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Article
Can Good Principals Keep Teachers in Disadvantaged Schools? Linking Principal Effectiveness to Teacher Satisfaction and Turnover in Hard-to-Staff Environments
Abstract
Background
High rates of teacher turnover likely mean greater school instability, disruption of curricular cohesiveness, and a continual need to hire inexperienced teachers, who typically are less effective, as replacements for teachers who leave. Unfortunately, research consistently finds that teachers who work in schools with large numbers of poor students and students of color feel less satisfied and are more likely to turn over, meaning that turnover is concentrated in the very schools that would benefit most from a stable staff of experienced teachers. Despite the potential challenge that this turnover disparity poses for equity of educational opportunity and student performance gaps across schools, little research has examined the reasons for elevated teacher turnover in schools with large numbers of traditionally disadvantaged students.
Purpose
This study hypothesizes that school working conditions help explain both teacher satisfaction and turnover. In particular, it focuses on the role of effective principals in retaining teachers, particularly in disadvantaged schools with the greatest staffing challenges.
Research Design
The study conducts quantitative analyses of national data from the 2003-04 Schools and Staffing Survey and the 2004-05 Teacher Follow-up Survey. Regression analyses combat the potential for bias from omitted variables by utilizing an extensive set of control variables and employing a school district fixed effects approach that implicitly makes comparisons among principals and teachers within the same local context.
Conclusions
Descriptive analyses confirm that observable measures of teachers’ work environments, including ratings of the effectiveness of the principal, are generally less positive in schools with large numbers of disadvantaged students. Regression results show that principal effectiveness is associated with greater teacher satisfaction and a lower probability that the teacher leaves the school within a year. Moreover, the positive impacts of principal effectiveness on these teacher outcomes are even greater in disadvantaged schools. These findings suggest that policies focused on getting the best principals into the most challenging school environments may be effective strategies for lowering perpetually high teacher turnover rates in those schools.
... For instance, teachers are less likely to leave teaching in schools with stronger administrative support (Boyd et al., 2011;Ingersoll, 2001;Smith, 2006) or with higher levels of teacher collaboration (Boyd et al., 2011;Kraft et al., 2016;Smith & Ingersoll, 2004). Recent research also suggests effective principals can keep teachers from leaving and that principal-teacher race/ethnicity match can reduce teacher attrition (Grissom, 2011). As such, there is increasing interest in this area of research from both researchers and policy makers. ...
... Principal effectiveness. Likewise, the evidence is building that experienced and effective principals can keep teachers in school (Beteille, Kalogrides, & Loeb, 2009;Grissom, 2011;Redding & Smith, 2016). In one of the earliest studies on principal effectiveness and teacher turnover, Beteille et al. (2009) find that higher principal effectiveness can decrease attrition for teachers with high value-added scores. ...
... In one of the earliest studies on principal effectiveness and teacher turnover, Beteille et al. (2009) find that higher principal effectiveness can decrease attrition for teachers with high value-added scores. Similarly, Grissom (2011) and Redding and Smith (2016) report that higher principal effectiveness may be associated with decreased likelihood of teacher attrition, but these results are statistically insignificant. Most recently, researchers have found more effective principals are able to retain more teachers, particular high performing teachers . ...
h i g h l i g h t s Some school organizational characteristics can potentially influence teacher turnover. Better administrative support, stronger teacher cooperation and more effective principals may help to retain teachers. School factors have a more pronounced relationship with turnover in low-income schools than more affluent schools. These results are robust to a variety of modeling choices. a b s t r a c t Teacher labor markets have strong implications for learning outcomes and equity for students, and yet schools that need teachers the most often face high turnover. Using repeated cross-sectional nationally representative data, this study examines the relationships between school organizational characteristics and teacher turnover and identifies what may be done to positively influence the teacher workforce. I find school organizational characteristics may indeed reduce teacher turnover, but this varies based on the type of organizational characteristic as well as the specific form of turnover. Policy and practical implications from the study are discussed.
... Resilience When morale and culture are negative in a school building, it can create adversarial experiences for teachers. This adversity can have a direct impact on a teacher's development of resilience and his/her decision to remain in the classroom (Allensworth et al., 2009;Grissom, 2011;Johnson, Kraft, & Papay, 2012;Ladd, 2011). Addressing the adversity that teachers face is critical in developing their resilience and improving their sustainability. ...
... Emotional exhaustion is a cause of teacher burnout (Grayson & Alvarez, 2008). Protective factors and supportive colleagues can minimize the impact of adverse situations (Grissom, 2011;Gu & Day, 2007;Johnson et al., 2012;Ladd, 2011) Policymakers should provide more funding for mentor teachers so that administrators can develop schedules where mentors and mentees have an opportunity to collaborate on a regular basis. Funds for additional personnel, stipends, and training should be provided so that mentor teachers do not burnout themselves. ...
... School culture and administrative support also seemed to play a role in reducing the teachers' stress and burnout in this study. The teachers' description of supportive colleagues and administrators fell in line with previous research into teacher adversity (Allensworth et al., 2009;Grissom, 2011;Johnson et al., 2012;Ladd, 2011). The teachers described an administration that is flexible and allows them to leave school for family issues. ...
... Educational leadership, good and bad, is paramount among teacher job satisfaction factors, as teachers boldly crown leadership as the strongest predictor of [teacher] retention (Boyd et al., 2011;García Torres, 2018, p. 140;Grissom, 2011;Ladd, 2011). Moreover, effective educational leaders, particularly principals, are the primary shapers of their school's culture Dös & Savas, 2015;Malone & Caddell, 2000;Supovitz et al., 2010). ...
... Professional development for leaders is key, as leadership is reported (F1) by teachers as "the strongest predictor of [teacher] retention (García Torres, 2018, p. 140; see also Boyd et al., 2011;Grissom, 2011;Ladd, 2011). Leadership quality was determined as "even more significant for retention in disadvantaged schools" (Grissom, 2011;Ladd, 2011, pp. ...
... Professional development for leaders is key, as leadership is reported (F1) by teachers as "the strongest predictor of [teacher] retention (García Torres, 2018, p. 140; see also Boyd et al., 2011;Grissom, 2011;Ladd, 2011). Leadership quality was determined as "even more significant for retention in disadvantaged schools" (Grissom, 2011;Ladd, 2011, pp. 129-130), while further research describes teachers as valuing the quality of leadership over salary in determining to stay or leave a district (Learning Policy Institute, 2017, p. 1). ...
... Relatedly, studies have found that in schools where principals are given high overall average ratings from their teachers, teachers report higher job satisfaction (Grissom 2011;Johnson, Kraft, and Papay 2012). They also are less likely to report an intent to leave the school (Johnson, Kraft, and Papay 2012;Ladd 2011) or to turn over in that school year (Boyd, Grossman, et al. 2011;Grissom 2011;Kraft, Marinell, and Yee 2016;Ladd 2011). ...
... Relatedly, studies have found that in schools where principals are given high overall average ratings from their teachers, teachers report higher job satisfaction (Grissom 2011;Johnson, Kraft, and Papay 2012). They also are less likely to report an intent to leave the school (Johnson, Kraft, and Papay 2012;Ladd 2011) or to turn over in that school year (Boyd, Grossman, et al. 2011;Grissom 2011;Kraft, Marinell, and Yee 2016;Ladd 2011). Principals assigned high supervisor practice ratings also see lower teacher turnover, particularly among effective teachers (Grissom and Bartanen 2019b). ...
... Principal effectiveness appears to be even more important for lowering teacher turnover in highpoverty schools (Grissom 2011;Grissom and Bartanen 2019b). ...
... The literature indicates that the employee-supervisor relationship is dependent on attitudes and behaviors toward the supervisor (Škerlavaj et al., 2014;Wang, 2014). An undermining behavior often coincides with the level of supervisor support (Shanock & Eisenberger, 2006); thus supervisor support can strongly influence an employee's intention to leave their profession (Durksen et al., 2017;Grissom, 2011). Supervisor support refers to employees' general views regarding how their supervisors value their contributions and care for their wellbeing (Pazy et al., 2006). ...
... For example, Brown and Wynn (2007) found that the level of support a new teacher receives from the principal plays a prominent role in their decision to continue in the profession in the long term. Similarly, other studies suggested that positive school principal support plays a role in reducing teacher turnover (e.g., Brown & Wynn, 2007;Durksen et al., 2017;Grissom, 2011;Littrell et al., 1994). Furthermore, Alhajeri (2011) describes the benefits of teachers receiving support from the school principal by noting that it raises their morale, student academic performance, and overall school effectiveness, and may also lower secondary school teacher turnover. ...
... Furthermore, teacher turnover intention correlates directly with teacher job satisfaction and indirectly with principal support. This result is not only conceptually and empirically consistent with the relevant published papers in GCC countries (Alkhateri et al., 2018;Imran et al., 2017), but also those conducted in other countries, such as the USA (Brown & Wynn, 2009;Grissom, 2011). This finding suggests that improving principal support practices will result in a higher teacher job satisfaction, which will, in turn, reduce teacher turnover intention. ...
Teacher turnover is a major concern for education policymakers worldwide. This study examines the relationship between principal support and teacher turnover intention in Kuwait, focusing on the mediating role of teacher job satisfaction. Data collected from 392 teachers in public schools were analyzed using a structural equation model. The results show that principal support has an indirect effect on teacher turnover intention and is significantly mediated by teacher job satisfaction. This paper broadens the scope of principal support, discussing implications for education policymakers and providing recommendations to improve principal leadership practices and reduce teacher turnover.
... School Leadership has been found to influence teacher's job satisfaction, feelings of efficacy, and career decisions (Grissom, 2011;Ingersoll, 2003). Additionally, some studies have pointed out that disadvantaged schools tend to be more top-heavy and bureaucratic (Grissom, 2011). ...
... School Leadership has been found to influence teacher's job satisfaction, feelings of efficacy, and career decisions (Grissom, 2011;Ingersoll, 2003). Additionally, some studies have pointed out that disadvantaged schools tend to be more top-heavy and bureaucratic (Grissom, 2011). One reason for the expansion of management within disadvantaged schools is the present neoliberal reform policy agenda (McGuinn, 2006). ...
