Date of Award
2004
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Fischler Graduate School of Education and Human Services
Advisor
Karen Kamin
Committee Member
Judith Stein
Committee Member
Maryellen Maher
Keywords
Area 4, attrition, burnout, caseloads, educational services, employee retention, employment retention, job dissatisfaction, Miami-Dade County Public Schools, Miami-Dade IV SLP Retention Program, professional development, reform approach, retention, school districts, special education teachers, speech language pathologists, students with disabilities, surveys, workforce retention
Abstract
Forty percent of all newly hired Speech Language Pathologists (SLPs) in Area 4 of the Miami-Dade County Public Schools resigned within 2 years of their initial hire. Miami-Dade County Public Schools is the 4th largest school district in the United States. Among the reasons cited throughout the study for this high rate of attrition was that SLPs were overwhelmed by the size and the quantity of their caseloads as a result of the size of the district. Fore, Martin, and Bender (2002) stated, “The ongoing burnout of special education teachers has become an important liability in the provision of appropriate educational services to students with disabilities” (p. 36).
Results of surveys conducted in the applied dissertation indicated that this burnout has led to high levels of job dissatisfaction. The focus of this applied dissertation was to determine a feasible method of circumnavigating the internal influences that contribute to the SLPs' job dissatisfaction. The goal of the applied dissertation was to increase the retention of SLPs by implementing a professional development plan entitled Miami-Dade IV SLP Retention Program. This was a reform approach program (Ball, 1996) designed to engage and involve the target group of SLPs fully in 4 specific activities. The result of these activities was the projected retention of an increased percentage of the target SLPs at the beginning of the new school year as compared to the previous 2 years.
The intervention of this applied dissertation, The Miami-Dade IV SLP Retention Program, met the target of 7 of the 10 target SLPs agreeing to continue in their current employment, and 8 of the 10 participants will return in the 2004–2005 school year.