Administrative support has been frequently identified as the most important factor influencing teachers' employment decisions (Burkhauser, 2017; Ladd, 2011). While many rural schools operate in hard-to-staff contexts that suffer from severe teacher shortages, it is unknown if rural teachers require rural context specific administrative support.…

Attracting and retaining teachers in South Carolina's I-95 "Corridor of Shame" districts has become increasingly difficult with attrition rates growing statistically higher every year. Consistent teacher attrition impedes student achievement, disrupts the learning environment, and costs school districts more money. The research question…

Previous research demonstrates that there is an association between effective teaching and teachers' positive psychological functioning at work. The current study explores the factor structure of the Teacher Subjective Wellbeing Questionnaire (TSWQ), which is a brief measure of two key dimensions of teachers' positive psychological functioning:…

COVID-19 shuttered schools across the United States, upending traditional approaches to education. We examine teachers' experiences during emergency remote teaching in the spring of 2020 using responses to a working conditions survey from a sample of 7,841 teachers across 206 schools and 9 states. Teachers reported a range of challenges related to…

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic shuttered schools across the United States, upending traditional approaches to education and requiring large scale school transformation on a pace never before seen. Though prior research on organizational change has emphasized the importance of working conditions for teacher satisfaction and student achievement…

This Special Issues Brief from the Center on Great Teachers and Leaders (GTL Center) outlines the unique characteristics of high-need schools, supports state and district leaders as they consider their role in implementing initiatives with a focus on equity, and explores how programs can be customized to meet the unique circumstances of a…

COVID-19 shuttered schools across the United States, upending traditional approaches to education. We examine teachers' experiences during emergency remote teaching in the spring of 2020 using responses to a working conditions survey from a sample of 7,841 teachers across 206 schools and 9 states. Teachers reported a range of challenges related to…

Known as "invisible faculty," (Gappa & Leslie, 1993), adjunct or part-time, contingent instructors play a vital role in meeting the needs of two-year colleges. Adjunct faculty members teach over half of the United States' historically underserved college students (Center for Community College Student Engagement [CCCSE], 2014), and…

The purpose of this quantitative study was to identify the various factors contributing to teacher attrition at Alston Middle School and the ones that may reduce it. The participants in this study were fourteen teachers presently at Alston Middle School in Summerville, South Carolina. Teachers that were employed at Alston during the 2009 to 2010…

The purpose of this study was to examine the factors impacting teacher attrition in high-performing and low-performing elementary rural schools in South Carolina. Several factors were identified that interfered with teachers returning to the teaching profession. School districts in rural areas need to be better informed of the factors that affect…

Recruiting and retaining highly qualified teachers has been a challenge for many rural school districts. Lower salaries, working conditions, and geographic location are some of the challenges rural districts face when staffing their schools. The challenges of recruiting teachers in rural areas are compounded by competition from larger districts…

Forty-six percent of the nation's teachers are expected to leave the profession by their fifth year in the classroom. This alarming statistic has grabbed the attention of federal, state, and local leaders. In South Carolina alone, 28,500 teachers left the profession in the last five years, or an average of 5,700 per year. This translates to a…

Building a stronger teacher workforce requires the thoughtful orchestration of multiple processes working together in a human capital system. This white paper presents a framework that can be used to take stock of current efforts to enhance the teacher workforce in school districts or educational organizations, as well as their underlying theories…

This article illustrates the efforts of educators in North Carolina to advocate for the social studies in an age of high-stakes assessment and tight budgets. Although this story begins with one state, the marginalization of social studies in elementary schools is a nationwide problem. The federal No Child Left Behind law (NCLB) is due for…

South Carolina's Educational Improvement Act may be only one factor responsible for closed decision-making climates in most of the state's elementary schools, because "reforms" also occurred in curriculum development, methodology, teacher education, and evaluation. With the deregulation movement gaining speed, the time is ripe for…