| dc.description.abstract |
Recent research on teacher turnover has begun to focus on teacher workplace conditions that appear to cause teachers to leave individual schools or the profession altogether, as opposed to focusing on factors associated with teachers (and their respective students and schools) who transfer or quit. The author examines whether data from National Center on Education Statistics illustrates that teachers who transfer and quit differ from those who stay in their schools in discernible ways. The author makes two central hypotheses. First, I hypothesize that, as in previous studies, differences between teachers switching schools and teachers leaving the profession necessitate separating them for the purpose of turnover analysis and that working conditions, not demographic factors, are associated with higher levels of turnover. The expectation is that many of these differences are caused by factors within the control of school administrators and policymakers. As such, they will be able to use this analysis as a tool for decreasing the prevalence of factors causing turnover and increasing the prevalence of factors keeping teachers in their schools. Second, I hypothesize that the factors associated with turnover will also be associated with the attitude that one would not become a teacher if offered the chance to restart college. Thus, career choice confidence may serve as a signal of overall job satisfaction and may indicate who will switch schools and who will leave the profession. Including choice confidence in a standard turnover model may increase explanatory power, allowing for better predictions regarding who will switch schools and leave teaching. |
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