| Paige L. Tompkins
Mississippi State
Teacher burnout and attrition in the U.S. teacher corps
FINAL REPORT:
Based on (a) the importance of the retention of a quality teacher workforce as an education policy concern, (b) recommendations from researchers to give greater consideration to the role that teachers' attitudes and perceptions play in teacher burnout and subsequent attrition from the teaching profession, and (c) past research implicating burnout as the impetus for some of the most qualified teachers to leave teaching, the study investigated the relationship between teachers' attitudes and perceptions (conceptually consistent with occupational burnout) and teacher attrition. The purpose of the study was to propose and test a model (based on teachers' attitudes and perceptions combined with selected teacher and school demographic characteristics) that would provide a characterization of teachers most likely to leave. The study used data from 1990-91 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) and the 1992 Teacher Followup Survey (TFS), both conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) of the U.S. Department of Education. These data were weighted by NCES to provide national estimates, thereby enabling researchers to draw conclusions generalizable to the nation's population of teachers. The study was guided by three research questions: 1) What attitudes and perceptions are held by U.S. teachers? The identification of these attitudes and perceptions was pursued through exploratory factor analysis; 2) Which of selected teacher and school demographic characteristics and teacher attitudes and perceptions identify teachers who are mostlikely to leave the teaching profession? This question was assessed using logistic regression; 3) Is the model (generated based on the results of the above questions) consistent across the sub-populations of teaching level (elementary versus secondary) and school control status (public versus private)? Consistency across sub-populations was examined through logistic regression, correlation coefficients, and z-scores.
A model of teacher attrition was generated through the study that accurately classified (stayed in teaching versus left teaching) 96.21% of teachers. The results of the study indicated that teachers' attitudes and perceptions combined with selected teacher and school demographic characteristics were indeed influential factors differentiating teachers who left teaching from teachers who stayed, thereby offering a better understanding of (and chance to respond to) teacher attrition.
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