Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Texas, Dec., 2007. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 159-171).

This is a study of teacher pushout among Black male educators. In particular, this study examines experiences that prompted Black male teachers to resign or be terminated from teaching positions with the goal of exploring contributing factors to Black male teacher turnover. Drawing from the pushout stories of 9 Black male educators, this study found that Black male teachers experienced pushout in three phases: 1) the Reason – characterized by idealistic and hopeful feelings about being a change agent in the lives of students, 2) the Reality – characterized by various turning points that made it clear that the teaching positions these teachers were in might be less than ideal, and 3) the Removal – characterized by a steady escalation of negative events and interactions that eventually led to their pushout (through firing or resignation). Within these phases, several themes emerged. During the Reason phase, participants reported feeling a sense of responsibility to teach and mentor disadvantaged students – particularly Black males, love for teaching, and a sense of calling to teach. The Reality phase was characterized by pressure to conform to the expectation of masculinity suppression or over-expression depending on the needs and desires of co-workers and administration, limitations on creativity, and pressure to go along with policies and practices that participants felt were unethical or ineffective. Finally, the Removal phase was characterized by a culmination event that resulted in a move to another school or out of the field of education entirely. This dissertation builds on research about teacher turnover and identifies teacher pushout, a specific phenomenon within teacher turnover. Further, this study examines pushout among Black males.

Thesis advisor: Joseph J. Pedulla / This paper describes the literature on teacher attrition as either focusing on the working conditions faced by beginning teachers or highlighting variations in teachers' characteristics as causes for early teacher attrition. This study uses responses to the School and Staffing Survey (SASS) along with the Teacher Follow-Up Survey (TFS) to compare these contrasting views of early teacher attrition. Two logistic regression models were constructed and their relative efficacy in explaining teacher attrition were compared using three statistical techniques; model fit characteristics (e.g. pseudo-R2, Akaike Information Criteria, Bayesian Information Criteria); a comparison of their classification effectiveness, and results from Davidson and MacKinnon's J test (1981). A final model was also constructed using the predictive elements of each of the previous models. Results suggest that the working conditions model better fits the observed data than the teacher characteristics model. The final model highlights the importance of teacher commitment and engagement in the profession in teachers' career decisions. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Research, Measurement, and Evaluation.

Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Thesis (D.Min.)--Liberty Theological Seminary and Graduate School, 2007.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

The purpose of this study was to explore the possible relationship between school facility conditions and school outcomes such as student academic achievement, attendance, discipline, completion rate and teacher turnover rate. School facility condition for the participating schools was determined by the Total Learning Environment Assessment (TLEA) as completed by the principal or principal’s designee on high school campuses in Texas with enrollments between 1,000 and 2000 and economically disadvantaged enrollments less than 40%. Each school in the study population was organized by grades nine through twelve. Data for achievement, attendance, discipline, completion rate and teacher turnover rate were collected through the Public Education Information Management System (PEIMS) managed by the Texas Education Agency. Student achievement, attendance, discipline, completion rate and teacher turnover rate and their relation to school facilities were investigated using multiple regression models to compare sections and subsections of the TLEA with each of the five dependent variables. Major research findings of this study included the following: first, student achievement, attendance and completion rate measures were not found to be statistically significant in relation to school facility conditions as measured by the TLEA at the 0.05 level; second, discipline, or behavior, was found to be significantly related to the TLEA. This indicates that the subsections of the TLEA could be used to predict discipline factors for schools in the study population; third, teacher turnover rate was found to be related to the TLEA subsections of Specialized Learning Space and Support Space, with the correlation to Support Space being indirect. Literature from prior studies infers that relationships do exist between all five of the study’s dependent variables. However, this study only yielded significant findings in the areas of student discipline and teacher turnover. The researchers recommendations based upon this study include the following: administrators and designers should take into account factors such as interior environment and academic learning space when planning schools to positively impact student discipline; school design and construction should focus on specialized learning spaces and other academic areas more than administrative support spaces when striving to increase teacher satisfaction with physical working conditions.

The purpose of this study was to explore the possible relationship between school facility conditions and school outcomes such as student academic achievement, attendance, discipline, completion rate and teacher turnover rate. School facility condition for the participating schools was determined by the Total Learning Environment Assessment (TLEA) as completed by the principal or principal's designee on high school campuses in Texas with enrollments between 1,000 and 2000 and economically disadvantaged enrollments less than 40%. Each school in the study population was organized by grades nine through twelve. Data for achievement, attendance, discipline, completion rate and teacher turnover rate were collected through the Public Education Information Management System (PEIMS) managed by the Texas Education Agency. Student achievement, attendance, discipline, completion rate and teacher turnover rate and their relation to school facilities were investigated using multiple regression models to compare sections and subsections of the TLEA with each of the five dependent variables. Major research findings of this study included the following: first, student achievement, attendance and completion rate measures were not found to be statistically significant in relation to school facility conditions as measured by the TLEA at the 0.05 level; second, discipline, or behavior, was found to be significantly related to the TLEA. This indicates that the subsections of the TLEA could be used to predict discipline factors for schools in the study population; third, teacher turnover rate was found to be related to the TLEA subsections of Specialized Learning Space and Support Space, with the correlation to Support Space being indirect. Literature from prior studies infers that relationships do exist between all five of the study's dependent variables. However, this study only yielded significant findings in the areas of student discipline and teacher turnover. The researchers recommendations based upon this study include the following: administrators and designers should take into account factors such as interior environment and academic learning space when planning schools to positively impact student discipline; school design and construction should focus on specialized learning spaces and other academic areas more than administrative support spaces when striving to increase teacher satisfaction with physical working conditions.

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