Viral Change: Trends in Michigan Teacher Attrition and Mobility Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Stay or go? Turnover in CMO, EMO and regular charter schools

Background: The quality of a school's teaching force has a significant effect on student learning. One potential lever for increasing teacher quality is through selecting and rewarding teachers with desired characteristics. Purpose: To analyze differences and similarities in the salary determinants of Michigan's charter and traditional public schools. Participants: The representative sample included 723 full-time traditional public school teachers and 468 full-time charter school teachers in Michigan during the 1999-2000 school year. Research Design: This is a multivariate analysis of quantitative data. A secondary analysis of survey data was performed, allowing for greater generalizability across the population of interest. Data Collection and Analysis: The 1999-2000 Schools and Staffing Survey was the data source. This NCES survey provides comprehensive data on school and staff characteristics that are representative at the state level. Findings: The average Michigan charter school teacher earns more than $15, 000 less than the average Michigantraditionalpublic school teacher. Two thirds of this salary difference is because charter school teachers often have lower endowments of valued characteristics, such as experience and certification. Conclusions: Charter school administrators appear to be selecting and rewarding teachers in innovative ways thatcouldhavea positive impactonteacher quality. They are hampered in these efforts by the depressed salaries offered in many charter schools.

Background The charter school movement relies on teachers as critical components. Teacher commitment is an important aspect of teachers’ lives, because it is an internal force for teachers to grow as professionals. It is also considered one of the crucial factors in influencing various educational outcomes, including teacher effectiveness, teacher retention, and student learning. However, no empirical studies have examined teacher commitment in charter schools. Purpose To address this knowledge gap, this study compares organizational and professional commitment of teachers in charter schools and traditional public schools (TPSs) and explores how these differences are associated with teachers’ characteristics, school contextual factors, and working conditions in the two types of schools. Research Design This study utilizes quantitative analyses of national data from the 2007– 2008 School and Staffing Survey. Hierarchical linear models were developed to examine whether teacher commitment differs between charter schools and TPSs; how teacher characteristics, school contextual factors, and teachers’ perceptions of working conditions contribute to the difference; and finally, whether these variables differentially influence teacher commitment in charter schools and TPSs. Conclusions On average, teachers in charter schools experienced lower levels of organizational commitment than teachers in TPSs, but similar levels of professional commitment. Teacher working conditions explained a large amount of the variance in between-school teacher commitment, suggesting that improving principal leadership, increasing opportunities for professional development, and alleviating teachers’ workload would be effective ways to promote teacher commitment in charter schools.

While prior research has examined teachers in rural schools and teachers in charter schools, there has been little research into the intersection of rural and charter schools. Using nationally representative data, we examine the extent to which teacher characteristics, school characteristics, and teacher mobility vary based on the urbanicity of schools and whether the school is a public or charter school. We find that teachers in rural charter schools turn over at a significantly lower rate than teachers in urban charter schools and are significantly more likely to be young, novice teachers than their rural public school counterparts. We provide evidence that, in comparison with rural settings, it is important to consider urban and suburban context separately, particularly with respect to charter schools as urban charter teacher demographics and the schools in which they teach are substantially different than those of suburban charter teachers. Our work suggests research cannot ignore how teacher demographics, teacher qualifications, and the students they teach vary significantly given the context of the intersection of school choice and rural education.

Background/Context Teachers affect student performance through their interaction with students in the context of the classrooms and schools where teaching and learning take place. Although it is widely assumed that supportive working conditions improve the quality of instruction and teachers’ willingness to remain in a school, little is known about whether or how the organizational structure of charter schools influences teacher working conditions. Purpose/Research Question This article compares teacher working conditions in charter and traditional public schools and among various types of charter schools. In doing so, it seeks to understand whether the different working conditions are influenced by the intrinsic institutional features of charter schools such as autonomy and competition, or by the extraneous factors such as measureable school and teacher characteristics. Research Design This study utilized data from the 2003–2004 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS), the nation's most extensive survey of K–12 schools and teachers, both for charter schools and traditional public schools (TPSs). This article is a quantitative analysis that involves three main steps. First, based on the responses to the SASS teacher questionnaire, confirmatory factor analysis was performed to generate multiple factors corresponding to key dimensions of teacher working conditions. Second, propensity score matching was used to pair charter schools with TPSs that are similar in terms of school location, educational level, school type, and student demographics. This matching process mitigates the confounding effects of these extraneous factors on teachers’ perceptions of working conditions. Finally, a series of weighted Hierarchical Linear Models were utilized to compare teachers’ perceptions of working conditions between charter and traditional public schools, controlling for teacher and school characteristics. Conclusions/Recommendations The results show that charter and traditional public school teachers perceive their working conditions to be similar in many regards, including principal leadership, sense of community and collegiality, classroom autonomy, opportunities for professional development, and adequacy of instructional supplies. However, charter school teachers perceive that they have significantly more influence over school policies, but a heavier workload than traditional school teachers. Among charter schools, district-granted charter schools show consistently more supportive working environments than charters granted by other organizations. This implies that state policy can have some indirect influence over charter school working conditions by providing substantial administrative support and oversight to charter schools authorized by independent organizations other than the established structure of school districts.

