<p>Comprised of three related chapters, this dissertation evaluates the effects of the North Carolina School Accountability System on agents in different markets using, in most part, school data provided by the North Carolina Education Research Data Center. North Carolina introduced its primary school improvement program, the ABCs of NC, in 1997. The model includes growth and performance composites and recognized/rewarded schools for performing well. In response to the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, the state introduced a second accountability program, AYP, to run in conjunction with the ABC system. The AYP program focuses on closing the achievement gap and its primary goal is for all public school children to perform at grade level in reading and mathematics by the end of the 2013-14 school year. Failure to show improvement toward this goal leads to sanctions and increased accountability pressures at the school level. This dissertation seeks to determine the impact of the school accountability program on two groups of individuals - teachers and homebuyers.</p><p>Chapter 1 examines the influence of school accountability on teacher mobility. I estimate the effect of accountability incentives - teacher bonuses under the ABCs, and accountability pressures - threats and sanctions under AYP, on teacher mobility between schools. I investigate how the state's two accountability systems affect the distribution of teachers to schools, and in particular the willingness of quality teachers to teach in schools where student achievement is low. I provide empirical evidence on the differential effects the two accountability systems have on the ability of low-performing schools to employ quality teachers. It may be that bonus given under the state's ABC system can help to offset high turnover rates in schools that face increased accountability pressure under the AYP system. Or conversely, if schools that face increased accountability pressure are not able to perform well enough to receive bonuses it may lead to even higher turnover rates. These higher turnover rates will undoubtedly place personal burdens on students, administrators, and parents; ultimately undermining the primary goals of performance gains under school accountability.</p><p>In Chapter 2, I examine the affect the labeling of schools under the ABC system has on the housing market. Since the passing of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, each state is required to publicly report school quality measures and student test performance. Many states, including North Carolina, were already reporting their own quality measure and since 2002 have included an additional quality measure to meet the newer federal requirements. There has been extensive research documenting the relationship between housing prices and test scores at local public schools. Given the research, one may presume additional information about school quality to also influence the housing market.</p><p>This chapter examines whether state reported school quality measures influence household sorting decisions, using a regression discontinuity approach and comprehensive data on real estate transactions over the period 2003-2007. The results suggest that even when taking into account student performance on test scores and other variables the market's response to the release of information related to school quality provided by the state's recognition system is significant.</p><p>Chapter 3 provides a narrative on the extent to which public perceptions of the quality of local schools correspond to actual service quality. The chapter also discusses ways in which the relationship between actual and perceived school quality may vary across different groups of people, specifically parents of school-age children, homeowners, and minority or low-income households. The results in chapter 2 suggest that public accountability systems may have a causal effect on citizen perceptions of service quality.</p><p> However, due to data limitations, very few economics studies have analyzed the relationship between school accountability and public perceptions. With the use of a perceptions survey of North Carolina residents, I propose a study investigating public perceptions of the quality of public schools and the degree to which they freely available information about the level of school quality and student performance at the schools.</p> / Dissertation

Concerns about turnover of highly qualified science teachers have pervaded education stakeholder discussions for several years. Yet little is known about where are we in retaining high science teachers in Texas public schools. The three empirical studies included in this dissertation used mixed research methods to explore data collected by the Policy Research Initiative in Science Education (PRISE) Research Group during the 2007-2010 school years. The first study examined mobility patterns and hiring patterns of high school science teachers after two school years. I used descriptive statistical analyses to investigate relationships between teacher-level variables (i.e., teacher type, age, ethnicity, and gender) and school-level variables (i.e., school size and minority student enrollment proportion) with respect to movement out and into Texas schools. Findings revealed variations in mobility patterns of science teachers, based on size and minority student enrollment proportion of the schools in which they worked. Hiring patterns revealed that schools typically hired young, novice White female teachers regardless of school size or minority student enrollment proportion. The second study explored the relationships between schools’ retention strategies and retention challenges with schools’ science teacher retention rates, respectively. I used multiple regression and descriptive statistical analyses to investigate the relationships between study variables. While regression models predicting science teacher retention were not remarkable, descriptive statistical analyses revealed notable relationships between several school-level variables and school retention status. The third study investigated relationships among three variables: school retention strategies, science teacher job satisfaction, and science teacher mobility. Multilevel analyses were used to investigate relationships between two-level variables. Findings revealed no relationships of significance between school retention strategies or teacher job satisfaction with teacher mobility. However, interactions between predictor variables indicated that satisfied science teachers were more likely to remain at schools that expressed and showed appreciation for teachers than to leave the profession. Findings from these studies were used to make state-, district-, and school-level policy recommendations for high school science teachers that included: (a) tailoring recruitment and retention supports to meet the needs of underrepresented teacher populations leading science classrooms, (b) recognizing schools that successfully retain science teachers, and (c) providing professional development for high school principals to assist with the design of strategic plans to improve job satisfaction and retention of teachers.

