Relationship of Creative Control and Retention Rates Among North Carolina Elementary Teachers

• In Event: Roundtable Session 1
  In Roundtable Session: An Investigation of Teacher Retention Plans Among Special Populations Using the 2007-2008 Schools and Staffing Survey

Abstract

Within many U.S. school districts, standardized testing pressures have led to the implementation of scripted curriculum with focused learning goals and explicitly defined lessons. Although these measures may serve to increase alignment and accountability, they have the potential to restrict teachers’ creativity and make it challenging to connect to particular student needs, interests, and cultural backgrounds. This type of performance model can also make teachers feel professionally assaulted instead of respected and supported (Barrett, 2009), and fuel the type of dissatisfaction that negatively affects retention (Ingersoll, 2002; Weiss, 1999). Frustration stemming from these challenges is one factor that could cause teachers to leave the field or seek a more flexible environment that allows them to utilize their expertise to customize their practice and better engage students. But, how much does a diminished sense of agency affect a teacher’s plans to leave the classroom?

A secondary analysis of teacher questionnaire data within the 2007-8 Schools and Staffing Survey helped us understand how the ability to make independent decisions and feel in control affects retention. It asked respondents to rate their “actual control” over a number of different aspects of their job, including curricular decisions like choosing textbooks, lesson content, and teaching techniques. They were also asked to rate control over homework, grading, and discipline, indicating anywhere from “no control” to “a great deal of control” over these variables (Q54). In other words, how did teachers perceive and subsequently characterize their ability to shape their own style, instructional methods, and implementation of the standards? And, was there a relationship between these perceptions and retention data?

Later on the survey, teachers shared their plans to remain in teaching (Q58b), providing us with some predictive information. For the purposes of our analysis, we categorized the respondents into three groups: a) those who were planning to stay, b) those who might leave given certain circumstances, c) those who knew they were on their way out. Looking at elementary school teachers within North Carolina who fell into one of these categories (n=107), we first wanted to find the correlation between “intention to remain in teaching” and each of the areas where perceptions of control was measured.

Although we were challenged by limited variation within the sample, we discovered that the two strongest correlations were between intent to stay and ability to select teaching techniques, as well as control over homework. Looking at those two aspects of a teacher’s work environment more closely, we ran a regression with intention to stay as the dependent variable and found that for control over ability to select techniques, R-squared was 0.138. For control over homework, it was 0.092. This creates a need for further analysis of the corresponding Teacher Follow-up Survey to determine which educators actually left the classroom and examine other related factors. If some teachers are dissatisfied with their level of agency, we should explore ways to help them integrate their professional expertise and decision-making ability with core standards and expectations.

Author

• Laura Gutmann, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill