target and to work on, then it can be hard to fix.

"How do you know what to fix if you don't know what the problem is?" Katzer said.