... Empirical evidence has suggested that teacher turnover negatively influences student achievement, particularly in low performing, urban, and rural schools (Barnes et al., 2007;Borland & Howsen, 1999;Ronfeldt et al., 2013). Moreover, schools with high teacher turnover commonly employ a large percentage of novice teachers, who tend to be less effective than those with more experience (Grissom, 2011;Rivkin et al., 2005;Wray & Richmond, 2018). Longitudinal research exploring factors that influence teacher turnover may inform policies that both support teacher retention and improve teaching and learning in science classrooms (Borman & Dowling, 2008). ...
... Finding ways to improve physics teacher retention is important in terms of the financial and human capital consequences of turnover. The cost to recruit and develop new teachers compromises instruction as it diverts scarce resources away from classrooms, curriculum, and training (Grissom, 2011). Targeted investment in physics teaching resources and professional development may diminish the considerable financial losses associated with attrition and migration. ...
The issue of science teacher turnover has been examined in many national studies, yet most educational policies related to teacher preparation and student performance are determined at the state level. There has been a lack of research that explores this issue in specific science domains. The present nonexperimental longitudinal study examined physics teacher retention, attrition, and migration patterns over a five-year period from 2012 to 2017 in the case of New York State. The theoretical framework is based upon theories of teacher retention, attrition, and migration, specifically with regard to teacher preparation, organizational culture, and student performance in physics. The sample included 1472 teachers, 105 of whom retired from the profession. Of the remaining 1367 physics teachers, 78.3% (n = 1070) were retained in their schools, 13.2% (n = 181) left public school teaching all together preretirement, and 8.5% (n = 116) migrated to work in other school districts. Multinomial logistic regression determined physics teacher attrition was predicted by years of teaching experience (professional age), school-level socioeconomic status, school locale, and course load taught in physics. A significant interaction between professional age and urban locale suggested novice teachers in urban schools were particularly vulnerable. Physics teacher migration was predicted by professional age and school-level socioeconomic status. Of the novice teachers who migrated to other schools, approximately one-third left urban and rural schools to work in suburban schools while most of the others migrated to similar locales. Implications for the support and preparation of novice physics teachers, particularly those who work in high need schools, are discussed.
... For example, caring for the work environment could have positive effects on teachers' intent to stay at school, but this may occur because the work environment may be directly linked to the development and promotion of better job satisfaction, which in turn may improve relationships between teachers (Xiaofu & Qiwen, 2008). Since causes of teacher dropout originate at different levels of the organization, it is theoretically pertinent to associate it with school leadership, so it is not surprising that multiple studies that explore the causes of teacher dropout incorporate leadership as a variable of interest in their analyses Grissom & Bartanen, 2019;Grissom, 2011;Ingersoll & May, 2012;Ingersoll, 2001;Kraft et al., 2016;Ndoye et al., 2010). Evidence from the reviewed literature shows that better school leadership influences teachers' decision to stay not only at their schools, but also in the school system itself Grissom, 2011). ...
... Since causes of teacher dropout originate at different levels of the organization, it is theoretically pertinent to associate it with school leadership, so it is not surprising that multiple studies that explore the causes of teacher dropout incorporate leadership as a variable of interest in their analyses Grissom & Bartanen, 2019;Grissom, 2011;Ingersoll & May, 2012;Ingersoll, 2001;Kraft et al., 2016;Ndoye et al., 2010). Evidence from the reviewed literature shows that better school leadership influences teachers' decision to stay not only at their schools, but also in the school system itself Grissom, 2011). Even trust plays a role in teacher dropout: teachers who tend to perceive greater trust (Ndoye et al., 2010) and better communication with the principal or management teams (Boyd et al., 2011;Ingersoll & May, 2012) show lower average rates of dropout from their schools and even from the school system. ...
Teacher retention has represented a serious problem to be solved by different school systems at the international level. In this sense, it is expected that instructional leaders not only manage schools with a focus on improving students’ learning, but also transform schools into attractive spaces to retain teachers, especially those who are just beginning their teaching careers. The following study explores novice teachers’ perceptions of instructional leadership from their principals and management teams, and the influence of leadership on teachers’ intent to stay at schools. The qualitative study utilizes the grounded theory method to analyze interviews with six Chilean novice teachers from different types of schools. The results show that teachers display a greater tendency to stay at their schools when the leadership exercised there is instructional, with a clear emphasis on trust and support for classroom work.
... The complexity of society and desire for equity and inclusion continues to evolve, which is reflected in the challenging situations experienced in many K-12 schools. For example, schools may have challenges associated with low socioeconomic status, cultural diversity, constrained resources, and retention of high performing teachers while trying to meet expectations of student academic achievement (Grissom, 2011). ...
School principals commonly face a range of decision making that require creative or novel thinking, and these innovative thought processes align with a strong entrepreneurial mindset. We considered entrepreneurial mindset on a spectrum ranging from weak to strong as we empirically documented the entrepreneurial mindset of K-12 school principals. Using a survey, we gathered a combination of qualitative and quantitative data from 374 K-12 principals working in the south-central United States. We found those principals held a modest entrepreneurial mindset, and the mindset was predicted by age, the number of memberships to professional organizations, size of the school, and the academic performance of the school. Our findings have implications for K-12 principal preparation and practice.
... Schools serving students with the highest needs experience the largest staff turnover (Grissom, 2011). During our study, a number of early adopters left their school mid-year. ...
We report findings from a recent field test assessing the feasibility of training teachers in implementing restorative practices within a multi-tiered approach to supporting student behavior. First, we provide an overview of our training content, training delivery, and follow-up coaching. Second, we present overall outcomes from our field test with three non-traditional high schools. Results indicated improvements in overall school-wide implementation of restorative consequences, and gains in teacher use of existing discipline approaches as well as restorative practices. Results also indicated increases in early adopters’ confidence level with motivating students and engaging them in appropriate behavior across the duration of the study. Challenges associated with implementation included aligning administrative commitments to restorative practices with individual teachers' willingness to change classroom practices, allocating sufficient time to change policies and practices and overcoming logistical challenges to maximize coaching benefits. Finally, we discuss our field test findings within the current recommendations for advancing the evidence-based supporting restorative practices in schools.
... Such a happiness in school buildings can better motivate students' performance and indirectly influence their effectiveness, enabling teachers' perceptions of their manager's commitment and the managers' self-reported commitment to be significantly accomplished (Hart & Willower, 1994;Soleimani & Tebyanian, 2011). In this context, it is noteworthy that an effective manager leadership is not only studentsbeneficial, but it can keep teachers in disadvantaged schools, while positively affecting manager effectiveness to teacher satisfaction and turnover in hard-to-staff school environments (Grissom, 2011). ...
Global economic growth is accompanied by increased energy demand, thus conventional fuels such as coal, oil and gas, which are the primary energy sources, are gradually being depleted. At the same time, the combustion of conventional fuel for energy production causes serious adverse effects on the environment and contributes to climate change due to the emitted greenhouse gases. For the above reasons, most of the developed and developing countries especially during the last decades, have introduced various incentives for the greater penetration of renewable energy sources (RES) in all sectors of the economy. Concerning the building sector, several measures have been adopted, including the promotion of energy efficiency and energy saving. A significant proportion of the building stock are the school buildings where students and teachers spend a significant proportion of their daily time. Teachers' attitudes and views, especially the school unit managers concerning the use of RES in schools, are important in the effort to rationalize and control energy use. This study was conducted through a structured questionnaire applied to a sample of 510 school managers in Greece's primary and secondary education. The school unit managerial role for the case of Greek schools is performed by the school principal who has both administrative and educational duties. Statistical analysis included the application of Friedman's test and hypothesis test on questions concerning school manager environmental perceptions and energy-saving habits. According to the results, Greek school managers have a high degree of environmental sensitivity, since 97.6 % agreed or strongly agreed that the main concern should focus on energy saving. Furthermore, 71% of the respondent reported to have good knowledge on solar energy, followed by 64% on wind energy while only 34% are knowledgeable on biomass. Almost all the respondents (99%) agreed that it is important to provide more RES-orientated education through the taught curricula. Concerning energy saving behaviour, around 90% reported that they switch off the lights when leaving the classroom and they close the windows when the air-condition is operating. Hypothesis tests revealed a relationship between the school managers' ecological beliefs, the energy saving habits in the school environment, and the recognition of the importance of environmental education. Conclusions highlighted the need to intensify environmental education programs in the school environment concerning RES in schools. This will lead to a higher level of environmental awareness of both teachers and students and therefore to a more dynamic behaviour towards the effort to “greenify” the school environment.
... (Boyce/Bowers 2018b: 171) Taking advantage of longitudinal administrative data, several recent studies show reasonably large 'principal effects' on student outcomes, typically test scores (Branch/Hanushek/Rivkin 2012;Grissom/Kalogrides/Lobe 2015). Furthermore, several recent studies show a relationship between school leadership and both teacher retention and teacher satisfaction (Boyd et al. 2011;Grissom 2011;Ladd 2011;Sebastian/Allensworth 2012). Empirical findings indicate that effective American schools have principals who focus on curricula and instruction by shaping a schools' climate and culture, defining and communicating missions and visions, recognizing and awarding success and accomplishments, maintaining good internal and external relations, and investing in the schools' personnel (Daniëls et al. 2019). ...
... Bonds formed between students and teachers through class meetings and shared participation in OBPP activities may be disrupted when trained teachers leave a school or are absent. Participants noted challenges of overcrowding coupled with high teacher turnover, which remains a chronic problem for schools in low-income urban areas (Grissom, 2011). OBPP class meetings are best facilitated by skilled teachers in small groups that support discussion. ...
