THE PRINCIPLES OF PRINCIPALS: EXAMINING THE IMPACT OF SCHOOL LEADER CHARACTERISTICS ON TEACHER TURNOVER
Open Access
- Author:
- Mandel, Zoe Rose
- Graduate Program:
- Educational Leadership
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- June 04, 2021
- Committee Members:
- Jonte Taylor, Outside Unit Member
Matthew Kelly, Major Field Member
Ericka Weathers, Outside Field Member
Edward Fuller, Chair & Dissertation Advisor
Kevin Kinser, Program Head/Chair
Maryellen Schaub, Outside Field Member
Adrienne Woods, Special Member
Member Committee, Special Member - Keywords:
- education policy
retention
turnover
policy
leadership - Abstract:
- A growing body of research identifies teacher turnover as having a deleterious effect on student outcomes. Further, given extant disparities in teacher turnover across schools, teacher turnover perpetuates the opportunity gaps for students enrolled in schools serving high proportions of minoritized students and students living in poverty. For students of Color, teacher turnover is of even greater importance because minoritized teachers tend to leave the profession at greater rates than their white peers. This is especially troubling given the research consensus that minoritized students have more positive outcomes when taught by a teacher of the same race/ethnicity. The disparities in access to a stable teaching workforce are further exacerbated for students with disabilities, with chronic turnover in special education. Moreover, irrespective of background and subject area, teachers with fewer than five years of experience have attrition rates much greater than all other teachers except those reaching retirement age. Recent literature has situated principals as one of the primary factors influencing teacher turnover. Such research, however, is often limited by data from teacher exit-surveys which fail to capture important principal-level characteristics such as their personal characteristics and teaching experience. Thus, my dissertation will address how different principal characteristics and decisions are associated with the turnover of beginning teachers, special education teachers, and Latinx teachers. These studies rely on data from the Texas Education Agency, including individual-level data for principals and teachers (race, ethnicity, certification, etc), as well as school- and district-level data on student demographics between 1988-2016. These studies aim to advance our understanding of how principals impact turnover by employing fixed effects, matching approaches, and logistic regression analysis to examine the relationships between principal characteristics and teaching assignment decisions with teacher turnover behavior.