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.

abstract: Teacher mobility is a policy issue that affects students and school across the country. Despite a long-standing body of research related to teacher mobility, relatively little is known about how teacher-school pairings affect teachers’ decisions to stay at or leave their schools. Therefore, this study tested a model of teacher-school fit with a focus on the value that teachers and principals place on standardized test scores. Survey responses were collected from 382 K-8th grade public school teachers from 22 schools in two school districts. The results show that teachers who placed higher values on standardized test scores reported slightly higher levels of teacher-school fit and were slightly less likely to leave their schools within five years. Additionally, teachers’ self-assessed teacher-school fit showed a strong, positive relationship with teacher retention. These findings suggest that a better understanding of the factors that affect teachers’ sense of teacher-school fit may help reduce teacher mobility. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 2017

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Teacher attrition is a widespread problem in the United States and is most severe in urban and rural schools. High rates of teacher attrition and discontent contribute to budget problems and decreased educational school quality. The purpose of this study is to examine how a variety of environmental factors and teacher background characteristics contribute to teacher attrition and discontent. The school system along with the relationship between teacher background and school organization will be considered. The core research questions guiding this study are: To what degree do school environmental factors and teacher background characteristics explain teachers' discontent and ultimate attrition? What is the relationship between teacher discontent and departure? Logistic regression was used to analyze data from the School and Staffing Survey and the Teacher Follow-up Survey collected by the National Center for Education Statistics to answer the research questions. Significant predictors that increased the odds of teacher discontent include: middle school setting, urban locale, rural locale, teacher perceptions of student problems, and teacher perception of community problems. Significant predictors that decreased the odds of teacher discontent include: school salary, highly qualified status, union membership, classroom control, and principal/colleague support. Predictors that increased the odds of teacher attrition include: certification type, school size, rural locale, teacher perceptions of student problems, and classroom control. Predictors that decreased the odds of teacher attrition include: teacher race and ethnicity, highly qualified status, and minority student enrollment. / Urban Education

High teacher turnover has become a serious problem globally, in many international schools, and is a growing concern in segments of the East Asia Regional Council of Schools (EARCOS). This persistent problem has a detrimental effect on student learning and upsets the culture of school communities. Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory served as the framework for this qualitative case study research that examined the perceptions of EARCOS international overseas-hire teachers, to determine their beliefs regarding high teacher turnover in international schools. These questions gave direction to this study: What factors do international teachers in EARCOS member schools believe contribute to high teacher turnover in international schools? What do international teachers in EARCOS member schools believe is the result of high teacher turnover in international schools? What steps do international teachers in EARCOS member schools believe should be taken to reduce high turnover in international schools? Purposeful homogenous sampling was used to identify 8 focus group interview participants from the entire pre-K-12 international overseas-hire teacher population from the 149 EARCOS member schools. Coded data were examined, analyzed, and categorized into themes related to Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory. Member checking, peer debriefing, and external auditing were used to add validity to the research study. The analysis of the data and findings revealed that lack of effective mentorship, lack of administrative leadership support, and ineffective systems are the major contributors to international teacher turnover in international schools. A white paper was developed and constructed from the themes that emerged from this study and presented to EARCOS member school administrators, to potentially use to address the issue of increasing international overseas-hire teacher turnover rates in international schools. This acquired knowledge could lead to positive social change that can influence the practices, structural procedures, and policies of EARCOS and other international school systems related to teacher turnover.

Teachers working in urban schools in the United States are among those most at-risk for leaving the profession due to poor working conditions and lack of collegial relationships with school leaders and peers, among other factors. Use of professional development tools, such as the School Improvement Engine (SIE), may improve teacher retention and school organizational health; however, little research exists on the use of the SIE in charter schools. The purpose of this case study was to investigate New York City (NYC) school data on teacher retention and student achievement, how NYC charter school leaders participating in the program implemented the SIE, and how teachers and administrators perceived the impact of the implementation on their individual growth and desire to stay in their positions. Peter Senge's organizational learning theory was used to examine how SIE tools may promote a healthy organization in 5 areas (systems thinking, personal mastery, mental models, building shared vision, and team learning). Teacher retention and student achievement archived data for NYC schools were descriptively analyzed. Individual interviews were conducted with a purposeful sample of 10 teachers and 4 school leaders from NYC charter schools implementing the SIE. Interview data were analyzed using open coding to identify key themes. Results indicated that SIE schools outperformed other NYC schools (charter and public) in English Language Arts (ELA), math, and teacher retention. Participants stated that tools like peer review helped them to become more effective in their teaching. Positive social change impacts include providing data that support the use of the SIE to improve teacher effectiveness, teacher retention, and the overall school organizational health.

