Date of Award
2003
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Fischler Graduate School of Education and Human Services
Advisor
J. Michael Griffin
Committee Member
Steven K. Million
Committee Member
Barbara Packer
Keywords
administrative selection, administrator education, attrition rates, career retention, community background, data analysis, databases, educational research, elementary schools, emotional reactions, experienced teachers, former teachers, Internet, Marion Intermediate School, MIS, NASBE, National Association of State Boards of Education, NCREL, North Central Regional Educational Laboratory, North Carolina Regional Educational Laboratory, qualitative study, retention model, rural schools, school administrators, South Carolina, teacher attrition, teacher retention, teacher retention strategies, teachers, workforce retention
Abstract
South Carolina administrators recognized that the state has been losing a third of its teachers within the first five years of their career (SCASA, 2001). As experienced teachers retire, they will most likely be replaced by inexperienced teachers, whose attrition rates are higher than those of mid-career teachers (Archer, 1999).
The research goal of this qualitative study has been to develop and implement a teacher retention model that will significantly lower the high teacher attrition rate (of approximately eight teachers per year) at Marion Intermediate School (MIS). In chapter 1 the researcher discussed the significance of the work while addressing the limitations and delimitations of the findings. He defined the key terms of the study and provided background information regarding the school and the community.
In the review of the literature, the researcher evaluated the findings of the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL) study by Hare and Heap (2001), the contributions of the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE) (2000) and the teacher attrition work of Odden (2000). The researcher identified and discussed the most effective teacher retention strategies from this research.
The researcher interviewed current and former teachers as a part of his study methodology to determine teachers’ motives, patterns of reasoning, and emotional reactions to teacher retention questions. He determined the specific reasons for teachers remaining or leaving the school. He fused these findings with research-based effective retention strategies to create a framework for developing the retention model.
In chapters 4 and 5 the researcher provided the analysis of the data (regarding the design and components of the model) and the results of the study with recommendations.