Identifying factors that help or hinder the implementation of school environment interventions such as the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program (OBPP) is needed to inform strategies that bolster implementation quality in low-income urban middle school settings. We used qualitative methods to identify supports and barriers for OBPP implementation from the perspective of administrators, Bullying Prevention Coordinating Committee members, and teaching staff at two urban middle schools in low-income attendance zones that primarily served African-American adolescents. Interviews and focus groups with 42 participants (Mage = 46; 74% female; 79% African-American) yielded seven themes that impeded OBPP implementation: (1) lack of time, (2) unanticipated changes and events, (3) varying staff commitment and implementation consistency, (4) school context, climate, and structural changes, (5) difficulty identifying bullying incidents, (6) social media influences that exacerbated bullying behaviors, and (7) limited fiscal and staff resources. Participants also identified four themes that supported implementation: (1) endorsing the OBPP as seen by administrator prioritization of the program and staff presence, involvement, and commitment, (2) staffs’ clear communication about OBPP roles and responsibilities, and teamwork and collaboration within and across levels of organizational leadership, (3) intervention dynamics (e.g., flexibility in class meeting delivery), and (4) logistics such as having support materials for class meetings and staffing resources. These findings inform OBPP efforts, especially those focused on enhancing program implementation in urban middle school settings located in low-income areas.
... While descriptive and associational in nature, our findings should prompt greater interests in research and interventions to improve school climate and equity-oriented teacher compensation including diverse rural contexts. School leaders have considerable influence in shaping the climate of their schools, and several studies suggest that teachers' career decisions are greatly influenced by their perceptions of their school principals (Grissom, 2011;Johnson & Birkeland, 2003;Nagy & Wang, 2007;Waruwu, 2015;Williams & Graham, 2019). These studies suggest that teachers who have higher levels of administrative support (L. ...
Teacher turnover across the country presents a persistent and growing challenge for schools and districts, with the highest rates of turnover geographically concentrated in the American South. Research on teacher staffing and turnover problems consistently highlight two subsets of schools as struggling to attract and retain well-credentialed, effective educators—predominantly Black schools and rural schools. However, research has rarely explicitly examined the schools that meet both these criteria. We use administrative records and unique climate survey data from Georgia to examine how the intersecting roles of race, money, and school climate shape evolving teacher turnover patterns in rural schools. Findings suggest that while teacher mobility is generally less common in rural schools, considerable inequities exist within the rural space, with majority Black rural schools bearing far more of the brunt of rural teacher turnover. Among rural teachers, Black teachers have higher mobility rates—more likely to make interdistrict moves and to exit rural settings for teaching opportunities in urban and suburban contexts. However, in majority-Black rural schools, higher salaries and school climate factors, such as relational climate and parental involvement, were strong predictors of retention, even after controlling for a rich set of covariates.
... The equity ramifications of having the highest teacher turnover in schools already challenged lends a particular urgency to identifying policy strategies to advance retaining effective teachers in highneeds schools. Proposed policies must be "effective, politically tenable, and not prohibitively expensive" (Grissom, 2011(Grissom, , p. 2558. Identifying potential strategies that meet all these criteria may seem like a fool's errand. ...
Policymakers wanting to close the well-documented achievement gap between students in high-and low-poverty schools have increasingly focused on teacher quality. Yet experienced teachers tend to leave high-poverty schools, replaced by novice, less effective teachers. Research suggests that this churn creates serious academic and equity issues, jeopardizing these children's opportunities for an adequate education. Although teachers' unitary salary schedules and school district transfer policies are not among explicit causes, might turnover be an unintended outcome of such policies? Or might these policies intend to remove experienced educators from high-poverty schools? This article takes a fresh look at this issue.
... (Boyce/Bowers 2018b: 171) Taking advantage of longitudinal administrative data, several recent studies show reasonably large 'principal effects' on student outcomes, typically test scores (Branch/Hanushek/Rivkin 2012;Grissom/Kalogrides/Lobe 2015). Furthermore, several recent studies show a relationship between school leadership and both teacher retention and teacher satisfaction (Boyd et al. 2011;Grissom 2011;Ladd 2011;Sebastian/Allensworth 2012). Empirical findings indicate that effective American schools have principals who focus on curricula and instruction by shaping a schools' climate and culture, defining and communicating missions and visions, recognizing and awarding success and accomplishments, maintaining good internal and external relations, and investing in the schools' personnel (Daniëls et al. 2019). ...
... Understanding the organizational ramifications of high teacher turnover is particularly important for building and district leaders who must think beyond the technical challenges associated with replacing teachers who leave. For even when recruitment efforts are successful in filling classroom vacancies, students in high-turnover schools are inevitably exposed to a less experienced and cohesive teaching corps, and this has important implications for school effectiveness, improvement and ultimately student learning (Boyd et al., 2005;Grissom, 2011;Sorensen and Ladd, 2020). Schools with chronic teacher corps instability experience near constant disruption of the social networks within the school essential for the formation of social capital. ...
Purpose – The evidence is strong that the instability of teacher rosters in urban school settings has negative consequences for student learning, but our interest is with the opposite phenomenon: What is the value added to the organization when a school’s teaching roster is stable over time? Our theory of teacher corps stability hinges on
the claim that the stability of a teacher corps over time is a sine qua non that, under certain conditions, permits the formation of the social capital needed to catalyze school effectiveness.
Design/methodology/approach – We test this claim using longitudinal data from 72 schools in a large, urban southwestern US school district. We first identified a subset of 47 schools with either chronic teacher turnover (high, stable turnover) or a stable teacher roster (low, stable turnover) via school-level HLM growth modeling techniques. These classifications were then used as a covariate in a series of HLM growth models investigating its relationship to growth in structural, relational and cognitive social capital over time.
Findings – Our findings sustain a claim of the importance of teacher corps stability. In our sample of urban schools, we found robust increases in the relational and cognitive dimensions of social capital over time in those schools with stable rosters. Furthermore, schools with chronic turnover were declining significantly in relational social capital, but no appreciable growth in structural social capital was found in either stable roster or chronic teacher turnover schools.
Practical implications – Given the nature of teacher corps stability and its relationship to key organizational outcomes, school leaders play a central role in realizing teacher corps stability within their school. A certain amount of this effort must necessarily be focused on retaining a stable corps of quality, happy, committed teachers. However, building social capital concerns the active engagement of all actors; thus, school leaders need to think beyond retention to how the teachers that remain can play larger leadership roles in this process.
Originality/value – Few studies have examined the positive benefits that can emerge in schools where the majority of teachers remain year after year. Collectively, the study findings suggest that teacher corps stability can provide fertile conditions for the development of social capital that has the potential to enhance school effectiveness and that its staff can leverage for school improvement.
... At a national rate of 18% annually, principal turnover has become a significant issue for students, schools, and policymakers (Goldring & Taie, 2018;. Research has been clear that principals are a key factor in school climate, teacher retention, and student achievement Branch et al., 2012;Edwards et al., 2018;Leithwood et al., 2008), and that frequent turnover disrupts these factors and harms student achievement Béteille et al., 2011;Clotfelter et al., 2007;Fuller et al., 2007;Grissom, 2011;Miller, 2013). Furthermore, the frequency and effects of principal turnover are most felt in schools serving high-poverty, low-achieving, and historically disadvantaged student populations (Fuller & Young, 2009;Goldring & Taie, 2018;Pendola & Fuller, 2020). ...
The objective of this study is to add to the existing literature on principal recruitment and hiring strategies by examining the turnover and retention patterns of internally recruited principals. For many hard to staff schools—particularly urban and rural schools—internal recruitment is considered a primary form of improving recruitment and retention. However, the relation of recruitment source to turnover has yet to be explored. Utilizing techniques including OLS and logistic regression, and discrete-time hazard modeling over seventeen years of administrative data from the Texas Education Agency, this study thereby investigates (1) the personal and school characteristics of internally hired principals, and (2) whether internally hired principals are more stable in their positions than external principals. Results demonstrate that internal hires tend to be from more historically underrepresented groups and serve in urban schools with slightly greater proportions of students of color. Furthermore, internally hired principals are significantly less likely to turnover as compared to external hires. However, results also demonstrate that within-school hires are more likely to turnover than within-district hires. These results suggest that internal recruitment has the potential to help stem the high rate of principal turnover but could be more widely utilized.
... There are several problems that arise from high levels of beginning teacher turnover. First, novice teachers, on average, are less effective than more experienced teachers (Clotfelter, Ladd, & Vigdor, 2005;Grissom, 2011;Ost, 2014;Rivkin, Hanushek, & Kain, 2005) and schools with higher levels of teacher turnover often hire beginning teachers to fill open positions. As a result, students in these schools generally experience less effective instruction from year to year than those in schools with lower levels of turnover (Simon & Johnson, 2015). ...
Few studies have investigated how person-organization (P–O) fit between beginning teachers and features of their schools is associated with teacher retention. This study investigated the association between several measures of P–O fit and novice teacher retention in the United States. Data analysis indicated that first-year teachers’ (FYTs) perceptions of P–O fit with their teaching colleagues was the strongest predictor of teacher retention. These findings suggest that it is important to develop P–O fit between FYTs and their teaching colleagues in schools. The findings have implications for induction programs and the teacher hiring process in schools.
... Recent studies have shown that assessing teacher working conditions in areas such as school leadership is significantly relevant, where the role of school principals is shown to influence teacher turnover (Kraft, Marinell, & Shen-Wei Yee, 2016;Learning Policy Institute, 2017). Furthermore, as in the case of North Carolina, where high poverty and low wealth school districts have difficulty in recruiting and retaining teachers, researchers have found that the role of the school principal is key in addressing such critical issues (Brown, & Wynn, 2009;Grissom, 2011;Simon, & Johnson, 2015). Taking the above from a policy and practitioner perspective, while these relationships have been established, little is known about the causal connections among these variables. ...
Teacher working conditions, teacher turnover, and student achievement are examined
from North Carolina. For over 10 years, teacher working conditions have been used as a
policy tool to better understand how these conditions are linked to school performance
and teacher retention. Previous studies have examined working conditions and
achievement; however, this study used a moderated mediation model to examine the
when and how causal relationships of these measures. The purpose of the paper is to
provide policymakers and educational leaders relevant information about the power of
teacher working conditions to influence teacher turnover and student achievement,
controlling for student characteristics. The results of the study show (a) current year
teacher working conditions have direct effects on teacher turnover and on student
performance, (b) current or previous year teacher turnover have no direct effects on
student performance, and (c) teacher turnover mediates teacher working conditions on
student achievement.
