Title: WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT TEACHER TURNOVER IN SPECIAL EDUCATION
1WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT TEACHER
TURNOVER IN SPECIAL EDUCATION
- 2007 OSEP Project Directors Conference
- Bonnie S. Billingsley
- Virginia Tech
- School of Education
- July 17, 2007
2OVERVIEW
- Shortage and turnover trends
- Costs of turnover
- Contributors to turnover
- How to improve retention
3TEACHER SHORTAGE TRENDS
- Chronic
- Pervasive
- Growing
- Inadequate supply
- Inadequate diversity
4TURNOVER TEACHER SHORTAGE
5TURNOVER RATES (3 year average)Boe, Cook,
Sunderland (in press)
Switch/transfer to general education 8.27
Exit to non-teaching positions 6.74
Move or migrate to other special education positions 7.85
TOTAL (across 3 years) 22.85
6INCREASING TURNOVER Boe, Cook, Sunderland
(2006)
-
- 18.8 (1991-92)
- 21.4 (1994-95)
- 27.7 (2001-02)
7TURNOVER COSTS
- Financial
- School
- Inclusive reform
- Student
- Teacher
8COSTS UNEQUALLY DISTRIBUTED Fall Billingsley
(2007)
- Administrators in high poverty schools
- Significantly higher turnover rates
- Significantly higher vacant positions
- How districts address shortage
- Employ uncertified/substitute teachers
- Raise caseloads
- Increase paraprofessionals
9RESEARCH ON TEACHER TURNOVER
- Ask teachers why they left
- Investigate factors associated with leaving
- Teacher characteristics
- Teacher preparation/induction
- District/school characteristics
- Work conditions
10REASONS FOR LEAVING
- Special educators leave for
- Personal reasons
- Work-related reasons
- Other reasons (e.g., retirement, involuntary)
- Special educators more likely than general
educators to leave due to dissatisfaction
11TEACHER CHARACTERISTICS TURNOVER
- Strong support
- High turnover rates among new teachers
- Some support
- Higher leaving rates among whites and females
(Guarino et al., 2006) - No consistent findings about race and gender in
special education
12HIGHER TURNOVER AMONG THOSE WITH LESS PREPARATION
Boe, Cook, Sunderland, 2006
13WORK CONDITIONS TURNOVER
- School climate
- Leader support
- Collaboration/inclusion
- Job design
- role ambiguity
- role conflict
- role overload
- Resources
- Professional development
- Compensation
-
14New Teachers Vulnerable to Poor Work
ConditionsBillingsley et al., 2004
- 72 indicate that routine duties and paperwork
interfere teaching - 29 of new teachers indicate that workload
manageability is a problem - 25 do not feel a sense of belonging in their
schools - 31 do not have the necessary resources to do
their jobs
15Summary
- Teacher Shortage
-
- Increasing Turnover
-
- New Demands
-
- MAJOR CHALLENGE!
16LABOR MARKET THEORY OF SUPPLY AND DEMAND
- Individuals will enter/remain if most attractive
activity available - Overall compensation
- Adjust attractiveness of the job
- Elements of attractiveness become the policy
levers to increase retention - Applied to teacher supply, demand and retention
by Guarino, Santibanez, Daley, 2006
17Conclusions Further Study
18REFERENCES
- Billingsley, B. (2005). Cultivating and keeping
committed special education teachers What
principals and district administrators can do.
Corwin Press, Thousand Oaks, CA. - Billingsley, B., Carlson, E., Klein, S. (2004).
The working conditions and induction support of
early career special educators. Exceptional
Children, 70(3), 333-347.Boe, E. E., Cook, L. H.,
Sunderland, R. J. (2006). Attrition of
beginning teachers Does teacher preparation
matter? (Report No. 2006-TSDQ2) Center for
Research and Evaluation in Social Policy,
Graduate School of Education, University of
Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA. - Boe, E. E., Cook, L. H., Sunderland, R. J.
(2006). Teacher turnover in special and general
education Attrition, teaching area transfer, and
school migration. (Research Report No.2006-TSDQ3
) - Edgar, E., Pair, A. (2005). Special education
teacher attrition It all depends on where you
are standing. Teacher Education and Special
Education, 28(3/4), 163-170. - Fall, A., Billingsley, B. (2007). Structural
inequalities in special education A comparison
of special educators qualifications, working
conditions and local policies. Manuscript in
development. - Gehrke, R.S., Murri, N. (2006). Beginning
special educators intent to stay in special
education Why they like it here. Teacher
Education and Special Education, 29(3), 179-190. - Gersten, R., T., K., Yovanoff, P., Harniss, M.
K. (2001). Working in special education Factors
that enhance special educators' intent to stay.
Exceptional Children, 67(4), 549-567. - Guarino, C. M., Santibanez, L., Daley, G. A.
(2006). Teacher recruitment and retention A
review of the recent empirical literature. Review
of Educational Research, 76(2), 173-208. - Kaff, M.S. (2004). Multitasking is multitaxing
Why special educators are leaving the field.
Preventing School Failure, 48(2), 10-17. - Miller, M. D., Brownell, M., Smith, S. W.
(1999). Factors that predict teachers staying in,
leaving, or transferring from the special
education classroom. Exceptional Children, 65(2),
201-218. - Sindelar, P. T., Shearer, D. K., Yendol-Hoppey,
D., Liebert, T. W. (2006). The sustainability
of inclusive school reform. Exceptional Children,
72(3), 317-331.