The Effect of Isolation, Efficacy, Burnout, and Commitment on New Principal Persistence

• In Event: 67.052 - Understanding School Leadership Through Organizational Theory

Abstract

Despite widespread acknowledgement of the isolation experienced by teachers and school leaders, there has been little systematic empirical work on the impact of isolation on outcomes such as persistence. The present paper presents a structural equation model relating isolation, efficacy, burnout and commitment to the likely persistence of new principals in a southeastern US state. Results show that while isolation fails to emerge as a direct predictor of intention to leave, it is nonetheless the most important factor in accounting for variation in the likelihood that a new principal will leave his or her job. Results show that the total model accounts for nearly 40% of the variance in persistence.

Author

• Scott C. Bauer, University of Colorado Denver