Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is now a cornerstone of education policy in the UK and elsewhere. If policy aspirations translate successfully into practice, then (funded) CPD opportunities will abound and teachers will be 'developed' in a logical and structured way from the moment they enter the profession until retirement. As a result…

The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore teachers' experiences of supportive relationships with colleagues. A total of fifty (50) public and private elementary and secondary school teachers in the central part of the Philippines were purposively selected as respondents. Guided by a narrative-biographical interview, results of the study…

This study examines the mediating effect of teacher empowerment on the relationship between teachers' participation in decision making and their professional commitment. The data were collected through quantitative questionnaires from a sample of 983 teachers in 25 junior high schools and 27 high schools in Israel. Hierarchical regression analyses…

While there are hundreds of studies reported for general education, few researchers have focused on the impact of class size on the academic achievement of students with special needs. Despite escalating special education costs and increasing student needs, policies governing special education remain inconsistent. We examine the effect of class…

This comprehensive review of 16 nationally representative public opinion polls conducted between 2000 and 2006 provides insight into how teachers, school administrators, parents, and the general public view the teaching profession. It looks specifically at issues of teacher availability, recruitment, and retention for at-risk and hard-to-staff…

Teachers make the greatest impact on students--what they learn, how they learn it, and what they do with it. Decades of research clearly demonstrate that a quality teacher, more than any other factor, enables students to overcome obstacles to learning like poverty and can even erase the achievement gap. The problem is that many teachers lack the…

This mixed methods study gathered information about the experiences of beginning special education teachers, their systems of support, and their intent to continue their careers in the field. Individual open-ended interviews were conducted with 8 first and second year special education teachers to obtain their perceptions of their first year of…

Telephone interviews concerning special education teacher attrition were conducted with 96 former special education teachers in Florida. Both qualitative and quantitative techniques were used to analyze the interview data. Participants had not returned to their special education teaching positions after the 1992-93 school year. The majority of…

A 1991 survey of Directors of Special Education in Kansas indicated a shortage of deaf education teachers and problems with retention of deaf education teachers in rural areas. In addition, 15 of 22 respondents documented an increase in the number of deaf and hard-of-hearing (D/HH) children in their districts. Project Rural Education is a program…

This study evaluated turnover of special education teachers by providing national estimates of the numbers of special education teachers who (1) were retained by their school, (2) were reassigned to a different school within the district, (3) migrated to another district, or (4) left public school teaching. Numbers were drawn from the 1987-88…

This monograph represents efforts of individuals committed to promoting increased ethnic and cultural diversity in the teaching profession. it is organized into four sections. Section 1, "An Overview," is followed by the second section, "Nature and Need," which includes the chapters: "Defining an Ethnically Diverse…

Recent concern about teacher shortages has raised questions about the attractiveness of the teaching profession. This issue brief examines whether teacher salaries have increased in recent years, how they compare with salaries in other entry-level occupations, and how they vary within and across school districts in the nation. Data on scheduled…

This paper addresses issues related to school location, staff turnover, and educational improvement through community involvement. A study involving second-year teachers in Australia indicates that teacher satisfaction was related to satisfying relationships with fellow staff and with students who were cooperative and enthusiastic about learning.…

The broad area of teacher satisfaction is an important component in career decisions about teaching. Some sources of satisfaction are the joy of helping students learn, the sense of efficacy, positive relationships with colleagues, satisfactory working conditions, the leadership style of principals, and the prestige and esteem associated with…

This paper examines factors which may impact on recruitment and retention of members of the African-American teaching pool. Data were gathered through questionnaires and interviews administered to prospective and beginning teachers (N=41) to determine background characteristics, reasons for entering the teaching profession, experiences in teacher…