Using six waves of the Schools and Staffing Survey and the National Teacher and Principal Survey that span two decades, our study explores the differences between urban charter and traditional public school teachers and how those differences become more or less pronounced over time. During this time frame, the charter sector experienced substantial growth and this growth could have the effect of making charter schools more like traditional public schools. We find that charter school teachers are different from their traditional public school counterparts in both their personal characteristics and working conditions, but grow more similar in their satisfaction/commitment and turnover.

ObjectiveWe examine how the working conditions in charter schools managed by management organizations (MOs) compare to those that teachers experience in stand‐alone charter schools. We consider differences in the degree of autonomy within the schools, professional development, levels of administrative support, support from teachers and parents, and teachers’ work hours and levels of compensation.MethodsOur data come from the 2011–2012 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS). We estimate multilevel models using the hierarchical linear modeling software, while controlling for the composition of the teachers and school context.ResultsWe find that teachers in charter schools managed by education MOs have lower levels of autonomy than teachers in other charter schools. They also receive lower levels of compensation than other charter school teachers.ConclusionFor‐profit MOs appear to constrain the charter schools that they manage, limiting the ability of teachers to determine how students are taught within their classrooms.

Charter schools have been in existence for 20 years in the USA and their effectiveness has been heatedly debated. Despite a growing literature on charter school administration, research on charter school teachers in comparison with their counterparts at traditional public schools is scarce. Using secondary data from the 1999–2000 Schools and Staffing Survey, this study aims to compare the demographic and qualification characteristics of charter school teachers versus traditional public school teachers. Cross-tab analysis, bivariate, and multivariate logistic regression analyses were applied. The results show that charter teachers were considerably younger, more likely to be from minority groups, much less experienced, less likely to have earned a bachelor's degree, to have qualified for full certification, and to be teaching in-field than traditional public teachers. However, charter school teachers were also more likely to graduate from more selective colleges. It is concluded that the reduced regulation at charter schools helped lower the entry barriers to teaching for non-traditionally certified but academically qualified candidates. This study is limited by the fact that the secondary data used are around 10 years old. Therefore, the results should be treated primarily as ‘snapshot’ views of the US charter school teachers in early 2000s.

Using survey data collected from 2,273 teachers in Texas, this study explores differences in school organization that contribute to the experiences (e.g., working conditions, instruction and student engagement in learning, self-efficacy and job satisfaction, and teacher evaluation) of charter school and traditional public school teachers. Researchers used propensity score matching to reduce the impact of selection bias and to produce accurate estimates of the charter-traditional public school differences. Compared with similar teachers in traditional public schools, charter school teachers reported a more supportive teaching environment, higher expectations of students among staff, a greater sense of responsibility for student learning, and higher levels of student engagement in learning. However, they reported, attending fewer professional development trainings focused on instruction and aligned to teaching assignments, fewer opportunities for professional development and collaboration with colleagues, and lower perceived fairness of teacher evaluation. Findings from this study provide valuable insight into the school organization factors that may underlie teacher turnover and represent unmet needs among charter school teachers, and suggest strategic areas of focus for policymakers, charter management organizations, and charter school leaders in addressing teacher retention and student achievement.

This paper examines attrition and retention rates among teachers in charter and traditional public schools. This study finds that among all teachers, there is no difference in the attrition rate between charter and traditional public school teachers. Among new teachers, charter teachers are 3.39 times more likely to leave teaching than their traditional public school counterparts. Among new teachers who voluntarily leave or move, teaching at a charter increases the odds of leaving by a factor of 3.04. The difference between the two rates indicates that charter schools may be exercising their freedom to let go of teachers which are not a good fit for their schools. Teachers with a higher opportunity cost of teaching, those teaching high school, those with graduate degrees, and those with grater responsibilities outside of the classroom are more likely to leave the profession.

