dc.description.abstract | The Tennessee Charter School Center (TCSC) formed in
2013 through the merger of the Tennessee Charter School
Incubator and the Tennessee Charter Schools Association.
The TCSC combines the functions and resources of the
previous two groups by promoting education and awareness
of charter schools, advancing policy and advocacy,
supporting innovation and incubation of charter schools,
and supporting leaders at charter schools across the state.
Perhaps the largest human capital concern for these schools
is the yearly movement of teachers out of the classroom.
Unquestionably, some turnover is healthy for schools, but
retaining higher numbers of effective teachers is a priority
for all charter schools across the state. Understanding the
causes and patterns of these departures will allow the TCSC
to support their schools more effectively and offer the
opportunity to tailor future hiring and retention practices to
the unique needs of each school. In an effort to understand
the current labor portrait, we explored the following project
questions:
1. How do teachers at Tennessee Charter Schools rate their
satisfaction regarding four common causes of teacher
attrition (instructional support, compensation, school
conditions, burnout)?
2. How do teacher characteristics (gender, race, age,
teaching experience, educational attainment) influence
teachers’ attrition plans at Tennessee Charter Schools?
3. How do variations in charter school characteristics
(network CMO vs. local CMO vs. standalone school,
established vs. startup, elementary vs. secondary)
influence teachers’ attrition plans at Tennessee Charter
Schools?
4. Within our framework, what factors predict teacher
attrition at Tennessee Charter Schools?
To answer these questions, we combined quantitative and
qualitative data from a survey instrument that was
completed by 131 charter school teachers in Memphis and
Nashville across a variety of building contexts. For the first
project question, we operationalized each attrition factor
using existing scales and surveyed teacher opinion. For the
second project question, we gathered relevant teacher
characteristics from the demographic portion of our survey.
For the third project question, we gathered relevant school
characteristics from the introductory portion of our survey.
To answer the fourth project question, we ran multiple
regressions with various predictor and outcome variables.
For each question we analyzed quantitative data using
appropriate statistical methods to gauge significance and
coded qualitative responses for themes and illustrative
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