Are Early Head Start Program Processes and Organizational Climate Associated With Teacher Retention and Turnover?

• In Event: Poster Session 05
  In Poster Session: PS 05 Topic - Social Policy

Abstract

Teacher turnover can adversely affect the quality of childcare by disrupting the attachment between child and teacher and lead to emotional stress in children (Hale-Jinks et al. 2006). Frequent changes in staff have an especially detrimental effect on infants and toddlers (Rhodes and Huston 2012). Poor compensation, inadequate/ineffective training, and a lack of program supports often hamper early childhood teachers’ ability to provide quality care (Rhodes and Huston 2012) and cause them to leave (Totenhagen et al. 2016, Markowitz and Bassok 2018). However, little is known about factors that predict Early Head Start programs’ ability to retain teachers and prevent turnover.

Using nationally representative data from the 2018 round of the Early Head Start Family and Child Experiences Study (Baby FACES), we will examine associations of program processes (center continuity of care practices and professional development teachers received) and organizational climate with teacher retention (average length of time teachers stay at the center) and turnover (percentage of teachers who left since the start of the program year). We hypothesize that centers with more continuity of care practices (that potentially promote stronger ties to children and families); those where teachers report receiving more professional development; and those where teachers report experiencing a more positive organizational climate, will have longer teacher tenure and lower turnover rates.

Centers are nested within programs so we will use multilevel models and will handle missing data using multiple imputation. A stepwise regression approach will allow examination of policy-relevant correlates of teacher turnover and retention. We will conduct the regression using the following steps (see Table 1):

Step 1. Control for background characteristics of centers’ teachers (teachers’ race/ethnicity, language, education, experience, and depressive symptoms). Step 1 will also include a few center and program characteristics; these are not shown in the table.

Step 2. Add center continuity of care practices (using a scale developed by Ruprecht et al. [2016]) and teacher reports of professional development (frequency of one-on-one and group supervision meetings, frequency of coaching, having an individual professional development plan that is used for decision-making, and receiving feedback from observations), aggregated at the center level.

Step 3. Add the center’s organizational climate. Specifically, the center director’s supportive behavior (Organizational Climate Description Questionnaire-Rutgers Elementary [OCDQ-RE; Hoy et al. 1991]) and staff communication, cohesion, and stress at the center, and job satisfaction (Survey of Organizational Functioning [TCU SOF; Institute of Behavioral Research 2005]), aggregated at the center level.

At each step, we will examine the change in the proportion of the variance explained in outcomes and any changes in estimates from prior models.

Data collection is complete and data is currently available to the authors; the analysis can feasibly be completed before the conference.

Results will contribute to our understanding of what might encourage infant-toddler teachers to stay at their jobs. We will discuss implications of these results in the context of steps that programs and policymakers might consider to promote teacher retention and limit turnover.

Authors

• Christopher Hilton Jones, Mathematica Policy Research - District of Columbia
  Presenting Author

• Harshini K Shah, Mathematica Policy Research - District of Columbia
  Non-Presenting Author