Teacher Turnover Research Articles

Country effects on teacher turnover intention: a multilevel, cross-national analysis

This study provides in-depth analyses of how country contexts along with working conditions might relate to teachers’ turnover intentions. Using a large sample of teachers and schools from 32 OECD countries, the study estimates a set of three-level HLM models of turnover intention. The findings reveal that teacher turnover intentions vary significantly across countries and across schools within countries. This variation is a function of teacher-, school-, and country-level factors. The analysis of cross-level interactions indicates that the country contexts might have moderated the nature or strength of the relationships between working conditions and teacher turnover intention.

Effects of Monetary Incentives on Teacher Turnover: A Longitudinal Analysis

Teacher turnover has been reported as a strong predictor for students’ academic achievement, yet little is known about the determinants of teacher turnover. Using a fixed effects model, we analyze panel data of individual teachers in North Carolina schools to test the effects of monetary incentives on teacher turnover. We find a U-shaped relationship between teacher salary and turnover, while the effects of group-based merit pay on turnover depend on salary level. Assuming that a teacher’s salary reflects their qualifications, the current study concludes that overqualified and underqualified teachers are likely to leave and that group-based merit pay causes turnover among qualified teachers.

Influencing factors of Chinese special education teacher turnover intention: understanding the roles of subject well-being, social support, and work engagement

Turnover intentions are peoples’ plans of turnover action, representing their expressed motivation to perform the turnover behavior, which may be the best predictor of turnover. The study aimed to investigate the level of turnover intentions of special education teachers in mainland China as well as exploring the factors that influenced their turnover intention. A total of 496 Chinese special education teachers participated in the current study. Results found that (1) the turnover intention was influenced by gender and years of teaching, meaning that female teachers and teachers with more years of teaching had the lower turnover intention, and (2) subject well-being and social support were negatively related to the turnover intention above and beyond teachers’ demographic background, which was mediated by work engagement. To stem the special education teacher turnover intentions, suggestions for policymakers are discussed to lower the turnover intention of special education teachers as well as increase the special education teacher retention in mainland China.

Teacher Turnover in the Context of Teacher-Directed Violence: An Empowerment Lens

ABSTRACT Teacher turnover is a significant issue in education that negatively affects students’ academic performance and instructional continuity. While multiple factors impact turnover, the effects of violence directed against teachers on turnover have rarely been explored. The current study examines the extent to which (dis)empowerment applies to teachers who experienced incidents of violence and related intentions to leave their positions. The study includes 403 teachers from a national survey examining teacher-directed violence and teachers’ most upsetting experiences with violence. Using content analysis, results indicated teachers endorsed low levels of empowerment dimensions including status, autonomy and decision-making, and impact. Further, disempowerment was associated with turnover intentions and decisions. Future directions for research, practice, and policy are considered to increase empowerment and prevent turnover following incidents of violence.

PROFESSIONAL BURNOUT OF TEACHERS

The article reveals the essence and structure of burnout, describes the subjective and objective stressors, symptoms and stages of teachers’ burnout, explores ways to prevent the negative effects of emotional burnout. Burnout is one of the most common reasons that teachers are leaving their profession, and it contributes to the increased teacher turnover rate in the past few decades. Teacher burnout is an extreme form of chronic stress that can affect any educator, regardless of how experienced or passionate they are about their jobs. It is hypothesized that prevention of teachers burnout should be based on the idea of psychological means as determined by socio-cultural formative influences of psychotechnical tools. The essence of the burnout syndrome as been revealed as well as modern psychological studies of this phenomenon in teachers.

Designing an Employee Experience Approach to Teacher Retention in Hard-to-Staff Schools

Many school employers struggle with teacher turnover challenges despite their use of wide-ranging teacher retention initiatives. Emphasizing a new Talent Centered Education Leadership approach, this article relies on a theory-building methodology that leverages the theories of career choice and Herzberg’s motivation-hygiene, empirical literature that examines the differentiated needs of teachers throughout the stages of their career, and modern strategic human resource management practices, to argue that school leaders should intentionally design a supportive employee experience for teacher support. Guidance is provided for the addressing of staffing issues in hard-to-staff secondary schools, accounting for the total employee experience journey from entry to retirement.

Why leave the teaching profession? A longitudinal approach to the prevalence and persistence of teacher turnover intentions

Teacher turnover has been recognized as a significant problem in the education worldwide. This study focuses on exploring reasons behind the turnover intentions, and persistence of such intentions in 5-year follow-up among Finnish teachers. Longitudinal survey data were collected from Finnish comprehensive school teachers in 2010 (T1 n = 2310) and 2016 (T2 n = 1450). The results showed that 50% of the teachers had turnover intentions. Turnover intentions were remarkably persistent, but the reasons for them varied significantly. Lack of professional commitment and factors related to the school system and workload were the main reasons for teacher turnover intention. The results suggest several factors that should be improved simultaneously in the teaching profession to increase teacher job satisfaction and retention.

