Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to analyze public school teachers’ personal characteristics,
beliefs, and perceptions leading to their decision to either leave or stay in teaching. The
study differentiated three groups of public school teachers—Leavers (who leave teaching
entirely), Non-teaching educators (who take jobs within the education system), and
Stayers (who remain in teaching) using the NCES dataset Baccalaureate and Beyond
(B&B) 1993/2003. Low pay was considered one of the major reasons for leaving
teaching by Leavers, while getting a job within education was the main reason for Nonteaching
educators to leave teaching. Student’s t-tests results suggested that higher ability
individuals (with higher GPAs) were more likely to leave teaching. A majority of Leavers
opened their own business/self-employed in addition to joining the non-education related
business/private/professional industry. Among Non-teaching educators, school
counseling was the major non-teaching position. ANOVAs were conducted to compare
various aspects of current job satisfaction among the three groups. Overall, compared to
Leavers and Non-teaching educators, Stayers were more satisfied with their current
job/position in several aspects of their current job such as— fringe benefits, challenge of
work, further education. Finally, beliefs and perceptions regarding staying and being
satisfied with teaching for the Stayers were analyzed using ANOVAs and decision tree
prediction models. Stayers were likely to stay and be satisfied with their professions
when they had autonomy running the classroom, student discipline and class size were
not a problem, when they received support from parents and students had motivation to
learn in class. Decision tree models showed that younger teachers were more likely to be
satisfied than older teachers with student motivation and support from parents. The study
findings are useful to inform researchers, policymakers and administrators to weigh in
competing policies regarding issues of teacher turnover, attrition, and retention.
