Teacher turnover is a critical issue for the public education community because it influences student performance, school climate, and employee morale. In a large urban school district in the northeastern United States, the turnover rate has been high; teacher morale is low, and teacher participation in the school community is lacking. The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of novice teachers about factors that influence their job satisfaction and their future employment. Guided by Maslow's theory of motivation-which is characterized by motivational needs that drive individuals to improved performance-this study examined the perceptions of novice teachers about job retention. The research questions focused on teachers' perceptions about factors that could influence their decision to continue or leave their teaching positions. A case study design was used to capture the insights of 8 participants using semistructured interviews, reflective journals, and a focus group. Eight emergent themes were identified from the data through open coding; they involved performance affirmations, administrator and resource support, and professional development. The findings were validated through triangulation and member checking. According to the results, novice teachers sought to collaborate in a professional learning community and to expand their professional development opportunities. Hence, a project was designed to engage teachers and administrators in initiating and sustaining professional learning communities. This study may promote positive social change by increasing employee morale, staff cohesiveness, teachers' effectiveness and reducing teacher attrition rates among novice teachers.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Baylor University, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 139-142).

The object of this investigation is to report a study of mathematics teacher retention in the Texas Education System by generating a model that allows the identification of crucial factors that are associated with teacher retention in their profession. This study answers the research question: given a new mathematics teacher with little or no service in the Texas Education System, how long might one expect her to remain in the system? The basic categories, used in this study to describe teacher retention are: long term (10 and more years of service), medium term (5 to 9 years of service), and short term (1 to 4 years of service). The research question is addressed by generating a model through data mining techniques and using teacher data and variables from the Texas Public Education Information Management System (PEIMS) that allows a descriptive identification of those factors that are crucial in teacher retention. Research on mathematics teacher turnover in Texas has not yet focused on teacher characteristics. The literature review presented in this investigation shows that teacher characteristics are important in studying factors that may influence teachers' decisions to stay or to leave the system. This study presents the field of education, and the state of Texas, with an opportunity to isolate those crucial factors that keep mathematics teachers from leaving the teaching profession, which has the potential to inform policy makers and other educators when making decisions that could have an impact on teacher retention. Also, the methodology applied, data mining, allows this study to take full advantage of a collection of valuable resources provided by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) through the Public Education Information Management System (PEIMS), which has not yet been used to study the phenomenon of teacher retention. / text

ABSTRACT THE QUEST TO RETAIN TEACHERS: ONE URBAN-SUBURBAN SCHOOL SYSTEM’S STORY OF TEACHER MOVEMENT by Karen Smits Recent data on teacher attrition indicate that approximately 15 percent of teachers either leave the profession or move from one school to another each year. The attrition rate is highest for teachers new to the profession with 30-50 percent leaving within five years. High rates of attrition are a contributing cause of various educational problems including reduced student achievement, teacher shortages, declining teacher morale, and organizational discontinuity. The purpose of this study was to examine the reasons why teachers choose to leave the profession or move to another school from one year to the next. A qualitative case study was conducted to explore the reasons teachers from one urban-suburban school system voluntarily resigned at the end of one school year and what changes could have been made to keep them from leaving. The study answers three questions: Why do teachers leave? Why do some move to other schools while other teachers leave the profession? What could keep teachers from leaving? Data were collected using exit questionnaires, exit interviews, and semi-structured interviews of teachers leaving after the 2006-2007 school year. Data were analyzed using both deductive and inductive methods. Teachers who participated in this study made the decisions to move or leave for two primary reasons: administrative support and new opportunities. Administrative support took many forms and was described in a variety of ways including the following: administrative visibility, communication, use of time, support with student behavior, workload, implementation of new initiatives, and school climate. Teachers who left for new prospects were seeking different teaching opportunities or a better chance of moving into administration. The greatest difference between the teachers who moved and those who left the profession was hope. Teachers who moved to another school system believed the situation would be better elsewhere. Teachers who left the profession saw the struggles they endured as likely to occur in any teaching situation. Teachers indicated that they may have considered staying if they had received more administrative support, experienced better working conditions, had more supportive mentors, or had a teacher advocate who could have intervened on their behalf.

