The birth of a zombie statistic – Teacher Data

Sam Freedman:

This matters because the 40% figure creates a false narrative about a profession in crisis. I agree with ATL that teacher workload is too high – often driven by nonsense compliance rules around marking and planning. I agree that it’s a very stressful and tiring job and that many first year teachers don’t get the support they need. But the vast majority of those who start teaching do stay and succeed. Exaggerating the problem through dodgy statistics risks putting off new entrants to the profession – which we really can’t afford to do at the moment given an improving economy and changes to teacher training are creating serious recruitment issues.

More, here.