... A majority of literature published in peer-reviewed journals since 2000 that focused on the connection between school administrators and teacher satisfaction; these studies effectively made use of quantitative analyses of large datasets furnished by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) (Carver-Thomas & Darling-Hammond, 2017;Djonko-Moore, 2012Grissom, 2011;Ingersoll, 2003;Ronfeldt & McQueen, 2017;Tickle et al., 2011). These studies investigated responses to survey questions by a nationally representative sample of participants who completed the NCES Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS), the Teacher Follow-Up Survey (TFS), and/or the Principal Follow-up Survey (PFS). ...
The dispositions of school leaders play an integral role in dismantling inequities that hinder the academic achievement of students, particularly students living in poverty. Recent studies bring to light the importance of an asset-based understanding of what children bring to the classroom and how to draw on these assets in creating opportunities for student success. A paradigm shift is taking place whereby school leaders must lead with equity as a foundational thought when assisting teachers in recognizing, valuing, and honoring the assets that students bring to the classroom. This paper attempts to discuss critical issues pertaining to educational equity by using related literature on the topics of poverty and transformative leadership as well as data collected from 15 participants consisting of administrators, teachers, parents, community members, and students who were interviewed in the study employing qualitative narrative inquiry. Additionally, it makes
recommendations relative to the dispositions school leaders must employ, embrace, foster, and practice in addressing the social, cultural, and emotional needs of students to elicit and enhance effective engagement in school.
... Importantly, it is difficult to attract, retain, and develop high-quality teachers in high-poverty schools (Clotfelter, Ladd, and Vigdor 2005;Grissom 2011). A 2014 report by the Alliance for Excellent Education estimates that 13 percent of our teachers move or leave the teaching profession each year: "This high turnover rate disproportionately affects high-poverty schools and seriously compromises the nation's capacity to ensure that all students have access to skilled teaching" (Haynes). ...
... They were dissatisfied with the principal's inability to support teachers as well as the style of hierarchical leadership (top-down). The extent of teacher dissatisfaction with leadership is more significant in high poverty, high needs schools (i.e., schools that have traditionally had high levels of teacher turnover) (Grissom, 2011). Simon and Johnson (2015) recommend selecting high-quality principals in such schools to reduce teacher turnover. ...
This article investigates the critical influence principals have on mitigating or exacerbating teacher turnover. Both South Carolina Department of Education (SCDE) data and National Center of Education Statistics (NCES) Common Core of Data (CCD) from Academic Years 2016 to 2020 were used to analyze the research question. A Restricted Maximum Likelihood (REML) mixed-effects multiple regression model determined that there was a statistically significant relationship between principal turnover and teacher turnover (p ≤ 0.01; b=-1.079) as well as Principal retention and teacher turnover (p≤ 0.001; b=0.169). The article provides evidence that retaining principals and reducing principal turnover can significantly reduce teacher turnover.
... It is found that hygiene factors influencing teacher retention mainly include relationship with school leaders and colleagues, work pressure, salary, etc. Firstly, school leaders influence teachers' work and students' learning (Grissom, 2011;Shi et al., 2020). Learning-oriented leadership has a positive impact on teachers' professional development Liu et al., 2016). ...
Mathematically gifted students are precious human resources, educators of which make a great difference in helping them realize their potential. The retention of qualified teachers of mathematically gifted students is an issue worthy of in-depth exploration. In China, mathematics competitions are an important part of mathematics gifted education, and the teaching of the Mathematical Olympiad is a challenging profession with a high attrition rate. This qualitative study takes four seasoned and outstanding Chinese teachers as cases, collects data through individual semi-structured interviews, and uses the thematic analysis method based on Herzberg’s two-factor theory to analyze why they can persist in the field of Mathematical Olympiad teaching for more than 20 years. The results show that the motivation factors affecting retention are recognition, achievement, possibility of growth, work itself, and responsibility, and the hygiene factors are policy and interpersonal relationships. Motivation factors are the main reason for their long-term persistence, while hygiene factors are conducive to their persistence as a whole. Finally, enlightenment to educational policy and school management and suggestions for retention and development of teachers of the mathematically gifted are provided.
... Coordination is done through people and it requires a firm knowledge of what motivates people to behave in a particular way. As organizations have become more complex, the role of the manager has become increasingly vital to organizational/institutional success (Grisson, 2011). The school as an organization exists for the sole purpose of coordinating the material and human resources of its environment towards the achievement of some predetermined educational goals. ...
This study was on Management of Organizational Climate to enhance Teachers' Job Satisfaction in secondary schools in Ebonyi State. The study was guided by three specific purposes, three research questions and three hypotheses. Literature related to the study was reviewed. The descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. The population of the study was four thousand five hundred and eighty-five (4585) principals and teachers. This comprised two hundred and twenty-five (225) principals and four thousand three hundred and sixty (4360) teachers. A structured questionnaire containing 35-items was used for data collection. A purposive random sampling technique was adopted in the selection of one hundred and thirty (130) principals and (650) teachers in public senior secondary schools in Ebonyi State. The instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire. Data collected were analyzed using mean (X) and with standard deviation (SD) to answer the research questions and t-test statistics to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The analysis of the data indicated that the principals' leadership styles, principals' management of staff welfare, principals' management of school physical facilities among others enhanced teachers' job satisfaction. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended among others that principals should regularly attend workshops, seminars and conferences organized by the ministry of education in Ebonyi State in order to improve their leadership skills. Secondary schools should be adequately supplied with current teaching or instructional materials and basic physical facilities by the school proprietors in order to promote the job satisfaction of the teachers among others. The stakeholders, the Government, principals and the entire society have to ensure that teachers are properly motivated to be able to deliver effectively in the system. This will help to improve quality teaching and learning which in turn will lead to the promotion of the academic achievement of the students and improve teachers' productivity and enhance job satisfaction in the education industry. Ministry of education of Ebonyi State should constantly organize workshops and seminars for the principals on the application of appropriate leadership styles, effective management of staff welfare, school physical facilities and school environment to enhance teachers' job satisfaction in secondary schools such seminars should be made compulsory for all principals.
... It also plays an important role in helping children with mental illness, providing more efficient professional performances, rendering a positive attitude toward work and life [43], and implementing specific programs [44]. Furthermore, some studies offer a somewhat different view of teachers' career dissatisfaction [45,46]. ...
The COVID-19 pandemic has unexpectedly affected the educational process worldwide, forcing teachers and students to transfer to an online teaching and learning format. Compared with the traditional face-to-face teaching methods, teachers’ professional role, career satisfaction level, and digital literacy have been challenged in the COVID-19 health crisis. To conduct a systematic review, we use critical appraisal tools from the University of the West of England Framework We removed the irrelevant and lower-quality results to refine the results and scored each selected paper to get high-quality studies with STARLITE. The number of finally included studies is 21. We used the PICO mnemonic to structure the four components of a clinical question, i.e., the relevant patients or population groups, the intervention (exposure or diagnostic procedure) of interest, as well as against whom the intervention is being compared and considered appropriate (outcomes). We formulated five research questions regarding teachers’ professional role, satisfaction, digital literacy, higher educational practice, and sustainable education. The study found that teachers’ professional roles changed complicatedly. Moreover, they were assigned more tasks during the online teaching process, which also implicated a decline in teachers’ satisfaction. After the COVID-19 pandemic, it is necessary to conduct a blended teaching model in educational institutes. Teachers should have adequate digital literacy to meet the new needs of the currently innovative educational model in the future. In addition, the study reveals that teachers’ digital literacy level, career satisfaction, and professional role are significantly correlated. We measured to what degree the three factors affected the online teaching and learning process. Ultimately, the study may provide some suggestions for methodological and educational strategies.
... Educational research recognizes the importance of leadership in strategic decision making, adoption of innovations, and promoting change across school climate, practices, and equitable outcomes (Epstein et al., 2011;Fullan, 2001;Louis & Robinson, 2012). Numerous studies have shown that school leadership is linked to student success (Day et al., 2016;Leithwood & Seashore-Louis, 2011;Robinson et al., 2008) and teacher turnover is significantly lower in school systems led by more effective administrators (Branch et al., 2012;Grissom, 2011;Ladd, 2011), which directly impacts students and their subsequent success. ...
Leadership is integral for successful implementation of evidence-based programs and practices (EBPPs) in schools. However, as research is limited regarding school administrators’ training, knowledge, and perceived barriers related to EBPP implementation, a survey was conducted to examine these areas. The majority of respondents reported (a) limited to no pre-service training in EBPP implementation, (b) insufficient in-service training on implementation topics, and (c) lack of knowledge and competency on core implementation concepts. Moreover, respondents identified numerous implementation barriers. Implications for school administrators’ pre- and in-service training, as well as limitations and future directions, are discussed.
What constitutes effective instructional practices in improving student achievement continues to elude practitioners and researchers. Researchers have offered evidence on the association between different instructional practices and student achievement using various tools, but some aspects of instructional practices, such as formative assessment, were left out. Using TRU Math to capture rich elementary mathematics observation data coupled with student achievement data, we found that the extent to which teachers surface students’ ideas and build upon these ideas has significant associations with student achievement in mathematics. We also provide vivid descriptions of high quality instruction compared to lower quality instruction.
Nationally Black males comprise less than 2% of public school teachers. The startling figure is not sustainable in a diverse society. Increasingly researchers have focused on the experiences of Black male inservice teachers. However, there is scant research that investigates the role school administrators in urban, suburban, and rural districts play in creating supportive environments for Black male preservice teachers. This article fills in a gap in the research by examining the barriers Black male preservice teachers encounter and provides actionable steps school administrators in urban, suburban, and rural districts should take to create healthy ecosystems for Black male preservice teachers.
