Teacher Turnover and Teacher Shortages: An Organizational Analysis

TLDR: This paper investigated the possibility that there are other factors, such as organizational characteristics and conditions of schools, that are driving teacher turnover and, in turn, school staffing problems, and the results of the analysis indicate that school staffing problem is not primarily due to teacher shortages, in the technical sense of an insufficient supply of qualified teachers.

Abstract: Contemporary educational theory holds that one of the pivotal causes of inadequate school performance is the inability of schools to adequately staff classrooms with qualified teachers. This theory also holds that these school staffing problems are primarily due to shortages of teachers, which, in turn, are primarily due to recent increases in teacher retirements and student enrollments. This analysis investigates the possibility that there are other factors—those tied to the organizational characteristics and conditions of schools—that are driving teacher turnover and, in turn, school staffing problems. The data utilized in this investigation are from the Schools and Staffing Survey and its supplement, the Teacher Followup Survey conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics. The results of the analysis indicate that school staffing problems are not primarily due to teacher shortages, in the technical sense of an insufficient supply of qualified teachers. Rather, the data indicate that school...