Will They Stay or Will They Go? Teacher Perceptions of Working Conditions in Rural Alaska

• In Event: Developing Excellent Teachers in Rural and Remote Communities: Challenges and Efforts in Rural Alaska

Abstract

High teacher turnover in rural Alaska schools has been a problem for decades. District efforts at addressing staffing difficulties have included signing bonuses, financial incentives for teachers who stay for a certain period of time, construction of new teacher housing, and financial support for earning teaching and administrative certification.
However, there has been a lack of systematic information on why teachers stay or leave. Previous work has looked at the rate of teacher turnover in Alaska (Hill and Hirshberg, 2006; Hill and Hirshberg, 2008), and one study a decade ago looked at the reasons exiting teachers left Alaska (McDiarmid, Larson and Hill, 2002) but none has systematically looked at how all teachers perceive their working conditions, regardless of whether they are stayers or leavers, and whether perceptions differ dramatically between teachers who are staying and those who choose to leave. Much of the information available to policymakers and school leaders for decision-making is anecdotal.
We conducted a survey of over 300 teachers in spring 2013, to assess teacher perceptions of their working conditions, and the factors contributing to their decision to leave or stay. The survey was fielded using Qualtrics survey software between April and May 2013 to teachers in 17 rural Alaska districts. The response rate was about 25%, and varied considerably among the districts. The survey included 57 closed and open ended questions on topics ranging from satisfaction with parent and community support, school and district leadership, housing and salary and health benefits to teacher participation in decision making, views on why some students in their classes don’t graduate high school prepared for success. Teachers were also asked whether they planned to be in their current school the next year.
There are both some expected and some surprising findings. Teachers are particularly concerned about the quality of the school and district administration, and administrators’ support for teachers, and parent and community support and engagement. 36% of teachers don’t feel consistently supported by administrators, and over 40% perceive that administrators are not respected in their community. 45% of teachers feel that families and community members don’t support them, and 49% feel that families and community don’t understand or support policies around student conduct.
We asked teachers what specific factors they thought were important to retaining good teachers. While 62% of respondents thought that supportive leadership was absolutely essential, and 33% thought it was important, only 36% thought higher salaries were absolutely essential, and 43% thought they were important. More found quality health benefits and support for working with students with behavioral or other problems absolutely essential or very important than higher salaries.
While we are cautious in drawing conclusions given the survey response rate, it is clear that school leadership is a major concern and that improvement in this area is key to retaining teachers. Another concern, addressed extensively in the open-ended comments, is the need for more parent support, especially in getting students to school prepared to learn.

Authors

• Alexandra R. Hill, The University of Alaska - Anchorage

• Diane B. Hirshberg, The University of Alaska - Anchorage

• Ute Kaden, The University of Alaska - Fairbanks

• Craig Kasemodel, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Philip Patrick Patterson, The University of Alaska - Fairbanks