What Teachers Want: School Factors Predicting Teachers’ Decisions to Work in Low-Performing Schools

Abstract

Attracting and retaining teachers can be an important ingredient in improving low-performing schools. In this study, we estimate the expressed preferences for teachers who have worked in low-performing schools in Tennessee. Using adaptive conjoint analysis survey design, we examine three types of school attributes that may influence teachers’ employment decisions: fixed school characteristics, structural features of employment, and malleable school processes. We find that teachers express a strong preference for two malleable school processes, administrative support and discipline enforcement, along with a higher salary, a structural feature. Estimates indicate these attributes are 2 to 3 times more important to teachers than fixed school characteristics like prior achievement. We validate our results using administrative data on teachers’ revealed preferences.

Peeking Into the Black Box of School Turnaround: A Formal Test of Mediators and Suppressors

“…Persistent instability from shifts in curriculum, disciplinary expectations, or day-to-day routines can impede teaching and learning in the classroom. Principal turnover can also be part of the reason for high teacher turnover in ASD schools, given existing research that suggests that teacher satisfaction is linked to principal effectiveness and the factors that most attract teachers to schools tend to include administrative support (Grissom, 2011; Viano et al, 2018). In turnaround schools, part of the approach to teacher retention may require specific attention to retaining effective school leaders.…”

The hullabaloo of schooling: the influence of school factors on the (dis)continuation of lesson study

“…As such, depending on the focus of the research, different (types of) school factors will be relevant. For our study, we use and adapt Viano et al's (2020) theoretical framework of school factors. They focus on how the work in schools is organised and distinguish three types of school factors: (1) features of employment, (2) malleable school processes, and (3) fixed school characteristics.…”

“…Malleable school processes refer to the processes 'for which the locus of control is expected to be within the school and under the control of school administrators. Malleable factors can be changed by school administrators in the short term' (Viano et al 2020). Regarding lesson study, PD policy and scheduling are important malleable processes in determining whether and how schools implement lesson study (Akiba 2016;Akiba & Wilkinson, 2016).…”

“…To fill this research gap, we aim to explore which school factors influence how a PD initiative is taken up in schools after a PD project ends. As these factors are rarely comprehensively examined in PD research, we apply a framework of school factors from Viano et al (2020) from the context of teachers' employment decisions and adapt it to the context of PD. This framework is chosen because it specifically focuses on the organisation of the work in schools.…”

“…Although these aspects are all relevant, they are not the focus of this study. School factors, within the framework of Viano et al (2020) can be divided into three types: (1) features of employment and (2) malleable school processes, (3) and fixed school characteristics (Viano et al 2020).…”