Teacher working conditions (TWCs) are, in many ways, student learning conditions. Furthermore, they have also been linked to teacher retention. These connections make TWCs important to understand; yet there is no accepted construct definition delineating and defining what TWCs are. Through a systematic review and narrative synthesis of literature from the United States, I define TWCs and organize the topics that emerged from the literature into a catalog of TWCs. After defining what TWCs are, I employ findings from the narrative synthesis to discuss what TWCs are not. Additionally, I document sources of variation in operationalizing TWCs as well as areas of homogeneity in how researchers study TWCs. I find that researchers agree on the underlying concept of TWCs, vary widely in how they decompose the concept, and overwhelmingly use survey methods to study TWCs. Last, I offer three suggestions to consider in future research.
Numerous studies have highlighted the important role played by school principals in improving the learning of their students, especially those at risk of social exclusion. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to analyse the pedagogical leadership exercised by the principals of disadvantaged schools in the Community of Madrid (Spain). To this end, the approach employed was based on a mixed methodology, combining quantitative and qualitative techniques with an ad hoc teaching staff questionnaire, on the one hand, and interviews with school principals, on the other. Low scores were obtained in those leadership practices relating to teacher individualism, such as the supervision of classroom teaching and collaboration with other schools for exchanging best practices. The teachers surveyed and the principals interviewed both agreed that the latter should be given a greater say in decision-making, especially when hiring teaching staff, in order to allow them to manage truly efficient schools. This in turn points to the need for a consensus on education policy regulating the role of Spanish school principals, in order to allow them to exercise real pedagogical leadership and thus guarantee optimal teaching-learning processes.
Background
Prior work examined the relationship between teacher preparation programs (TPPs) and teacher attrition and turnover. However, such research aggregated all types of non-traditional certification programs (non-TCPs) into a single non-TCP group. This practice masks some critical differences among non-TCPs, and could send a misleading message to stakeholders and policymakers.
Purpose
Our study builds on prior studies and empirically investigates the relationship between the types of TPPs and beginning teachers’ attrition and turnover behaviors in Texas public schools using a detailed non-TCP typology. Our study provides information about variation in attrition and turnover rates among non-TCPs and highlights the types of non-TCPs that exhibited different turnover and attrition patterns.
Research Design
Using longitudinal administrative data and detailed data on preparation program type obtained from the Texas Education Agency, we estimated a series of logistic regression models and discrete-time hazard models with district fixed effects, school random effects, and school-by-year random effects.
Findings
Non-TCP teachers were more likely to leave the profession or the district than TCP teachers for the first few years. Yet, by the end of the fourth year, attrition and turnover rates converged between TCP and non-TCP teachers. Among non-TCP teachers, teachers from district-administered programs and programs operated by private nonprofit organizations exhibited different attrition and turnover behaviors than other non-TCP teachers.
Conclusion
Given the differential turnover and attrition rates among non-TCP teachers, district and school administrators may design tailored activities and programs that could meet the varying needs of teachers from different types of preparation programs.
Purpose: This study explores patterns of principal movement and turnover in rural schools. A growing body of literature has recognized the challenges in attracting and retaining quality rural leaders, with calls to support the rural principal labor market with policy interventions. However, little research has measured ways in which rural skills differentiate the rural principal market, leaving policymakers to frequently design interventions based on urban-centric models of the position. While some literature suggests the challenges and resource differences of the rural context will lead principals to leave rural schools, other literature suggests that the specific skill set of rural leaders will keep principals in rural areas. Methods: We test these notions empirically using a dataset tracking 22 thousand administrators in Texas for 20 years, modeling patterns in hiring, transfer, and turnover. Results: Results demonstrate that (1) rural districts overwhelmingly hire candidates with rural preparation and experience; (2) rural principals switch positions at similar rates as nonrural principals but are much less likely to transfer out of the rural context, and (3) rural principals turnover at similar rates as nonrural principals. Implications: These results suggest that rural principals are more contained within the rural context than drawn out, suggesting that rural skills act as a bounding frame for principal mobility over and above conditional differences. Resource-based interventions from an urban-centric frame may therefore not translate uniformly into the rural context, supporting calls for differentiated support for school leadership based on context. We offer policy strategies and recommendations based on these trends.
Teacher mobility represents a serious problem due to the instability of the teaching force that has persisted over time in many countries. Therefore, retaining qualified teachers represents a challenge given the difficulty of having the necessary workforce to face the educational challenges of each year. Our objective was trying to identify how mobility is understood and measured, that is, teacher turnover and attrition, and to identify the results of the related factors according to the different perspectives. The PRISMA-Scr protocol was used, which establishes the information that should be included in a systematic review. The following key phrases were used: “teacher rotation” or “teacher mobility” or “teacher desertion” or teacher leavers or teacher stayers. The databases used were Web of Science, Scielo Citation Index and Google Scholar, which yielded an initial total of 760 documents published between 2008 and 2018, that after identification, screening, eligibility, and inclusion processes, were reduced to 213. The selection of articles was carried out independently by two researchers using a structured and recursive hierarchical strategy. The existence of multiple ways of defining and measuring teacher mobility was identified and a definition based on two perspectives was proposed that summarizes the conceptual and operational findings, which are indirect and direct mobility. The first refers to the intention to leave and the second to leave. We have identified more evidence related to direct studies of a quantitative approach and focused on teachers with medium or short experience. The factors associated with mobility were identified based on the approaches used and a key element was identified when distinguishing teacher mobility, which is voluntary and involuntary mobility. We identified multiple factors associated with teacher mobility, among which the precarious working environment, poor organizational conditions such as lack of leadership and support among colleagues, excessive workload and low self-efficacy stand out. The limitations of this study are discussed. The findings of this study are highly relevant since they allow proposing medium or short-term policies, such as improving the organizational conditions of the school to promote the retention of the teaching workforce.
Purpose: The purpose of this article is to estimate the relationship between principal quality and turnover. Principals can have potentially large effects on student outcomes. When school leaders leave their roles, they cause disruptive effects to the school’s climate. If effective principals are more likely to leave, the negative effects of principal turnover are likely exacerbated. Relatively little, however, is known about the quality of principals who leave the principalship. Research design: We use teachers’ perceptions of their principals as a measure of principal quality to understand the quality of principals who leave schools. We address this research question in New York City public schools from 2013 to 2016, and then replicate it at the national level using the Schools and Staffing Survey data from 2008 to 2012. To understand how principal quality relates to principal turnover, we run linear probability regressions of principal exits on (teacher-assessed) principal quality, controlling for a set of teacher, principal, school, district/state, and time characteristics. Findings: We find that higher quality principals are less likely to leave their schools. This finding persists across school contexts and time, lending robustness to our results. Conclusions: Findings suggest that inasmuch as principal turnover is a concern, it is not driven by higher quality principals. Districts should therefore focus on recruiting more higher quality principals as opposed to focusing on reducing overall principal turnover. Moving forward, research should focus on differential attrition patterns so that efforts to retain principals can be better targeted.
The purpose of this study was to analyze the long-term (defined as three years) effectiveness of turnaround interventions and identify characteristics of public schools and the systems in which they were embedded that facilitated or impeded their ability of school systems to sustain improved turnaround outcomes.
A population of 93 chronically failing schools for which turnaround interventions were implemented in 2016 was extracted from the Texas Education Agency’s Multi-Year Rating List comprised of 7,761 schools. The performance of these 93 schools in the three-year period after the interventions was tracked. Four performance patterns emerged: High Performers, Late Bloomers, Popcorn, and Ongoing Failing.
The variables analyzed were classified into two categories. The first category addressed administration, enrollment, and teacher turnover. Five major findings emerged: most school turnaround interventions in Texas improved failing schools, but approximately half failed to reach the standard of “acceptable performance”; there was no consistent relationship between size of schools’ enrollments and failing schools, but the percentage of students attending chronically failing schools was higher in school systems with lower total student enrollment; elementary schools were substantially overrepresented; the population of failing campuses were located in school systems that averaged higher expenditures per pupil than the Texas average, but within this population campuses achieving an A or B ranking three years after the turnaround expended $1,250 more per pupil than school systems with campuses receiving F grades; teacher turnover was higher than the Texas average and teachers had fewer years of experience, but among the 93 failing schools, teacher turnover rates were higher at the schools rated A or B three years after the intervention than the cohort of systems ranked CDF.
The second category analyzed student data. There were two major findings. First, African American, economically disadvantaged, and at-risk students were overrepresented in the chronically failing schools. Second, meaningful changes in the profiles between 2016 and 2019 were: an increase in per pupil expenditures by the systems with chronically failing schools; a decline in average enrollment; and an increase in the proportion of White students.
Purpose: Principals are critical to school improvement and play a vital role in creating inclusive and high-performing schools. Yet, approximately one in five principals leave their school each year, and turnover is higher in schools that serve low-income students of color. Relatedly, high rates of teacher turnover exacerbate challenges associated with unstable learning environments. Our study examines the extent to which principal turnover influences teacher turnover. We build on past work by exploring how the relationship between teacher and principal turnover differs in urban, high-poverty settings and by examining the effects of chronic principal turnover. Research Methods/Approach: We draw on a student- and employee-level statewide longitudinal dataset from Texas that includes all public K-12 schools from school years 1999–2000 to 2016–17. We estimate teacher-level models with school fixed effects, allowing us to compare teacher turnover in schools leading up to and immediately following a principal exit, to otherwise similar schools that do not experience principal turnover. Findings: Teacher turnover spikes in schools experiencing leadership turnover, and these effects are greater among high-poverty and urban schools, in schools with low average teacher experience, and in schools experiencing chronic principal turnover. Implications: Improving leadership stability, especially in urban schools experiencing chronic principal turnover may be an effective approach to reducing teacher turnover. Principal and teacher turnover and their relationship with each other requires further investigation. The field would benefit from qualitative research that can provide important insights into the individual decisions and organizational processes that contribute to principal turnover.
