Principal Leadership, Teacher Burnout, and Novice Teacher Mobility: Insights From the Beginning Teacher Longitudinal Survey

• In Event: Principal Leadership Practices, Student Learning, and Teacher Outcomes

Abstract

Objectives and Perspective. Early career teachers (ECTs; teachers with three or less years of experience) have the highest turnover rates of teachers not eligible for retirement (e.g., Allen, 2006). These high turnover rates have negative implications for education quality (e.g., Hanushek et al., 2016) and teacher labor markets (e.g., Sutcher et al., 2016).
Principals play a key role in teacher mobility (e.g., Ladd, 2011), yet understandings of how this relationship extends to ECTs are still developing. This study expands upon Kelly and Northrop (2015) and Kim’s (2019) findings regarding the role of principals and ECT burnout in ECT mobility while addressing calls for ECT labor market research to differentiate by subject and location taught (e.g., Cowan et al., 2016). In particular, I address three research questions: (1) How highly do ECTs rank leadership as a turnover factor? (2) Is difficulty filling a position associated with perceptions of leadership and burnout? and (3) Are principal leadership, burnout, and difficulty filling a position associated with ECT mobility?
Data and Methods. This study utilized the nationally representative Beginning Teacher Longitudinal Survey (BTLS). The final sample included 1,400 ECTs matched to principals and schools from 2007-08 to 2009-10. Leadership and burnout variables were based on survey items from the first BTLS wave. Also, a Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) item was matched to each ECT’s final assignment to measure the difficulty filling each their position, and mobility was measured as moving to another school or leaving the profession.
Descriptive analyses of ECT exit survey responses were used to answer RQ1. RQ2 utilized linear regression with leadership and burnout as outcome variables. RQ3 was answered using a single risk discrete-time survival analysis of turnover to account for potential effects of time on mobility. Appropriate longitudinal probability weights were employed to account for complex sample design in all analyses.
Findings. ECTs in difficult-to-fill positions had significantly worse overall perceptions of their school leaders and higher burnout scores than their peers. Subsequent exit survey analyses revealed that moving and leaving ECTs identified lack of administrative support as a leading factor in their turnover (RQ1). Investigation of RQ2 showed that principal leadership and burnout were highly predictive of one another, though difficulty filling a position was not. Last, discrete-time survival analyses found that higher perceptions of principal leadership predicted lower odds of moving to another school, lower ECT burnout predicted lower odds of leaving the profession, and better perceptions of leadership and lower burnout predicted lower turnover; difficulty filling a position was not predictive.
Significance. Exit survey results further substantiate findings from longitudinal analyses that used mid-year BTLS survey items (e.g., Kim, 2019). Further, findings reveal an association between principal leadership and burnout that calls for more research and practitioner attention. Though difficulty filling a position was not predictive of turnover, ECTs in difficult-to-fill positions experience leadership and burnout more negatively than their peers. Future research is needed to understand reasons for this and what principals can do to mitigate such ECT experiences, which, in turn, predict turnover.

Author

• Frank Perrone, Indiana University - Bloomington