Background In recent years, charter schools have received a great deal of media attention, appearing in documentary films, newspaper articles, magazine profiles, television news programs, and even sitcoms and feature films. The media is not alone in its interest in charter schools; researchers in the public and for-profit arenas have also focused their attention on charter schools in recent years. Questions This paper employs qualitative content analysis to answer the following questions: What information have journalists contributed to the charter school debate in the United States? And how might this information have shaped or influenced the debate? Research Design To answer these questions, we conducted a qualitative content analysis of print media coverage of the early years of the charter school debate. We analyzed 145 articles about public charter schools and public alternative schools that appeared in the New York Times and Los Angeles Times between 1994 and 2006. We developed two types of coding categories: descriptive and interpretive. The descriptive coding categories captured the following information about each article in our dataset: the publisher, the type of school described and the student population. The interpretive coding categories captured reporters’ descriptions of the students, teachers, resources, and institutional cultures of charter and alternative schools. Findings Our analysis uncovered several interesting themes. First, we found that print media depictions of charter and alternative school teachers tended to be more positive than media depictions of teachers in traditional public schools. This was especially true of print media coverage of charter schools that serve low-income students and/or students of color. Our analysis also cast doubt on a core assumption of the charter school debate; that charter schools’ approach to educating their students differs significantly from that of traditional public schools and public alternative schools. In their articles about charter schools that serve middle-income students, reporters described institutional cultures and pedagogical strategies identical to those found in alternative schools with similar student populations. When reporting on alternative schools that serve low-income students and/or students of color, reporters described pedagogical strategies that mirrored those found in charter schools with similar student populations. Recommendations Further research is needed to determine whether charter and alternative schools are educating their low- and middle-income students differently. If future research confirms this, we warn that charter and alternative schools could be preparing their low-income students and/or students of color inadequately for higher education and work in professional environments.

This article synthesizes past research findings on the work of charter school teachers and juxtaposes this research with case studies of forty charter school teachers in six urban charter elementary schools. Charter schools, with increased autonomy over personnel and budget, are given the freedom to make many decisions related to hiring, salary, and working conditions. In general, charter school teachers work longer hours and receive less job security than colleagues in traditional public schools. In some states, charter school teachers earn significantly less than other public school colleagues. The evidence also suggests, however, that teachers generally enjoy their professional lives in charter schools—their colleagues and the school’s education program. The authors argue that in order to continue to attract and retain teachers, charter schools may need to extend their use of autonomy to improve the working conditions of teachers and ultimately, to extend the life of the school.

This study investigates an assumption used to legitimate charter school legislation, namely that such schools will reduce regulatory constraint burdening schools and school personnel. Reformers and policymakers have argued that charter schools will increase teacher empowerment and enable teachers to better carry out their education functions. Testing this assumption by comparing empowerment levels of charter school teachers with noncharter school teachers, the study casts doubt on the assumption. Post hoc analyses are used to examine teacher characteristics and school contextual information in pursuit of possible explanations for the hypothesis’ failure. Two findings are suggestive. There appears to be an interaction between the length of teacher experience and the school type. Low experience teachers in charter schools are not empowered, whereas in noncharter schools, experience is unrelated to teacher empowerment. Additionally, analysis by school shows teacher empowerment to be much more variable both within and among charter schools, when compared to noncharters.

Given the importance of teachers to student learning, it is important to understand how and why charter schools differ in terms of their human capital. This paper explores the following questions: How do teacher qualifications and characteristics vary across school types? How much choice do teachers feel they have about where to work? How do teacher preferences for where to work differ by school type? Our findings suggest that charter school teachers do have different preferences for where to work compared to traditional public school teachers, but understanding these differences requires exploring differences among types of charter schools as well.

We examine whether working conditions in charter schools and traditional public schools lead to different levels of job satisfaction among teachers. We distinguish among charter schools managed by for-profit education management organizations (EMOs) and non-profit charter management organizations (CMOs) and stand-alone charter schools. We investigate our research question using data from the School and Staffing Survey. We find that teachers in charter schools are less satisfied with their jobs than teachers in traditional public schools. We also find that teachers in EMO-managed schools appear less satisfied than those in stand-alone charter schools. Our analyses suggest that lower salaries and limited union memberships help drive these lower levels of satisfaction, particularly among stand-alone charter schools and charter schools managed by EMOs.