Student Performance on End of Year State Assessments and Correlation to Teacher’s Worth

This study explored how accountability over the years has shifted with attention mainly focusing how well students are performing on their end of the year assessments and how that determines a teacher’s worth. Through these assessments, the teachers are being told of their worth if a student meets their goal or being told of their ineffectiveness when the teachers and students fail to measure up. Teachers were considered to have value-added as an educator when their students attained their goals. Other educators faced dismissal or reassignment when their students did not meet their goals. The focus is placed upon the educator and the educator’s career is heavily impacted by low test scores and even the high test scores. With teacher value being associated with test scores, other problems came to the surface of the research. High teacher turnover rates, discourse amongst peers when scores were being compared or incentive pay being offered, and educators becoming teachers that teach to the test. The goal was determine how educators and those studying this new shift felt and reacted.

Turnover and retention of infant-toddler teachers: Reasons, consequences, and implications for practice and policy

The present study aims to address the issues of teacher turnover and retention for infant-toddler teachers by exploring the reasons underlying teachers’ intent to leave and stay, and the consequences of teacher turnover at multiple levels through interviews with 30 teachers. We found teachers’ reasons for leaving or staying are often multi-faceted, complicated, and seem to waiver, fluctuating based on their current work situations. The majority of teachers reported teacher turnover had a negative impact for children, families, remaining teachers, and the center. We provide implications for practice and policy to reduce turnover and support the workforce.

Back to basics: Gaps in baseline data call for revisiting an environmental education program in the SAVA region, Madagascar

Environmental education programs are critically important for raising awareness about global and local environmental concerns, by providing the knowledge, tools, and means for young and old generations to cope with current challenges. Of the greatest importance is the implementation of environmental education programs in biodiversity hotspots where environmental crises are high and resources to fund mitigation programs are low. Madagascar is one such priority hotspot, featuring intensive wildlife-human conflicts due to shrinking natural environments. The Duke Lemur Center-SAVA Conservation Initiative has been conducting environmental education activities in the SAVA region, northeastern Madagascar, since 2011. These activities have been aimed at increasing awareness of local and global environmental issues and at stimulating the involvement of local school students. Our initiatives have predominantly supported teacher trainings to provide teachers with environmental education content, examples, and recommendations on how to integrate activities into their regular curricula, commonly referred to as a “cascade approach”. Due to logistical hurdles, including high teacher turnover rates, however, these interventions have not been monitored to assess their efficacy. Thus, to better inform current and future interventions, we designed and implemented classroom-based surveys to gather baseline data on the basic knowledge of SAVA students and their perceptions of the environment. We identify informational gaps in surveyed schools, including those located in large towns vs. villages, and those with trained vs. untrained teachers. Based on these results, we make recommendations for future environmental education efforts in the region, including activities that could address real-life environmental problems and decision-making solutions.

Family/friends support, work-family conflict, organizational commitment, and turnover intention in young preschool teachers in China: A serial mediation model

High turnover rates of preschool teachers threaten the stability and quality of teaching staff and restrict the overall development of national preschool education. As young teachers become the main force of Chinese preschool teaching staff, their high turnover intention at the beginning of teaching careers have become a serious problem. With a sample of 1121 Chinese young preschool teachers born in or after 1990, the current study examined whether family/friends support was related to turnover intention and whether this relation was mediated by work-family conflict and organizational commitment. The results of structural equation model showed that: (1) family/friends support was significantly and negatively related to teachers’ turnover intention; (2) organizational commitment mediated the relationship between family/friends support and turnover intention, while the independent mediating role of work-family conflict was not supported; and (3) serial mediating role of work-family conflict and organizational commitment was observed in the relationship between family/friends support and turnover intention. These findings indicated that supportive family/friends could help young preschool teachers deal with work-family conflict, improve organizational commitment, thereby mitigating their turnover intention.

Peeking Into the Black Box of School Turnaround: A Formal Test of Mediators and Suppressors

A growing body of research evaluates the effects of turnaround on chronically low-performing schools. We extend this literature by formally testing factors that may either mediate or suppress the effects of two turnaround initiatives in Tennessee: the Achievement School District (ASD) and local Innovation Zones (iZones). Using difference-in-differences models within a mediational framework, we find that hiring effective teachers and principals partially explains positive iZone effects. In the ASD, high levels of teacher turnover suppress potential positive effects. Also, in iZone schools, increased levels of student mobility and chronic absenteeism suppress potentially larger positive effects. Policies that increase capacity within turnaround schools, such as financial incentives for effective staff, appear to be important ingredients for realizing positive effects from turnaround reforms.

