skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.


Title: The role of kinship in the retention of science teachers in Kingfisher School District.
In this case study, we found three primary factors that influenced the high rates of teacher retention in the Kingfisher School District. The first was that teaching was seen as both a good and available job for which the Kingfisher teachers were well-qualified. Second, having a career in their home community appeared to be important many teachers and administrators in Kingfisher. This was strongly related to teachers’ identification and sense of belonging with the local Native American tribe. There was ample evidence that teachers saw their work in schools as an extension of kinship and community ties, and that schooling in Kingfisher was not antithetical to sustaining indigenous culture, as might be the case in other public-school districts with significant indigenous populations. Finally, teachers uniformly noted that that they were provided opportunities to grow and develop through professional development. Teachers directly referenced such opportunities as factors in which they believe teachers have decided to remain in the Kingfisher School District.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1758282
PAR ID:
10434759
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
2023 NARST Annual Conference, Chicago, IL.
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. This paper presents a case study of a successful district effort to retain novice science teachers, drawn from a larger national project. The Mulberry School District (pseudonym) had one of the highest five-year retention rates of novice science teachers in the state for teachers hired between 2007–2012, with the majority of hires identifying as teachers of color. We conducted interviews with district teachers and administrators in this mixed methods study to identify five factors that likely influenced the high science teacher retention rate observed in the Mulberry Public School District. These were: (1) a competitive salary, (2) caring colleagues, (3) a culturally protected environment and community for teachers of color, (4) professional autonomy, and (5) opportunities for professional growth. 
    more » « less
  2. This paper theorizes teacher retention using the framework of job-embeddedness, and analyzes the case of a school district in New Jersey where science teachers have been retained at a much higher rate than most other school districts in the state during the focus period of the study (2007-2018). The research team interviewed 18 individuals in the district, including administrators, novice science teachers, mentor science teachers, retained science teachers, and the induction program coordinator. Other data collected included publicly available district documents, and documentation related to the mentoring and induction efforts provided by the district induction coordinator. The primary goal of the site visit was to better understand the factors that may have influenced teacher retention during the focus period of the data and to also investigate current practices around the mentoring and induction of new science teachers. Four factors were identified as salient to the high science teacher retention rate in the district: 1) collaborative and supportive colleagues in the science department, 2) the overall culture of the school, students, and community, 3) hiring and induction practices, and 4) ample resources for teaching and professional growth. 
    more » « less
  3. The Idaho Elementary Computer Science (CS) Collaborative (IECC) is a researcher-practitioner partnership dedicated to understanding how to better support the predominately rural districts in Idaho to implement elementary CS education. As part of the IECC's work, we conducted a survey of elementary teachers across the state. This poster will present our initial findings. Two of the research questions we addressed via the survey are: (1) What factors would motivate Idaho elementary teachers to pursue professional development (PD) related to CS? (2) What are elementary teachers' perceptions of the value of connecting CS education to rural community economies and industries? Descriptive analyses of 309 survey responses suggest that about three-quarters of elementary teachers reported that the following factors would be at least somewhat influential in their decisions to pursue CS PD: a K-5 computational thinking requirement, a district-wide CS planning staff, a pathway for elementary teachers to earn a certification in CS teaching, and a way to request CS PD funding. Few (9%) Idaho elementary teachers found that the perception of a disconnect between CS education and rural community interests was a significant barrier to elementary CS education. Even so, over 70% of them were moderately to strongly interested in mechanisms for connecting their CS education efforts to rural community industries through guest speakers and industry partnerships. The poster will discuss the implications of these and other emerging findings from the teacher survey, as well as IECC's related surveys of Idaho district superintendents and elementary school principals. 
    more » « less
  4. This research reports on the results of a 5-year study undertaken in the United States to better understand the reasons for novice science teacher retention in school districts and other local educational agencies that have demonstrably high rates of such retention. The primary question investigated in this study was, “In districts that have demonstrated comparatively more successful novice science teacher retention, what are the factors that relate to such retention?” Two additional aims were to report on factors that were specific to schools or districts that were identified as “high-need” by the U.S. Department of Education. The second was to focus on the unique factors reported as relevant to the retention of novice science teachers of color. Analysis of state-level school staffing data between 2007-2018 from four U.S. states was used to identify districts with exemplary novice science teacher retention, and focus districts (n=13) were selected for qualitative site visits and case study construction. The proposed paper presents the findings of this cross-case analysis of the 13 cases. Our analysis, informed by the framework of teacher embeddedness, yielded 10 distinct categories of factors that influenced teacher retention across the case study districts: 1) support from departmental colleagues, 2) school/district-level systems and culture of support, 3) compensation, 4) teacher autonomy and agency, 5) specialness of place, 6) resources for teaching, 7) opportunity and agency for professional growth, 8) district and school-level race-consciousness, 9) affordances related to school size, and 10) personal satisfaction & rewards. Implications of specific aspects of the findings related to the retention of teachers of color and the role of mentoring and induction are discussed. 
    more » « less
  5. Through the semester-long engineering curricula, middle school students complete a series of contextualized challenges that integrate foundational mathematics and science, introduce advanced manufacturing tools (CAD, 3-D printing), and engage students in the engineering design process. Funded by a National Science Foundation (NSF) DRK12 grant, our project is in the process of scaling the curricula in a large urban school district. Over the previous two years, the project has enlisted two cohorts of engineering teachers to implement the curricula in nine middle schools. In addition to understanding whether and how the critical components of the curricula are implemented in diverse school settings, our research team’s fidelity of implementation research investigates contextual factors that help explain why teachers and students engaged with the curricula the way they do. For this line of inquiry, we draw upon the Factor Framework (Century and Cassata, 2014; Century et al. 2012), which provides a comprehensive set of potential factors known to influence implementation of educational innovations. The framework organizes these implementation factors into five categories: characteristics of the innovation, characteristics of individual users, characteristics of the organization, elements of the environment, and networks. After consulting this framework to identify potential factors likely to influence the implementation, we analyzed teacher interview and classroom observation data collected over the course of three semesters of implementation to describe the degree to which various contextual factors either facilitated or limited implementation. Our data indicate three categories of factors influencing implementation: characteristics of the curriculum, characteristics of users (teachers and students), and characteristics of organizations (district, schools). Characteristics of the curriculum that facilitated implementation included features of the curricula and professional development including the perceived effectiveness of the curricula, the adaptability of the curricula, and the degree to which professional learning sessions provided adequate preparation for implementation. Characteristics of teachers identified as facilitating implementation included pedagogical content knowledge, self-efficacy, resourcefulness, and organizational and time management skills. Teachers reported that student interest in the curriculum challenges and STEM, more generally, was another facilitating factor whereas, to varying degrees, disruptive student behavior and students’ lack of foundational mathematics skills were reported as limiting factors. Teachers highlighted specific technological challenges, such as software licensing issues, as limiting factors. Otherwise, we found that teachers generally had sufficient resources to implement the curricula including adequate physical space, technological tools, and supplies. Across teachers and schools, we found that, overall, supportive school and district leadership facilitated implementation. In spite of an overall high level of support in participating schools, we did identify school and district policies with implications for implementation including school-wide scheduling and disciplinary policies that limited instructional time, policies for assigning and moving students among elective courses, and district-wide expectations for assessment and teaching certain additional engineering activities. We believe the findings of this study will be of interest to other researchers and practitioners exploring how engineering education innovations unfold in diverse classrooms and the array of factors that may account for variations in implementation patterns. 
    more » « less