Teachers are being stretched to the limit. Expectations placed on them seem to be expanding exponentially. Their role encompasses not only teaching specific content and mentoring students in the love of learning, but functioning as frontline social workers. It is the task of the teacher as specialist to teach and to educate. The measure to which teachers experience fullfilment in their vocation in an accepted environment will, to a significant extent, determine their attitude and conduct. The principal cannot afford to disregard the expectations of the teachers, as there are too many benefits to be derived from a satisfied staff. It is the duty of the principal, therefore, to create a working environment conducive to education and teaching. This dissertation examines the job satisfaction and propensity to leave among level one educators in a Government school, viz. Apollo Secondary and an Ex-Model C school, viz. Queensburgh Girls' High. It has been undertaken to study the intrinsic and extrinsic factors in a working environment which influences the job satisfaction of teachers in order to determine how these factors may enable a teacher to fullfil his vocation effectively. It also explores the ability of extrinsic and intrinsic work rewards to predict the job satisfaction and organizational commitment of teachers. Work related rewards were studied in reference to their relative importance as determinants of work satisfaction. An analysis of the factors and· their influence on job satisfaction and propensity to leave reveals that there does exist some differences between educators in a Government school and in an Ex-Model C school. The results indicated that low salaries, poor working conditions, too large class sizes, too heavy workload-both in the classroom and beyond, lack of administrative support, resentment of central administration, pressures of limited time and resources, student discipline problems, lack of prestige, and limited input into school decisions have caused dissatisfaction in the teaching profession. Organizational climate is therefore, one of the integral factors that determine the quality of teaching in a school. Staff development programmes in which the developmental needs of teachers have been recognised, should be carefully structured so as to enable the teachers to render optimum service. Teachers experience job satisfaction when they are given responsibility in accordance with the demands of their profession. Career development also promotes job satisfaction as it prevents a teacher's career from stagnating since it provides continual learning. Other factors that motivate teachers include love and respect for co-workers and colleagues, support of and feeling appreciated by administrators, and love of the students and the joy of working with them. The hope is expressed that this research project will enable principals and administrators to manage their schools in such a way that teachers will be able to fullfil their tasks ably and effectively. / Thesis (M.B.A)-University of Natal, Durban, 2003.

The purpose of this study was to examine the backgrounds and experiences of middle school mathematics teachers that often distinguish "quality" teachers, including certification, experience, degree type, and degree level and how those demographics and others vary for different types of schools. The emphasis was on profiling teachers in a large urban district by describing their basic features and distributions, as well as how middle school mathematics teachers, according to those differences, relate to student mathematics achievement, teacher attrition and teacher mobility. Student achievement was measured by test results from the Norm Reference Test-Normal Curve Equivalent (NRT-NCE) mathematics portion of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) for two school years (2003-04 and 2004-05). A variety of analytic approaches and methods were used to examine how different teacher characteristics relate to teacher employment patterns and student achievement, including chi-square, Kruskal-Wallace, Mann-Whitney U, ANOVA, and t tests, together with simple descriptives and graphical analysis. Standard multiple regression was used to evaluate whether students' previous test scores and teacher- and school-level predictors could affect the results of students' mathematics achievement. A short survey was administered, which provided some insight to ascertain whether and why teachers choose among schools when seeking employment. A total of 282 teachers and 24,766 students were included for the final analysis. This research revealed high rates of teacher turnover and deficient numbers of well qualified mathematics teachers for this particular demographic. For example, one in three middle school mathematics teachers was in their first year, and over half (55%) had less than three years seniority. It was also apparent that, because of a shortage of well-qualified mathematics teachers, many new teachers were being hired out-of-field--of those first-year teachers, only about half had certification in their content area and most (67%) did not have a degree in mathematics or mathematics education. Middle schools in this district had lost 29% of the mathematics teacher workforce employed the previous year due to mathematics teacher attrition. Of those many resigned, some came back to teach another subject at the same or different middle school, and others transferred to high schools. An additional 5% transferred to other middle schools within the same district bringing the total turnover to 34%. Findings revealed no significant differences in turnover rates in high-poverty versus low-poverty schools, but there were significant differences in the proportions of movers, leavers, and stayers in schools according to whether or not a school was achieving high-standards in mathematics. Although inequities did exist in favor of schools with less at-risk students, in this district--for the most part--teachers were fairly distributed according to the "quality" of their backgrounds and experiences. The only significant gap was in that students in wealthier schools were more likely to have a mathematics teacher with a higher degree. This study also offers results that further understanding on the debate about which attributes of teachers are most likely to translate into effective-classroom performance. When analysis was performed at the student level, the findings revealed that students of middle school mathematics teachers with higher seniority, advanced degrees, or certification in the content area that they taught, performed significantly higher than students in other classrooms. Yet the magnitude of those differences was either modest or very small. When controlling for students' socio-economics status at the classroom level, differences were not significant for seniority or advanced degrees but the results were significant for certification.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--University of Delaware, 2008. / Principal faculty advisor: Primo V. Toccafondi, School of Education. Includes bibliographical references.

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on Feb 25, 2010). The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file. Dissertation advisor: Dr. Margaret Grogan. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Illinois State University, 2006. / Title from title page screen, viewed on June 7, 2007. Dissertation Committee: Paul Baker (chair), Amee D. Adkins, Joseph Pacha, Ronald L. Cope. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 149-157) and abstract. Also available in print.