Bucking the turnover trend: The impact of school characteristics on teacher retention in high-need urban schools

As researchers and education officials have noted repeatedly, the teaching profession suffers from chronic high turnover, a situation that has profound effects on districts, schools, and the students they serve. Additionally distressing are the findings that indicate that schools serving predominantly low-income students and students of color are disproportionately impacted by this problem. Despite this tendency of teachers to leave high-need schools at greater rates, there are schools that buck this trend and routinely retain their teachers. This study explored the school characteristics that contribute to teachers\u27 decisions to remain at a specific school by focusing on positive deviants—schools that consistently retained their teachers at higher rates than similar schools. Specifically, the study considered high-need, high-retention New York City (NYC) schools. To be considered high-need and high-retention, a school had to serve a student population in which 75% or more students were low-income and 75% or more students identified as students of color. Additionally, the school had to be in the top decile in terms of 5-year retention rate for all teachers and in the top quartile for retention of both novice and experienced teachers. Finally, the school had to be considered an effective school based on NYC accountability measures. Within these parameters, 32 schools (2.7%) qualified as high-need, high-retention schools. The researcher utilized a multiple methods approach to examine these schools, which included quantitative analysis of the NYC School Survey, qualitative case studies in seven high-need, high-retention schools, and cross-case analysis. Findings from this study included five factors that had the greatest impact on teachers\u27 decisions to stay or leave their school. These school characteristics were: 1) school environment, 2) school operations, 3) school leadership, 4) school staff, and 5) parent involvement. These findings suggest an important relationship between the type of school where a teacher works and the people for and with whom a teacher works and that teacher\u27s job satisfaction and likelihood of staying at that school