Teacher Evaluation and Teacher Turnover in Equilibrium: Evidence From DC Public Schools

Teacher turnover is an enduring concern in education policy and can incur substantial costs to students. Policies often address turnover broadly, yet effects turn on net differences in the effectiveness of exiting and entering teachers, in addition to the disruption dealt to classrooms. Recent research has shown mixed effects of teacher evaluation policies, but even where evaluation-induced differential turnover initially benefited students, gains might disappear or reverse as the stock of less effective teachers exits and if more effective teachers view high-stakes evaluation as burdensome. We examine evaluation–induced changes to the composition of exiting and entering teachers in Washington, D.C., the net effect of turnover on student achievement, and the role that evaluation played in teacher turnover. We find that turnover continues to improve teaching skills and student achievement, although effects have diminished. We find little evidence that high-performing teachers’ exit is associated with the evaluation system.

The Myth of Unions’ Overprotection of Bad Teachers: Evidence from the District–Teacher Matched Data on Teacher Turnover

This article examines the relationship between teachers’ unions and teacher turnover in U.S. public schools. The trade‐off between teacher pay and employment predicts that unions raise the dismissal rate of underperforming teachers but reduce the attrition of high‐quality teachers, as the higher wages unions negotiate provide districts strong incentives to scrutinize teacher performance during a probationary period while encouraging high‐quality teachers to remain in teaching. Using the district–teacher matched data and a natural experiment, I find that, compared to less‐unionized districts, highly unionized districts dismiss more low‐quality teachers and retain more high‐quality teachers, raising average teacher quality and educational outcomes.

The effects of student composition on teacher turnover: Evidence from an admission reform

This paper examines the effects of student ability on teacher turnover using data from Stockholm high schools and an admission reform that led to the exogenous reshuffling of pupils. The results indicate that a 10-percentile-point increase in student credentials decreases the probability of a job separation by up to 10 percentage points. These effects vary somewhat across different groups of teachers and are found mainly for mobility between schools rather than out of the profession. Teachers react most strongly to direct measures of student ability, grades from compulsory school, rather than to other correlated characteristics such as immigrant origin or parental income.

De-Professionalized and Demoralized: A Framework for Understanding Teacher Turnover in the Accountability Policy ERA

ABSTRACT This study uses a secondary analysis of the Schools and Staffing Surveys (SASS) and Teacher Follow-up Survey (TFS) from the National Center for Education Statistics to examine relationship between teachers’ perception of de-professionalization and demoralization and turnover in the accountability policy era from the mid-1990 s through mid-2000 s. Hierarchical linear modeling was applied to compare changes in this relationship across time and between public and private school teachers. Results show that the relationship of teacher de-professionalization to turnover significantly decreased during the accountability policy period, while the relationship of demoralization to turnover significantly increased during the accountability policy time period.

The Consequences of Leaving School Early: The Effects of Within-Year and End-of-Year Teacher Turnover

Using unique administrative data from North Carolina that allow us to separate classroom teacher turnover during the school year from end-of-year turnover, we find students who lose their teacher during the school year have significantly lower test score gains (on average −7.5 percent of a standard deviation unit) than those students whose teachers stay. Moreover, the turnover of other teachers during the year lowers achievement gains, whereas end-of-year teacher turnover appears to have little effect on achievement. The harmful effects of within-year turnover cannot be explained by other extraneous shocks or the quality of departing teachers. Teachers who depart from December through April have the most harmful effects on achievement, although these vary somewhat by level of schooling and subject.

A Tale of Two Types of Schools: An Exploration of how School Working Conditions Influence Black Male Teacher Turnover

ContextOngoing 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.PurposeThe 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 Questions1. 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 DesignThis 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/ResultsGroupers 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.RecommendationsGiven 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.

Teacher Victimization and Turnover: Focusing on Different Types and Multiple Victimization

ABSTRACT A growing body of empirical research on teacher victimization indicates that it is widespread and yields negative consequences. However, limited research has investigated the relationship between teacher victimization and turnover. In this study, using longitudinal data from approximately 1,300 teachers in a metropolitan area in Texas, USA, we find that many different types of victimization – theft, physical assault, verbal abuse, nonphysical contact aggression, and in-person bullying – with varying levels of prevalence and frequency as well as multiple victimizations are significantly associated with teachers’ attrition through transfer and/or career exit. Moreover, about half of leavers in our sample reported school administrators’ indifference and ineffective intervention as an important reason for their career exit.

“I Want to Leave ASAP”: Black Women Teachers Discuss the Role of Administrative Support and Teacher Turnover

This article utilizes a qualitative case study methodology informed by a Black feminist theoretical lens to explore the experiences of Black women teachers, administrative support, and teacher turnover. Five self-identified Black women teachers discuss the impact that school leaders have on their decisions to leave their schools. Three common leadership practices emerged as contributory factors that influence teacher turnover: (a) arresting social justice efforts, (b) insufficient support for discipline, and (c) relationships with administration. This article concludes with a discussion about the requisite school leader philosophical orientations that support the unique needs of Black women teachers.