School administrators’ direct and indirect influences on middle school math teachers’ turnover
| Date | 04 November 2019 |
| Published date | 04 November 2019 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JEA-10-2018-0190 |
| Pages | 708-730 |
| Author | Christopher Redding,Laura Neergaard Booker,Thomas M. Smith,Laura M. Desimone |
| Subject Matter | Education,Administration & policy in education,School administration/policy,Educational administration,Leadership in education |
School administrators’direct and
indirect influences on middle
school math teachers’turnover
Christopher Redding
School of Human Development and Organizational Studies in Education,
University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA
Laura Neergaard Booker
Department of Leadership, Policy, and Organizations,
Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
Thomas M. Smith
Graduate School of Education,
University of California, Riverside, Riverside, California, USA, and
Laura M. Desimone
College of Education and Human Development,
University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware, USA
Abstract
Purpose –Administrator support has been identified as a key factor in deterring teacher turnover. Yet, the
specific ways school principals directly or indirectly influence teacher retention remain underexamined. The
paper aims to discuss this issue.
Design/methodology/approach –This study includes a survival analysis to examine when beginning
mathematics teachers turned over and the extent to which teacher quality and administrative support was
associated with the turnover, and an analysis of exit surveys explaining teachers’decision to turn over.
Findings –New teachers with more supportive administrators are less likely to turn over. The influence of
administrative support on teacher turnover does not appear to be driven by more supportive administrators
improving a school’s professional community, increasing teacher autonomy, or increasing the frequency of
professional development and mentoring. While both increased administrative support and teaching quality
independently predict reduced turnover, the strength of the association of administrative support on turnover
does not appear to be related to the level of teacher quality nor mediated through teacher quality.
Practical implications –Results suggest that the presence of high levels of administrative support are
more influential in deterring new teacher turnover than more direct supports, such as the assignment of
mentors or recommending professional development.
Originality/value –The use of in-depth data on beginning teachers’induction supports and teaching
quality collected over multiple years shows distinct ways administrators influence new teachers’decision to
remain in their first school.
Keywords School leadership, Teacher turnover, Instructional quality, School climate, Induction
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Researchers continue to spotlight the alarming number of beginning teachers that both exit
the profession and move from their original school, with as many as 50 percent of teachers
leaving within their first five years (Papay et al., 2017; Redding and Henry, 2018). With such
high rates of turnover, open teaching positions with smaller candidate pools, such as
secondary science and mathematics, can be challenging to fill (Ingersoll and Perda, 2010).
Journal of Educational
Administration
Vol. 57 No. 6, 2019
pp. 708-730
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0957-8234
DOI 10.1108/JEA-10-2018-0190
Received 5 October 2018
Revised 31 March 2019
10 June 2019
13 June 2019
Accepted 19 June 2019
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0957-8234.htm
This paper is basedupon work supported by the National Science Foundationunder Grant No. 0554434.
All opinions,findings, conclusions andrecommendations expressedin this paper are those of the authors
and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
708
JEA
57,6
High levels of teacher turnover can negatively impact student performance (Ronfeldt et al.,
2013) and also lead to shortages that force school systems to lower standards when filling
openings (Sutcher et al., 2016).
In addition to support like induction and mentoring, researchers have come to identify a
positive school climate as key to retaining teachers (Ingersoll, 2001; Johnson and Birkeland,
2003), witha supportive administrator beinga particularly important influence on new teacher
retention (Allensworth et al., 2009; Boyd et al., 2011; Grissom, 2011; Ladd, 2011). However, the
specific ways in which administrators influence new teachers’decision to remain in their school
are poorly understood. Further, this finding is somewhat at odds with qualitative accounts of
teacher–principal relationships, which describe administrators as somewhat absent from new
teachers’day-to-day experiences, with most social interaction and instructional support (IS)
coming from formal and informal mentors (Kardos and Johnson, 2007). The limited interactions
suggest that administrative support occurs through the direct provision of school resources
(assignment of mentors; recommending professional development) or administrators’indirect
influence on school climate (Pogodzinski et al., 2012; Youngs, 2007). Yet, it remains to be seen
how administrators deploy direct and indirect supports as tools to influence novice teachers’
decision to stay or leave their school. In addition, previous research on this topic has not
accounted for the quantity and types of supports that principals deploy in response to the
teaching quality of new teachers. In addition, school leaders could also influence retention
through supporting increases in teaching quality.
This study aims to address these two shortcomings in the literature on the relationship
between administrator support and new teacher turnover. We draw on survey,
observational and interview data collected from middle school mathematics teachers and
their administrators during their first three years in the profession. Few studies of
beginning teachers have collected such in-depth data of teachers over multiple years, data
which allow us to unpack what may have led a new teacher to stay or turn over from their
first school. Using a broadly defined measure of teacher turnover that includes teacher- or
administrator-initiated exits, we conduct a discrete time survival analysis to examine
when a teacher turned over, and the teacher and school characteristics associated with
their turnover. By focusing on any turnover in the first three years of teaching, we areable
to identify the supports that are most likely to influence beginning teachers’retention,
thereby helping administrators to reduce school staffing problems and allowing them to
focusonimprovingthecapacitiesofexisting teachers, rather than spending time
recruiting, hiring, inducting and cultivating new teachers (Donaldson, 2013). Likewise,
increased numbers of experienced teachers can add to the support network that is in place
for new teachers when they do enter a school.
This study is motivated by three research questions:
RQ1. To what extent is administrative support predictive of when early career middle
school mathematics teachers turn over?
RQ2. To what extent is teaching quality predictive of when early career middle school
mathematics teachers turn over? Is the influence of administrative support on
turnover mediated or moderated by teacher quality?
RQ3. What are the factors early career middle school teachers give that explain their
decision to turn over?
Math teacher quality, organizational supports and teacher turnover
Studies of national data have identified math teachers as having high turnover rates as well
as the greatest shortages of replacement teachers (Ingersoll and Perda, 2010). Recent studies
using administrative data confirm this general finding of higher turnover among math
709
Middle school
math teachers’
turnover
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