The purpose of the study was to better understand how professional self-efficacy is related to the support school administrators provide and receive. Using a sequential, mixed-methods research design, middle- and high-school administrators serving in a metropolitan school district located in a southeastern U.S. city participated in a research study. Convenience sampling was used for selection, as 60 of the 122 secondary administrators opted in to participate in the study. Study participants completed an online survey that measured their perceptions of professional efficacy in relation to receiving support from, or providing support to, members of their school community. After completion of the survey, seven of these school administrators participated in a semi-structured interview to elaborate upon their survey responses. The effect of self-efficacy was found to be statistically significant in five of the six dependent variables, as they related to how the administrator participants felt they supported their teachers through communication, recognition, and feedback. Coding of qualitative data resulted in six interconnected themes, highlighting the importance of: (a) on-site relationship building, (b) substantive professional development, (c) effective communication, (d) expectations of workload, (e) addressing of student needs, and (f) garnering support from district administration.
We investigate the male–female gap in principal compensation in state and national data: detailed longitudinal personnel records from Missouri and repeated cross-sections from the nationally representative Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS). In both data sets, we estimate substantively important compensation gaps for school leaders. In Missouri, female principals make approximately $1,450 less annually than their male colleagues with similar characteristics, including experience level and degree attainment, leading the same school in different years. Gaps are present in both base salary and extra duty salary, and are only partially explained by career paths or workplace sorting. SASS analyses show that women make about $1,000 less than men nationally, on average, a gap that even grows larger once accounting for individual and workplace characteristics, teacher-supplied effectiveness ratings, and reported hours worked. The presence of these residual gaps after accounting for many supply-side explanations may signal gender discrimination in school principal compensation.
In this article, we explore the role of school leaders in magnet schools, a particular school reform model in the United States. To do this, we review the literature on magnet schools, and cite results from a study based on semi-structured qualitative interviews conducted with participants affiliated with magnet schools who received federal funding to implement magnet programmes. Building on the theoretical model of collaborative school leadership, we find that magnet school personnel felt their schools were most functional when magnet principals (1) showed trust in and respect for their faculty and students, (2) created a functional team atmosphere with effective coordination between administration, magnet resource teachers and general faculty, (3) supported and demonstrated investment in the magnet theme, and (4) promoted their faculty members’ leadership potential.
This paper proposes a measure for teacher turnover in basic education, considering the school as an analysis unit. Potentially explanatory variables such as type of providers (public and private institutions, level of education, and employment relationship were considered. The empirical part was based on microdata from the 2016 and 2017 School Census (Inep, 2017, 2018) and focused on the municipality of Curitiba-PR. The results suggest that turnover in 2017 was 34.4%. At the school level, the median rate was 55.4% in the state government system, 22.2% in the local government system, and 16.5% in the federal network. Regarding private schools, the highest median was among the government-dependent institutions (33.3%). The results reiterate the phenomenon as a relevant issue for the educational policy agenda and the management of public school systems.
Teacher turnover is associated with administrative leadership; however, there is an empirical gap in the practices that principals enact that influence teacher turnover. This article uses in-depth case studies and interviews with 32 teachers across two high-turnover and two low turnover middle schools in one large urban public school district to examine teachers’ perceptions of principals’ leadership practices. When compared to principals leading high-turnover schools, we found three common practices that characterized principals of low-turnover schools: (a) recognizing teachers as knowledgeable contributors, (b) clearly communicating the school’s vision around high-quality teaching, and (c) centering student learning.
As the private education sector grows across the globe, private providers by extension are becoming significant employers of teachers. In India, more than 3 million teachers are employed in the private sector, contributing to meeting the rapidly expanding educational demands and learning needs of children. Teacher working conditions are crucial to ensure teacher retention and success within the education system. We use the 2011–2012, nationally representative employment data from India, to investigate private teacher working conditions. We conduct a series of regression analysis to account for the differences in demographic attributes of public and private teachers, differences in rural and urban growth of private schools and cross-state variations. We find that, compared to public school teachers, private school teachers experience less favorable monetary and non-monetary working conditions including less access to paid leaves, pension and health care. They also experience lower job security in terms of the existence of a contract and the length of contract period. Private school teachers also have a lower access to teacher unions and thus weaker collective bargaining to negotiate their working conditions. Private teachers are more frequently likely to seek additional work and alternate work. Some noteworthy differences in teacher demographics in rural and urban areas (urban teachers are more likely to be female, somewhat older, and more educated) notwithstanding, these patterns of public-private teacher working conditions are consistent across rural and urban location. We conclude with reflections on potential explanations for these results and suggest steps for future research.
Clerical staff in the campus office (secretaries and registrars) perform critical functions essential to the operation of schools, yet do not receive research attention regarding their contributions. This study describes turnover rates of K–12 campus clerical employees in order to establish base information in the field. Eight years of employment data within a large suburban school district in Texas are examined to determine the number of clerks moving to different positions and/or leaving campus clerical employment. Findings reveal that the average clerical employee in this district is female, 50 years old, White or Hispanic, has 11 years of experience, changed positions at least once, and earns $15.61 an hour. The demographics of clerical staff more closely resembles student demographics that of than the teachers within the district. Turnover averaged 22% per year, with 16% representing leavers and under 7% representing movers; 25% of clerks left in their first year. Although teacher turnover is more frequent in high-poverty schools and varies based on level of campus, clerical staff turnover is significantly based on the level of position and pay. Results confirm findings from research on paraprofessionals (who have similar levels of pay) that level of pay and perceived lack of support are reasons for leaving. By providing induction activities and additional training, districts can reduce turnover costs of clerical staff despite the added cost of training.
Context
Ongoing teacher diversity campaigns will not increase the net number of teachers of color if policymakers fail to address the disproportionate rate at which teachers of color leave the profession when compared to White teachers.
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to fill the empirical gap about the mechanisms that influence Black male teacher turnover. Specifically, this study explores the perceived school-based experiences of Black male teachers, with particular attention to comparing the experiences of Black men who are the only Black male teachers in their schools to those of Black men in schools with multiple Black male teachers.
Research Questions
1. In what ways do the school-based experiences differ for Loners (Black male teachers in schools employing only one Black male teacher) versus Groupers (Black male teachers in schools with larger numbers of Black male teachers)? 2. How does a school's organizational context, such as relationships with colleagues and school administration, affect the decisions of Loners and Groupers to stay in their schools or in the teaching profession?
Research Design
This study employed a qualitative method, phenomenology. Two waves of semistructured in-depth interviews were conducted with Black male teachers (N = 27) across 14 schools. Seven schools had three or more Black male teachers on the faculty (n = 20), and seven schools had one Black male teacher on the faculty (n = 7). Each semistructured interview lasted approximately 60 minutes.
Findings/Results
Groupers cited challenging working conditions (such as weak administrative leadership) as their primary reason for wanting to leave. The following academic year, almost half of these teachers (9 out of 20) did not return to their schools in the positions they had held the previous year. Counterintuitively, Loners, despite sometimes having hostile interactions with their White colleagues, stayed. While Simon and Johnson theorized that the absence of positive collegial relationships increases turnover, this phenomenon proved less true for Loners’ decisions to remain at their schools.
Recommendations
Given that Groupers were more likely to leave when compared to Loners, policymakers who are interested in increasing the number of Black male teachers must also give attention to retention. Future research should compare the school-based experiences and influences of turnover of Black male Loners and Groupers to other ethnoracial minorities, such as Latinx and Asian teachers. Practitioners, or specifically principals, may also want to become more attentive to interpersonal relationships in schools, particularly between Black male teachers and their White colleagues.
One of the greatest differences in resources across schools in California comes from an inequitable distribution of teachers. This study identifies reasons for this sorting of teachers by surveying 531 teachers in a California elementary school district. The surveys ask the teachers to make choices between various workplace characteristics. With this information, the study disentangles student demographics from other characteristics of teaching jobs that are amenable to policy influences. It finds that teachers identify working conditions—particularly, school facilities, administrative support, and class sizes—and salaries as significantly more important than student characteristics when selecting a school in which to work.
This paper uses rich new data on New York State teachers to: determine how much variation in the average attributes of teachers exists across schools, identify schools that have the least-qualified teachers, assess whether the distribution has changed over time, and determine how the distribution of teachers is impacted by attrition and transfer, as well as by the job matches between teachers and schools at the start of careers. Our results show striking differences in the qualifications of teachers across schools. Urban schools, in particular, have lesser-qualified teachers; and New York City stands out among urban areas. Low-income, low-achieving and non-white students, particularly those in urban areas, find themselves in classes with many of the least skilled teachers. Salary variation rarely compensates for the apparent difficulties of teaching in urban settings and, in some cases, contributes to the disparities.
This article, based on a longitudinal interview study of 50 new teachers in Massachusetts, presents respondents’ reasons for staying in their schools, moving to new schools, or leaving public school teaching within their first 3 years of teaching. Although the respondents’ prior career orientations, financial situations, and preparation played a role in their career decisions, their experiences at the school sites were central in influencing their decisions. Teachers who felt successful with students and whose schools were organized to support them in their teaching—providing collegial interaction, opportunities for growth, appropriate assignments, adequate resources, and schoolwide structures supporting student learning—were more likely to stay in their schools, and in teaching, than teachers whose whose schools were not so organized.
This article summarizes the results of a 2-part study using both state databases and teacher surveys to examine teacher retention and mobility in Washington's teacher workforce. The first part of the research examined individual teacher records during a 5-year period. Statewide analyses were conducted, and 20 districts were selected for in-depth examination. Data were examined in relation to student demographics, measures of student learning, and poverty level of the school, with special attention given to novice teachers and teachers of color. The second part of the study surveyed a representative sample of teachers regarding their views on factors that influence their decisions to stay or leave their school or school district. Findings suggest that focusing on the nature of teacher mobility within a district is a useful way to examine a number of equity concerns.
