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Abstract Teacher leaders influence their peers by introducing innovative instructional methods and enhancing teaching quality. They have proven invaluable to school principals as they prioritize comprehensive teacher development, bolster teacher effectiveness, and promote teacher retention. Despite their importance, little to no research—prior to the present study—has shed light on the development of teacher leaders and the evolution of their leadership identity. While science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) teacher leaders offer a potential remedy for attrition in public schools, a substantial gap exists in understanding how a STEM teacher's self‐efficacy, values, and agency contribute to their transformation into effective STEM teacher leaders, especially in urban‐like learning environments. The present study focuses on STEM teacher leadership identity development and the challenges encountered. It ascertains the interplay between urban‐like learning environments, self‐efficacy, agency, the teacher leader's role within the school, and values in forecasting STEM teacher leadership identity. This research involved 100 in‐service PreK‐12 public school STEM teacher leaders. It yielded significant, positive, and meaningful relations between urban‐like learning environments, self‐efficacy/agency, teacher leader role, values, and STEM teacher leadership identity. These findings can enhance various facets of PreK‐12 STEM education, including educational programming, teacher training, and cultivating STEM teacher leadership.
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The Principal-Teacher Churn: Understanding the Relationship Between Leadership Turnover and Teacher Attrition
Purpose: Principals are critical to school improvement and play a vital role in creating inclusive and high-performing schools. Yet, approximately one in five principals leave their school each year, and turnover is higher in schools that serve low-income students of color. Relatedly, high rates of teacher turnover exacerbate challenges associated with unstable learning environments. Our study examines the extent to which principal turnover influences teacher turnover. We build on past work by exploring how the relationship between teacher and principal turnover differs in urban, high-poverty settings and by examining the effects of chronic principal turnover. Research Methods/Approach: We draw on a student- and employee-level statewide longitudinal dataset from Texas that includes all public K-12 schools from school years 1999–2000 to 2016–17. We estimate teacher-level models with school fixed effects, allowing us to compare teacher turnover in schools leading up to and immediately following a principal exit, to otherwise similar schools that do not experience principal turnover. Findings: Teacher turnover spikes in schools experiencing leadership turnover, and these effects are greater among high-poverty and urban schools, in schools with low average teacher experience, and in schools experiencing chronic principal turnover. Implications: Improving leadership stability, especially in urban schools experiencing chronic principal turnover may be an effective approach to reducing teacher turnover. Principal and teacher turnover and their relationship with each other requires further investigation. The field would benefit from qualitative research that can provide important insights into the individual decisions and organizational processes that contribute to principal turnover.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1945937
- PAR ID:
- 10317671
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Educational Administration Quarterly
- ISSN:
- 0013-161X
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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ABSTRACT This study examines the demographics, qualifications, and turnover of STEM teachers in Kansas and Missouri—two contiguous, predominantly rural states in the Midwestern region of the United States. The existing literature lacks detailed insights regarding U.S. STEM teachers, especially with recent economic and social changes over the COVID‐19 pandemic, and there is particularly limited evidence regarding STEM teachers in the U.S. Midwest. Utilizing large‐scale administrative longitudinal data, we filled part of this gap by documenting the characteristics and turnover patterns of STEM teachers in Kansas and Missouri over a 13‐year period, from 2010 through 2023. Our analysis shows declining trends among young and early‐career STEM teachers, STEM certification, and rising STEM teacher turnover, especially post‐COVID‐19. We found particularly high turnover rates in urban schools and schools with the highest shares of students of color and poverty. We also found numerous factors of STEM teacher turnover, including salary and employment in schools serving high percentages of minoritized and low‐income students, as well as differential turnover patterns among school geographical circumstances. This work is the first comprehensive examination of STEM teachers in Kansas and Missouri. We offer insights into the teacher workforce of the traditionally overlooked U.S. Midwest. Our results suggest important policy implications for sustaining a diverse and qualified STEM teacher workforce in the U.S. amid post‐COVID‐19 social changes, thereby informing decision making at state and national levels that aim to foster equitable access to high‐quality STEM education among students in diverse contexts, while contributing to the U.S.'s long‐term economic growth, sustainability, and the world's advancement of STEM education.more » « less
