City Teachers Fleeing New York at an Alarming Rate: Report

A staggering 41% of city teachers hired during the 2012-13 school year left the system during their first five years on the job, according to a new report.

City Comptroller Scott Stringer said Monday that turnover among fledgling educators shell-shocked by the city’s public schools is wrecking classroom continuity — and he called for a new “residency” program to stem the exodus through improved training.

“Let’s not mince words here,” he said. “There’s a teacher retention crisis in New York City.”

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To better train teachers, Stringer is calling on the Education Department to adopt a “residency” program that would offer aspiring instructors a $30,000 stipend to work in a city school during their final year of graduate school.

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A constant loss of school staffers — hovering around 40% that leave within the first five years dating back to 2008-09, according to the study — has forced the DOE to scramble for fresh instructors each year, according to the report.

As a result, there are chronic staffing shortages in key subject areas and roughly a third of all city teachers now have less than five years of experience.

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Stringer also called for more teachers of color, noting that 60% of city educators are white in a predominately minority school system.

He was joined Monday by state Sen. Brian Benjamin, who echoed the call for more black and Hispanic teachers.

“It’s important for the person who is teaching them to culturally understand who you are, where you come from, your background,” he said “I’m not saying that other cultures can’t do it too, but it has to be part of the equation.”

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