This comprehensive meta-analysis on teacher career trajectories, consisting of 34 studies of 63 attrition moderators, seeks to understand why teaching attrition occurs, or what factors moderate attrition outcomes. Personal characteristics of teachers are important predictors of turnover. Attributes of teachers' schools, including organizational characteristics, student body composition, and resources (instructional spending and teacher salaries), are also key moderators. The evidence suggests that attrition from teaching is (a) not necessarily "healthy" turnover, (b) influenced by various personal and professional factors that change across teachers' career paths, (c) more strongly moderated by characteristics of teachers' work conditions than previously noted in the literature, and (d) a problem that can be addressed through policies and initiatives. Though researchers have utilized a number of national and state databases and have applied economic labor theory to questions related to teacher attrition, the authors argue that better longitudinal data on teacher career paths and more nuanced theories are needed.
This article reviews research from 1980‐1995 exploring the relationship between principal leadership and student achievement. The focuses is on the substantive findings that emerged from the review. Earlier reports focused on conceptual and methodological issues. The general pattern of results drawn from this review supports the belief that principals exercise a measurable, though indirect effect on school effectiveness and student achievement. While this indirect effect is relatively small, it is statistically significant and supports the general belief among educators that principals contribute to school effectiveness and improvement. Moreover, the review suggests that previously described discrepancies in research results may be explained by the conceptual and methodological tools employed by researchers. We also emphasize the limitations of these studies. Even taken as a group they do not resolve the most important theoretical and practical issues concerning the means by which principals achieve an impact on school outcomes and how contextual forces influence the exercise of leadership in the schoolhouse. It is concluded that while substantial progress has been made over the past 15 years in understanding the principal's contribution to school effectiveness, the most important scholarly and practical work lies ahead. In addition to this qualified, we assert that scholars are better equipped conceptually and methodologically to address these challenges than in 1980.*The authors would like to acknowledge helpful comments offered on earlier drafts of this paper by Ken Leithwood, Edwin Bridges, Larry Cuban, Peter Hill, and George Mar‐coulides. It should also be noted that papers drawn from this study, though with different foci, have appeared in Educational Administration Quarterly, 32(1), 5‐44, and in K. Leithwood et al. (Eds.), The International Handbook of Educational Leadership and Administration (pp. 723‐784).
Many school districts experience difficulties attracting and retaining teachers, and the impending retirement of a substantial fraction of public school teachers raises the specter of severe shortages in some public schools. Schools in urban areas serving economically disadvantaged and minority students appear particularly vulnerable. This paper investigates those factors that affect the probabilities that teachers switch schools or exit the public schools entirely. The results indicate that teacher mobility is much more strongly related to characteristics of the students, particularly race and achievement, than to salary, although salary exerts a modest impact once compensating differentials are taken into account.
Though the mainstream organizational literature has advanced in the last 20 years with the integration of transformational and distributed leadership theories, as well as genuine attempts at comprehensive models, the public sector literature has lagged, especially in utilizing large-scale empirical studies. This study takes advantage of a very large government data set to test the utility of one of the best known theories, the “full range” leadership theory of Bernard Bass. It addresses three important research questions: How inclusive is Bass’s operational definition of leadership? How much of an impact do Bass’s leadership competencies have on follower satisfaction? Finally, how important is transformational leadership compared to transactional leadership in government settings? The results indicate that Bass’s broad definition of leadership comes quite close to capturing what federal employees perceive to be effective leadership. The relationship between good leadership in an organization and follower satisfaction is also presented as an important outcome in the federal government. Finally, both transactional and transformational leadership are perceived as important in the federal government, although transformational leadership is considered slightly more important even after shifting one important factor, individualized consideration, back to the transactional model.
This paper shows that teachers who are paid more stay longer in teaching, that teachers with high opportunity costs, as measured by test scores and subject specialties, stay in teaching less long than other teachers do, and that salaries influence duration less for teachers with high test scores than for teachers with lower scores. The research is based on a new longitudinal dataset providing information on the career histories of 13,890 North Carolina teachers. The empirical work uses a generalized least squares estimation technique that accommodates censored observations, time-varying covariates, and fixed effects.
Researchers using cross-sectional data have failed to produce systematic evidence that teacher salaries affect student outcomes. These studies generally do not account for non-pecuniary job attributes and alternative wage opportunities, which affect the opportunity cost of choosing to teach. When we employ the methodology used in previous studies, we replicate their results. However, once we adjust for labor market factors, we estimate that raising teacher wages by 10% reduces high school dropout rates by 3% to 4%. Our findings suggest that previous studies have failed to produce robust estimates because they lack adequate controls for non-wage aspects of teaching and market differences in alternative occupational opportunities. © 2000 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technolog
Eric Hanushek and Steven Rivkin examine how salary and working conditions affect the quality of instruction in the classroom. The wages of teachers relative to those of other college graduates have fallen steadily since 1940. Today, average wages differ little, however, between urban and suburban districts. In some metropolitan areas urban districts pay more, while in others, suburban districts pay more. But working conditions in urban and suburban districts differ substantially, with urban teachers reporting far less administrator and parental support, worse materials, and greater student problems. Difficult working conditions may drive much of the difference in turnover of teachers and the transfer of teachers across schools. Using rich data from Texas public schools, the authors describe in detail what happens when teachers move from school to school. They examine how salaries and student characteristics change when teachers move and also whether turnover affects teacher quality and student achievement. They note that both wages and student characteristics affect teachers' choices and result in a sorting of teachers across schools, but they find little evidence that teacher transitions are detrimental to student learning. The extent to which variations in salaries and working conditions translate into differences in the quality of instruction depends importantly on the effectiveness of school personnel policies in hiring and retaining the most effective teachers and on constraints on both entry into the profession and the firing of low performers. The authors conclude that overall salary increases for teachers would be both expensive and ineffective. The best way to improve the quality of instruction would be to lower barriers to becoming a teacher, such as certification, and to link compensation and career advancement more closely with teachers' ability to raise student performance.
Using longitudinal data, this article examines mobility and wage equilibration patterns for instructional personnel for kindergarten through the twelfth grade. The study concludes that (1) contrary to popular belief, educators are at least as responsive as other workers to interoccupational wage differences in deciding to change occupations; (2) educators paid above (below) the wage they could expect in the economy at large experience less (greater) than average wage growth; (3) educators are responsive to wage differentials within teaching in deciding to change districts but not as strongly responsive as to wage differentials between teaching and other occupations; and (4) educators paid above (below) the average wage for educators with similar qualifications experience less (greater) than average wage growth from one school year to the next.
Low-achieving students often are taught by the least-qualified teachers. These disparities begin when teachers take their first jobs, and in urban areas they are worsened by teachers' sub- sequent decisions to transfer and quit. Such quits and transfers increase disparities in at least two ways. First, more qualified teachers are substantially more likely to leave schools hav- ing the lowest-achieving students. For example, of the new teachers hired in New York City's lowest-achieving schools in 1996-1998, 28 percent scored in the lowest quartile on the general-knowledge certification exam.1 Of those remaining in the same schools five years later, 44 percent had scores in the lowest quartile. In contrast, 22 percent of the new teachers in the higher-achieving schools were in the lowest quartile, which only increased to 24 percent for those remaining after five years.2 Second, the generally high teacher turnover in lower- performing schools disadvantage students in those schools since the effectiveness of teachers increases over the first few years of their careers. Twenty-seven percent of first-year teachers in New York City's lower-performing schools do not return the following year, compared to 15 percent in the quartile of schools having the relatively highest student achievement.
Administrative data on fifth grade students in North Carolina shows that more highly qualified teachers tend to be matched with more advantaged students, both across schools and in many cases within them. This matching biases estimates of the relationship between teacher characteristics and achievement; we isolate this bias in part by focusing on schools where students are distributed relatively evenly across classrooms. Teacher experience is consistently associated with achievement; teacher licensure test scores associate with math achievement. These returns display a form of heterogeneity across students that may help explain why the observed form of teacher-student matching persists in equilibrium. © 2006 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System.
This paper provides information about the importance of non-pecuniary school characteristics, such as race and poverty, on teacher turnover in Georgia. Simple descriptive statistics indicate that new teachers are more likely to leave schools with lower test scores, lower income, or higher proportions of minorities. A linear probability and a competing risks model of transitions out of first teaching jobs allow us to separate the importance of these highly correlated school characteristics. The estimates imply that teachers are much more likely to exit schools with large proportions of minority students, and that the other univariate statistical relationships are driven to a large extent by their correlation with the minority variable. Thus, while the common notion that teachers are more likely to leave high poverty schools is correct, it occurs because teachers are more likely to leave a particular type of poor school—one with a large proportion of minorities.
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 requires that every classroom be staffed with a "qualified teacher." A growing literature is focusing on what causes teachers to leave their jobs and/or the teaching occupation, rather than solely on factors influencing teacher recruitment. This article uses nationally representative data from the 1999-2000 Schools and Staffing Survey to address teacher attrition in a multilevel analytic framework, accounting for the clustering of teachers within schools within states. Drawing from a theoretical framework rooted in occupational wage theory and social identity theory, we find teachers are more likely to leave if (a) they are specialized instructors (especially foreign language); (b) they have a probationary teaching certificate; (c) they are less experienced; (d) the racial composition of the students is heavily minority; (e) the students' racial composition is less matched to their own race/ethnicity; and, for teachers of some races, (f) the teaching staff's racial composition is more matched to their own race/ethnicity.
In an effort to conduct an initial investigation into the concept of unconventional leader behavior and determine its utility for future research, we examined the relationship between a leader's unconventional behavior and followers' satisfaction, perception of leader effectiveness, and perception of effort exerted in an experimental setting. Our results indicate that above and beyond leadership style (i.e., transformational and transactional), unconventional behavior (e.g., standing on furniture, hanging ideas on clotheslines) is significantly related to follower satisfaction with the overall experience and perceptions of leader effectiveness. Academic and practitioner implications are discussed, as are avenues for future research in this area.
The attrition of both new and experienced teachers is a challenge for schools and school administrators throughout the United States, particularly in large urban districts. Became of the importance of this issue, there is a large empirical literature that investigates why teachers quit and how they might be induced to stay. Here we build upon this literature by suggesting another important factor in the teacher decision to stay or leave: the quality of school facilities. We investigate the importance of facility quality using data from a survey of K-12 public school teachers in Washington, D.C. We find in our sample that facility quality is an important predictor of the decision of teachers to leave their current position, even after controlling for other contributing factors.