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Langran, E (Ed.)Teacher turnover in science and mathematics is a significant and consistent challenge for K-12 education in the U.S. This paper provides: (a) an investigation of the relationship between teacher retention and several social and motivational factors; and (b) a comparison of Master Teaching Fellows (MTF) and non-MTF teachers in terms of their retention and social and motivational factors. Teachers are classified into three retention categories: (a) stayers, (b) shifters, and (c) leavers. Social and motivational factors included teaching self-efficacy, diversity dispositions, leadership skills, principal autonomy support, teacher-school fit (adapted from person-organization fit literature), and social networks related to teaching and education. Study 1 included about 250 science and math teachers from the gulf coast region of Texas. Study 2 included 167 science and math teachers across the country. Teachers completed a survey in the summer and fall of 2021. For study 1, multinomial logistics regression analyses indicate: (a) leavers have significantly higher levels of self-efficacy; and (b) shifters have significantly higher levels of leadership skills and lower levels of teacher-school fit. The second study findings indicate: (a) MTFs’ teacher leadership network and teaching self-efficacy are significantly greater than that of non-MTFs’; and (b) MTFs significantly tend to shift to a leadership position than non-MTFs do.more » « less
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Teacher turnover in science and mathematics is a significant and consistent challenge for K-12 education in the U.S. This paper provides: (a) an investigation of the relationship between teacher retention and several social and motivational factors; and (b) a comparison of Master Teaching Fellows (MTF) and non-MTF teachers in terms of their retention and social and motivational factors. Teachers are classified into three retention categories: (a) stayers, (b) shifters, and (c) leavers. Social and motivational factors included teaching self-efficacy, diversity dispositions, leadership skills, principal autonomy support, teacher-school fit (adapted from person-organization fit literature), and social networks related to teaching and education. Study 1 included about 250 science and math teachers from the gulf coast region of Texas. Study 2 included 167 science and math teachers across the country. Teachers completed a survey in the summer and fall of 2021. For study 1, multinomial logistics regression analyses indicate: (a) leavers have significantly higher levels of self-efficacy; and (b) shifters have significantly higher levels of leadership skills and lower levels of teacher-school fit. The second study findings indicate: (a) MTFs’ teacher leadership network and teaching self-efficacy are significantly greater than that of non-MTFs’; and (b) MTFs significantly tend to shift to a leadership position than non-MTFs do.more » « less
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Teacher turnover i science and mathematics is a significant and consistent challenge for K-12 education in the U.S. This paper provides: (a) an investigation of the relationship between teacher retention and several social and motivational factors; and (b) a comparison of Master Teaching Fellows (MTF) and non-MTF teachers in terms of their retention and social and motivational factors. Teachers are classified into three retention categories: (a) stayers, (b) shifters, and (c) leavers. Social and motivational factors included teaching self-efficacy, diversity dispositions, leadership skills, principal autonomy support, teachers-school fit (adapted from person-organization fit literature), and social networks related to teaching and education. Study 1 included about 250 science and math teachers from the gulf coast region of Texas. Study 2 included 167 science and math teachers across the country. Teachers completed a survey in the summer and fall of 2021. For study 1, multinomial logistics regression analyses indicate: (a) leavers have significantly higher levels of self-efficacy; and (b) shifters have significantly higher levels of leadership skills and lower levels of teacher-school fit. The second study findings indicate: (a) MTFs' teacher leadership network and teaching self-efficacy are significantly greater than that of non-MTFs'; and (b) MTFs significantly tend to shift to a leadership position than non-MTFs do.more » « less
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161X211051974
