Increasing Teacher Retention in Today's American Schools

Abstract

For schools in today's society to hold on to good teachers that the students leam well from and parents respect is becoming more and more difficult year after year. The students of today are very different than they were 15 to 20 years ago and there is too much pressure to perform from administrators today than in the past. This study is intended to inform and make both public and private schools aware of the factors that affect teacher retention and several ways schools can increase teacher retention at their own school. This qualitative study focuses more on finding out why teachers want to stay at a school rather than the reasons they desire to leave. A sample of 20 teachers who have been teaching at least one class every day for five or more years at Hilton Head Christian Academy were interviewed for this study. A focus group was then conducted after the individual interviews.