How do teacher working conditions impact teacher turnover?

Why is this question important?  Teacher quality has an enormous impact on student learning.  One of the primary variables associated with teacher quality is experience.  Teacher turnover has a substantial impact on increasing the number of inexperienced teachers, as 46% of new teachers will leave the field in their first five years.  Identifying strategies for teacher retention is critical to address this need. 

See further discussion below.

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Source:   North Carolina Teacher Working Conditions Survey Brief: Working Conditions Influence Teacher Retention

Results:  The data show a clear connection between teacher working condition evaluations and whether or not teachers move, leave or stay.  Stayers are most satisfied with working conditions as defined by the statements above.  Movers are the least satisfied and leavers in the middle.

Implications:  The data suggests that teacher working conditions are an important piece of the puzzle for retaining teachers in their classroom assignments.

Authors(s):  Eric Hirsch, New Teacher Center and Keri Church, LEARN INC

Publisher:  New Teacher Center, University of California, Santa Cruz 2009

Study Description:  North Carolina’s Professional Teaching Standards Commission and State Board of Education have conduced Teacher Working Condition Surveys since 2001.  The above data represents the responses of over 104,000 North Carolina educators (87%) from a survey completed in 2008.  The New Teacher Center analyzed the relationship between survey responses and teacher retention data.  Movers are staff who changed schools but stayed in the teaching profession.  Leavers are those who left the profession all together.  Stayers remained in their teaching assignment.  Supporting statistical and research documentation is available at https://nctwcs.org/research.html

Citation:

Hirsch, E. & Church, K. (2009). North Carolina Teacher Working Conditions Survey Brief: Working Conditions Influence Teacher Retention (Research Brief #09-07). Retrieved from North Carolina’s Teacher Working Conditions Initiative:https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED499274