What Influences Itinerant Teacher Job Satisfaction and Intent to Stay?

Schools across the country are facing a shortage of qualified teachers. When they post jobs, certified applicants may be rare. The problem of teacher shortage is multifaceted, but is generally focused in two areas: recruitment and retention of teachers. Attrition is the highest among new teachers, those who have been in the profession for less than five years. By focusing on retention of teachers, schools will need to spend less time on recruiting and can devote that time to deep implementation of high-quality education. While there have been multiple studies looking at retention of staff, there have been few studies that have looked specifically at itinerant teachers. Itinerant teachers make up only 1.8% of the total teaching profession and teach a variety of subjects. This study examines a variety of factors and their influence on itinerant teacher job satisfaction and intent to stay in the profession. These variables were categorized into three areas: personal, employment and external factors. Descriptive statistics to have a clear picture of who the itinerant teachers are in the United States. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to determine individual factors that had statistically significant effect on teacher job satisfaction and intent to stay. Finally, SEM was completed to determine if teacher job satisfaction had a mediating effect on intent to stay for itinerant teachers. As schools look to improve efforts to retain itinerant teachers, this study provides guidance on which practices may have a positive effect. The factors that had the highest statistically significant effects are within the employment factors, which are those that are within the control of the individual school to adjust and improve. School districts and state departments of education can also look at the significant external factors such as salaries and standards and look at how to make an impact on retention of itinerant teachers