New research has identified
teacher working conditions as having a greater effect on teacher turnover than most other factors, including student achievement and student characteristics.
As interest and participation
in teacher working conditions initiatives grow, the opportunity to create responses based on the experiences of other districts familiar with working conditions reforms increases exponentially.
Specifically, the report targets
improved teacher working conditions that make the job «doable» by ensuring adequate resource staff; manageable class sizes; and a safe, supportive environment.
The study, published in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, is based on a value - added analysis of multiple years of data from the biannual North Carolina
Teacher Working Conditions Survey, cross-referenced to principal placement data.
In 2002, under the leadership of Governor Mike Easley, North Carolina became the first state to implement a statewide study of
teacher working conditions by surveying teachers and administrators across the state.
As for concerns about NCLB's negative impact
on teacher working conditions, Jason Grissom and his colleagues have shown that the law's implementation did not diminish teachers» job satisfaction or increase their levels of stress.
As one accomplished teacher stated during an online conversation
about teacher working conditions: «My darkest hours of teaching were when I had no one else to talk to about student achievement and effective instruction.
Although important, recruitment alone can not solve the more systemic problems
with teacher working conditions — it is one of the many strategies we can and must employ to modernize and elevate the profession, but it is not a panacea.
Others have charged that
poor teacher working conditions, such as low salaries and test - driven school cultures, are nudging existing and potential educators toward other professions, especially with the economy improving.
Meanwhile, public education advocates — meeting to
deride teacher working conditions on National Teacher Appreciation Day — were less than enthused about McCrory's budget this week, casting it as little more than electioneering from a governor embroiled in an apparently uphill fight for re-election.
NC Wiseowl
NC Teacher Working Conditions Survey National Board Certification NC School Report Card North Carolina Child Advocacy Institute Public School Forum of North Carolina North Carolina General Assembly
Recent teacher working conditions research includes measures to determine the effect of time allocation, empowerment, professional development, and leadership — complex issues now proven to be closely related to the capacity of professionals to improve student learning.
District representatives across the state of North Carolina have also received training to present working conditions data with the goal of helping their respective schools better understand and respond to
teacher working conditions challenges.
It is within this context that CTQ and other national researchers are documenting the relationship
among teacher working conditions, teacher retention rates, and student achievement.
More than 15 years ago, Ginsberg and Berry (1990) found that
teacher working conditions associated with South Carolina's high - stakes accountability movement were linked to high levels of emotional exhaustion, and Corcoran, Walker, and White (1998) found that the lack of resources (materials and equipment, for example) created stress among teachers, and in doing so, lowered both their sense of efficacy and attendance.
The toolkit includes examples of schools that have
addressed teacher working conditions successfully, checklists and concrete ideas to provide a roadmap for working conditions reforms, and background research to give users some theoretical perspective when identifying school reform strategies.
After a long, challenging legal battle, the B.C. Supreme Court found that the B.C. Government unjustifiably breached teachers constitutionally protected freedom of association when it stripped class size and composition provisions and other provisions
governing teacher working conditions and prohibited bargaining on those subject matters in the future.
Using data from the 2003 — 2004 Schools and Staffing Survey, this article
compares teacher working conditions in charter schools and traditional public schools through propensity score matching and weighted hierarchical linear modeling.
Before 2002, systematic evaluations
of teacher working conditions provided only limited data, circumscribing the consideration of teachers» experiences, perceptions, and needs to individual school districts and schools.
Improving teacher working conditions by providing more autonomy in the classroom, providing more supplies and resources, and giving teachers more of a say in schoolwide decisions can make a difference.
The North
Carolina Teacher Working Conditions Survey is a tool that gauges NC Educators» perspectives about teaching and learning conditions while providing education stakeholders and policymakers insights on how to improve school and classroom practices.
Although the significance of any effort to develop knowledge
about teacher working conditions should not be underestimated, developing resources, tools, and plans to respond to the data with meaningful school reforms is the most essential element of the working conditions initiative.
These patterns remained largely intact, particularly for Latino teachers, even after considering factors such as student performance,
teacher working conditions, and other measures of teacher efficacy.
A more balanced assessment would consider other dimensions of
teacher working conditions: the hierarchical nature of the job, the inflexible work hours, the relative inflexibility of vacation planning, the frequently unsafe working conditions, the lack of private office space, and the stress of being «on stage» nearly all day in front of students.
I've watched the leaders of our teachers» unions talking about how teacher pay is poor and
teacher working conditions are poor and everything's poor and everyone is doing badly, but that they are going to fix it.
Stating a lack of progress in talks, the NUT has issued that it has no choice but to proceed with strikes, citing funding cuts,
teacher working conditions, increased class sizes, and teacher terms and conditions as motivating factors.
«Because these investments can indirectly affect student progress through critical channels such as
teacher working conditions, we'll also evaluate the significance of facility spending on reducing instructor turnover,» McFarlin said.
Some of those factors include student attendance,
teacher working conditions, student discipline such as suspensions, and rate of English fluency for non-native English speaking students.
An advocate for PLCs, improved
teacher working conditions, and teacher leadership, Bill has represented educators on Capitol Hill and presented at state and national conferences.
Read the full study (available for a fee), «How Much Do School Principals Matter When It Comes to
Teacher Working Conditions?»
When it comes to the factors that they directly influence, such as student safety, financial management,
teacher working conditions, and high - quality instruction, for example, principals must rely on their «managerial» capabilities.
An Investigation of the Relationships of Teacher Professional Development, Teacher Job Satisfaction, and Teacher Working Conditions
Without comprehensive and sustained efforts to improve
teacher working conditions, many promising school reform efforts will likely fail.
The teacher working conditions effort is allowing school communities to consider essential issues related to empowerment, leadership, facilities and resources, time, and professional development.
The importance of
teacher working conditions is magnified by the teacher attrition problems plaguing schools — especially in the United States» chronically hard - to - staff urban and rural schools.
Despite its obvious importance, improving
teacher working conditions should not be considered an independent cure - all.
Beyond these studies, until recently, only a limited research base existed directly related to
teacher working conditions.
Educator perceptions of
teacher working conditions have recently been collected statewide in North and South Carolina and in pilot initiatives in Georgia, Ohio, and Virginia, allowing individual schools and communities to consider customized and appropriate policies and programs to address the most pressing concerns of their own teachers.
Governor Easley's
Teacher Working Conditions Initiative: Resources and response for teacher working conditions data.
Marzano's view on the significance of leadership in developing a culture that works in schools is strongly supported by CTQ's statistical analysis of
teacher working conditions, which indicated that leadership is positively and significantly correlated to all other working conditions.
Teacher working conditions are student learning conditions: A report to Governor Mike Easley on the 2004 North Carolina teacher working conditions survey.
Sources: Adapted from
Teacher Working Conditions Are Student Learning Conditions: A Report to Governor Mike Easley on the 2004 Teacher Working Conditions Survey by E. Hirsch, March, 2005, Chapel Hill, NC: Southeast Center for Teaching Quality; and Listening to the Experts: A Report on the 2004 South Carolina Teacher Working Conditions Survey by E. Hirsch, March, 2005, Chapel Hill, NC: Southeast Center for Teaching Quality.