Depuis l’ouverture des concours de recrutement de l’Éducation nationale aux ressortissants européens, au début des années 1990, de nombreux Britanniques et Irlandais ont rejoint le contingent d’enseignants certifiés et agrégés d’anglais. Ces professeurs d’anglais « locuteurs natifs » (PALN) n’ont pas été socialisésen France et mettent parfois des années à décoder le système éducatif français et leur intégration professionnelle dépend de nombreux facteurs. Si le CAPES et l’Agrégation constituent une étape cruciale dans le processus d’interculturation, parce qu’ils initient les candidats anglophones aux normes, règles et valeurs du système éducatif français et de l’anglais-objet d’étude universitaire et d’enseignement-apprentissage en France, ces premiers ne sont en réalité que les prémisses d’une longue construction de l’identité professionnelle de ces enseignants. La présente enquête, élaborée dans une perspective ancrée et compréhensive et qui s’appuie sur des méthodes mixtes, a permis au chercheur d’explorer comment les PALN perçoivent leur vie et leur identité professionnelles. Une analyse du discours des participants et des interactions enquêteur-enquêté amène le chercheur au cœur de la problématique identitaire des enseignants« natifs » qui se retrouvent face à un paradoxe : si le « capital natif » est un atout pour réussir les concours de recrutement, une interculturation (Demorgon, 1999) « trop » réussie peut fragiliser ce même capital qui, pour conserver son intérêt et rester dynamique, doit être sans cesse actualisé. / Since the early 1990s, EU citizens have been able to sit the competitive examinations which give access to qualified teacher status within the French education system, without needing to have French nationality. This change has attracted British and Irish candidates who were not necessarily qualified to teach before moving to France and who, as native English-speaking teachers (NESTs), were not socialized there. Consequently, it sometimes takes them years to decode the French education system. For these teachers, comfortable professional integration depends on their capacity to adjust not only to the requirements of French schools, but also to the French approach to teaching and learning English. Taking the CAPES is one step towards interculturation, since by doing so, English-speaking candidates gain an insight into the norms, rules and values of the French education system and see how English is taught at university and in schools in France. However, passing the exam is only the first step towards building aprofessional teacher identity, which is a long process. The present investigation into the professional identity of NESTs from the UK and Ireland was constructedfrom a Grounded Theory and interpretative perspective using mixed methods. The researcher seeks to understand how participants perceive their professional identity and life as English teachers in the French education system. An analysis of participants’ discourse and of interviewer/participant interaction brings tolight the following paradox: the initial “gift” which helps NESTs through the rigorous state examinations can be weakened by strong interculturation and needs to be updated and enriched in order to remain an asset.

The study analysed the management constraints in the distribution of qualified mathematics and science teachers in a post-1994 education system of South Africa. The study was qualitative and 14 participants were purposively sampled and semi-structured interviews were used to collect data from the identified participants. The interview transcripts were constantly compared and analysed and the data was classified into three main categories of management constraints and patterns: beliefs, experiences on management constraints and strategies for the elimination of management constraints. Turning vision into practice (TVP) framework was used to explain the relationship between its seven pillars of managing teacher recruitment and the links in the development, adoption, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of a teacher deployment system, focusing on mathematics and science. Findings of this study suggest that the current hybrid post establishment model is generic and focuses more on cost curtailment than on the supply of qualified mathematics and science teachers. The shortcomings of the model are exacerbated by the transgressions of the Employment of Educators Act. Contrary to the Employment of Educators Act, entry-level vacancies are not advertised in the province. In addition, the appointment and service conditions of qualified teachers are differential. While teachers from government bursary schemes are appointed immediately on permanent status and without probation, other qualified and long-serving mathematics and science teachers remain on temporary status for almost two years and without fringe benefits. The differential treatment leads to job insecurity and facilitates the exit of these qualified mathematics and science teachers from the profession. Moreover, schools horde and use qualified mathematics and science teachers in subjects they are not qualified to teach. It is recommended that through the suggested TVP framework, the current teacher recruitment and deployment strategies be revisited regularly to ensure effectiveness of teacher usage in mathematics and science. It is further recommended that school principals and other educational leaders should be provided with personnel management skills to ensure maximum effective recruitment and deployment of qualified mathematics and science teachers, particularly to the impoverished schools. / Educational Management and Leadership / D. Ed. (Education Management)