Teacher retention and attrition were examined by conducting discriminant function analyses on data gathered from the 1990–91 Schools and Staffing Survey and the 1991–92 Teacher Follow-up Survey. The sample size of this study was 3,612 (weighted N = 2,404,592). Among the three groups of teachers who stayed in the same school (stayers), moved to another school voluntarily (movers), or left teaching of their own accord (leavers) between the 1990–91 and 1991–92 school years, stayers can be statistically distinguished from movers and leavers on personal characteristics, school characteristics, and their perceptions of school- and profession-related issues. Policy suggestions based on the findings include building into teaching a career ladder, empowering teachers, providing incentives to teachers working in schools with more disadvantaged students, and taking a multiple-perceptive approach to the issue of teacher retention and attrition.
This article critically reviews the recent empirical literature on teacher recruitment and retention published in the United States. It examines the characteristics of individuals who enter and remain in the teaching profession, the characteristics of schools and districts that successfully recruit and retain teachers, and the types of policies that show evidence of efficacy in recruiting and retaining teachers. The goal of the article is to provide researchers and policymakers with a review that is comprehensive, evaluative, and up to date. The review of the empirical studies selected for discussion is intended to serve not only as a compendium of available recent research on teacher recruitment and retention but also as a guide to the merit and importance of these studies.
A number of studies have found that teachers are prone to leave schools serving high proportions of low-achieving, low-income, and minority students for more economically and educationally advantaged schools. In schools with very high turnover rates, this can pose a number of challenges, including lack of continuity in instruction, lack of adequate teaching expertise for making curriculum decisions and providing support and mentoring, and lost time and resources for replacement and training. If high rates of turnover are caused largely by student characteristics, then policy strategies to correct the problem are limited. However, due to data constraints, little research has sought to disentangle the effects of student demographic factors from occupational factors such as salaries and working conditions that may also influence turnover and are amenable to policy interventions. Using California teacher survey data linked to district data on salaries and staffing patterns, this study examines a range of school conditions as well as demographic factors and finds that high levels of school turnover are strongly affected by poor working conditions and low salaries, as well as by student characteristics. Although schools' racial compositions and proportions of low-income students predict teacher turnover, salaries and working conditions-including large class sizes, facilities problems, multitrack schools, and lack of textbooks-are strong and significant factors in predicting high rates of turnover. Furthermore, when these conditions are taken into account, the influence of student characteristics on turnover is substantially reduced.
High teacher turnover rates result in: (1) a deficit of quality teachers and instruction; (2) loss of continuity and commitment; and (3) devotion of time, attention, and funds to recruitment rather than support. The purpose of this empirical inquiry of teacher retention issues is to better understand the leadership styles of principals who lead schools that have low attrition and transfer rates. Findings indicate that principals with an awareness of issues affecting new teachers, principals with a proactive approach in supporting new teachers, and principals with a commitment to professional growth and excellence for themselves, their students, and their teachers (new and veteran alike), are retaining teachers at a higher rate than their peers.
Contemporary educational theory holds that one of the pivotal causes of inadequate school performance is the inability of schools to adequately staff classrooms with qualified teachers. This theory also holds that these school staffing problems are primarily due to shortages of teachers, which, in turn, are primarily due to recent increases in teacher retirements and student enrollments. This analysis investigates the possibility that there are other factors—those tied to the organizational characteristics and conditions of schools—that are driving teacher turnover and, in turn, school staffing problems. The data utilized in this investigation are from the Schools and Staffing Survey and its supplement, the Teacher Followup Survey conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics. The results of the analysis indicate that school staffing problems are not primarily due to teacher shortages, in the technical sense of an insufficient supply of qualified teachers. Rather, the data indicate that school staffing problems are primarily due to excess demand resulting from a "revolving door"—where large numbers of qualified teachers depart their jobs for reasons other than retirement. Moreover, the data show that the amount of turnover accounted for by retirement is relatively minor when compared to that associated with other factors, such as teacher job dissatisfaction and teachers pursuing other jobs. The article concludes that popular education initiatives, such as teacher recruitment programs, will not solve the staffing problems of such schools if they do not also address the organizational sources of low teacher retention.
Researchers and practitioners in both the public and private sectors agree that participative management improves employees' job satisfaction. Public agencies have also turned to strategic planning to enhance government performance and accountability. This study explores the relationship between participative management in the context of the strategic planning and job satisfaction in local government agencies. The results of multiple regression analysis show that managers' use of a participative management style and employees' perceptions of participative strategic planning processes are positively associated with high levels of job satisfaction. The study also finds that effective supervisory communications in the context of the strategic planning process are positively associated with high levels of job satisfaction. The study suggests that participative management that incorporates effective supervisory communications can enhance employees' job satisfaction. In this regard, organizational leaders in the public sector should emphasize changing organizational culture from the traditional pattern of hierarchical structure to participative management and empowerment.
This paper focuses on one potentially important contributor to the achievement gap between black and white students, differences in their exposure to novice teachers. We present a model that explores the pressures that may lead school administrators to distribute novice teachers unequally across or within schools. Using a rich micro-level data set provided by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, we find that novice teachers are distributed among schools and among classrooms within schools in a way that disadvantages black students.
We compared Professional Development School (PDS) and non-PDS graduates of one of the National Education Association's Teacher Education Initiative restructuring sites in the United States in terms of retention in teaching, teaching effectiveness, and perceptions of professional preparation. We found no differences in retention in teaching. Principals rated PDS graduates higher in some aspects of teaching effectiveness, though effectiveness was more dependent on the individual than the program. PDS graduates felt more satisfied with their preparation than non-PDS graduates did. Our results provide evidence for small but significant differences favoring PDS over non-PDS teacher education programs.
The authors investigate how the labor market decisions of recent college graduates, new teachers, and employers affect the academic quality of the teaching workforce in public schools. They use a rich longitudinal data set of Missouri college graduates and public school teachers to examine the behavior of college graduates concerning an initial decision to secure certification and teach in a public school, and subsequent decisions as to whether to continue. They find that college graduates with above-average ACT scores tend not to select into teaching, however, the effect is most pronounced for elementary school teachers. At any level of academic achievement, women are far more likely than men to teach, however, the relative aversion of high-ability women to teaching is at least as great as that of men. High-ability men and women who do enter public school teaching are more likely to leave than their less talented counterparts. Examination of non-teaching earnings for exiting teachers finds little evidence that high-ability teachers are leaving for higher pay. The results also highlight very different mobility patterns by teaching field. For both men and women, the attrition of math and science teachers with high ACT scores is greater than in other teaching fields. Finally, peer group effects may be a factor explaining female exit behavior. Controlling for own ACT, high-ability women who work with low-ability colleagues are more likely to exit.
The relationship between job satisfaction and turnover is significant and consistent, but not particularly strong. A more complete understanding of the psychology of the withdrawal decision process requires investigation beyond the replication of the satisfaction-turnover relationship. Toward this end, a heuristic model of the employee withdrawal decision process, which identifies possible intermediate linkages in the satisfaction-turnover relationship, is presented. Previous studies relevant to the hypothesized linkages are cited, and possible avenues of research are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Applied Psychology is the property of American Psychological Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
This paper demonstrates that salaries and opportunity costs have important influences on how long teachers stay in teaching. The empirical work is based on a new longitudinal dataset providing information on the careers of 7800 Michigan public school teachers. The generalized least squares estimation technique accommodates censored observations, time-varying covariates, and fixed effects. One implication of the result is that predictions from the current generation of teacher supply and demand models are likely to be misleading. Copyright 1989 by MIT Press.
This paper examines the effect of class load and other factors on teacher turnover. Unlike previous studies, class load characteristics--class size, number of classes taught, and percentage of class time spent in areas outside a teacher's certification area--are included along with salary, personal characteristics, and district characteristics in a discrete time hazard model to simulate the effects of changing classroom characteristics on high school teacher turnover. The results indicate that class load characteristics are important correlates of job turnover. Policy implications for school districts, given a growing school-age population, are discussed. Copyright 1996 by Oxford University Press.
Considerable controversy surrounds the impact of schools and teachers on the achievement of students. This paper disentangles the separate factors influencing achievement with special attention given to the role of teacher differences and other aspects of schools. Unique matched panel data from the Harvard/UTD Texas Schools Project permit distinguishing between total effects and the impact of specific, measured components of teachers and schools. While schools are seen to have powerful effects on achievement differences, these effects appear to derive most importantly from variations in teacher quality. A lower bound suggests that variations in teacher quality account for at least 7« percent of the total variation in student achievement, and there are reasons to believe that the true percentage is considerably larger. The subsequent analysis estimates educational production functions based on models of achievement growth with individual fixed effects. It identifies a few systematic factors a negative impact of initial years of teaching and a positive effect of smaller class sizes for low income children in earlier grades but these effects are very small relative to the effects of overall teacher quality differences.
This paper examines teacher labor mobility within and out of the teaching profession. Previous studies of teacher mobility treat attrition as a binary choice where inter-district transfers are grouped with stayers or exits. Either case ignores the possibility that transfer attrition may be influenced by different factors than exit attrition. Using data for new teachers in Wisconsin, I estimate separate hazard rates for transfers and exits. Transfers are found to respond most strongly when district salaries are increased relative to nearby districts. Salary increases for more experienced teachers may also reduce exit attrition among newer female teachers. Simulations suggest that fairly large salary increases are needed to reduce attrition out of Milwaukee down to the levels experienced by the average Wisconsin district.
Using data from a national longitudinal survey, current duration analysis techniques are used to examine the first spell in teaching for a sample of certified elementary and secondary school teachers. A rich set of observable demographic and school characteristics is included in a proportional hazard model which also accomodates unobservable differences (heterogeneity)in both individuals and schools. The estimates of the model indicate that the length of a teacher's first spell in teaching is more responsive to wages than improved working conditions such as smaller student-teacher ratios. The paper also finds that marriage and fertility variables, which have not been included in previous models of teacher attrition, are important determinants of the length of time that a teacher remains in the field.