ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND THE EFFECT ON TEACHER RETENTION Debbie Estrada EDUC 647

PROBLEM OF PRACTICE AND THE IMPORTANCE TO THE ORGANIZATION  The problem of practice analyzed was the issue of teacher attrition (those that leave the profession) and migration (those that leave to other districts). In addition to this particular problem of practice, the organizational culture of the Burton District was reviewed to determine its affect on the problem.  The problem of teacher attrition and migration is a significant issue to resolve for the district. At the end of the school year, the district lost 25% of its certificated teaching staff. This is a national trend, The National Commission on Teaching & America’s Future (Barnes, Crowe, & Schaefer, 2007) estimate that as a nation, over 7 billion dollars are spent replacing teachers. Furthermore, the Burton District is struggling to find high quality teachers (HQT) that have the skills and credentials necessary to effectively instruct the students of the district.

GOALS  The Burton School District will strive to retain 100% of the newly hired and veteran teachers that meet district standards of effectiveness as measured by the district’s evaluation system.

MEASURED GAPS Mission The Burton School District will provide our students with highly qualified teaching staff. Students All students will graduate college and world ready. Teachers Teachers will be highly qualified and remain employed with the district by attaining high levels of job satisfaction. Administration Administration will work with staff to create collaborative and favorable working enviroments. Board of Trustees Board of Trustees will provide the financial resources to allow the district to become more competitive in the job seeker market. Goal The Burton School District will recruit and retain 100% of the highly qualified and existing district staff.

MEASURED GAPSCONTINUED  The changes necessary to improve the problem of practice will result in an increase to staff morale; thus providing a stable teaching force with a significantly reduced attrition rate that will work cohesively to improve student performance and meet the Burton School District’s mission of graduating its students college and world ready.

RELATED RESEARCH IMPACT OF ATTRITION AND MIGRATION:  A pattern of continuous turnover impacts the district financially, instructionally, and disrupts the culture and learning communities previously established within a site or district (Allensworth et al., 2009 and Balu Beteille, & Loeb, 2009).  The perpetual cycle of turnover contributes to lower student performance and lower student performance further increases attrition (Barnes, Crow, & Shaefer, 2007).  Johnson, Kraft and Papay (2012) conducted a study on why teachers leave high poverty schools and found that favorable working conditions for staff predicted a high rate of academic growth, as measured by standardized tests.

 The leadership of a school is the most important factor for schools with higher numbers of low socioeconomically disadvantaged and low achieving students (Branch, Hanushek, and Rivkin, 2009)  In a study conducted of New York City teachers, teachers’ perception of how well their principal led the campus was the ultimate deciding factor for their decision to stay, move or leave the teaching profession altogether (Boyd et al. 2009)  Instructional leadership is describe as an environment that encourages collaboration to develop school goals, providing opportunities for teachers to learn and reflect, foster a respect for diversity and equity and a strong understanding of what impacts education and an understanding of curriculum and instruction (Blasé and Blasé, 2004) RELATED RESEARCH SCHOOL LEADERSHIP:

RELATED RESEARCH SCHOOL CULTURE AND TEACHER COMPENSATION :  School culture is the driving force in causing teachers to resign. Satisfaction came from environments in which teacher shad control over their work environment and they have influence over school decisions, support from administration and colleagues drives teacher to stay. Smaller school districts see higher attrition rates due to the extensive demands put on teachers that cause them to burn out (Allensworth et al., 2009)  Teachers leave lower paying districts not only for salary but reduced responsibility and stress (Kersaint et al.,2007)  Conversely studies have found that organizational culture, support from administration and the working environment is more important than salary (Liu & Meyer, 2005; Horng, 2009; Loeb et al., 2005)

METHODS  The methods for this study was a gap analysis problem solving approach (Clark & Estes, 2008; Rueda 2011). This allows the researcher to examine the root causes and further contribute to the studies of the problem of teacher attrition, migration and organizational culture. The analysis will review possible or assumed causes and by a systematic examination, focus on the actual cause.

ASSUMED CAUSES  Low rate of pay  Unfavorable working conditions  New teachers given the hardest assignments with the neediest students  New administration  Attrition perpetuates low morale  Refusal of the district to increase salary  Lack of district transparency  “Sinking ship”

VALIDATED CAUSES SURVEY RESULTS  Teacher understanding of how’s and why’s of district decision making  Teacher motivation: “Why am I here, what is my place in district?”  The transitioning school culture is viewed as poor by stakeholders

SOLUTIONS TO THE PROBLEM  Communication and collaborative decision making  Ask what resources the teachers need and work to provide that (Common Core training, professional development, coaching, etc.)  Implement a system to allow teacher to give input on district initiatives  Give teachers respect and autonomy to teach  Provide teachers meaningful feedback and support  Address staff concerns via two way communication

EVALUATION  The final step in the gap-analysis process is to evaluation the outcomes. Although the solutions should work, this does not mean that once implemented, they will work (Rueda, 2011). Four levels of review are as follows:  Reaction – how is staff reacting to change(s) is this creating a motivation difference to make teachers decide to stay in the district  Learning – Teachers begin to understand purposes behind decision making  Transfer – Administration continuously demonstrates a change in leadership – changes become the norm – organizational culture is established  Impact – Are changes implemented causing a change for the good? Is the attrition and migration rate reduced?

CONCLUSION  Teacher retention is a nation wide issue. This problem is costly to districts not only in the financial sense but this problem also negatively affects student achievement. The focus of a school should be to provide services and resources to students. The organizational culture of the Burton School District should be changed and better established so that the focus can be on students.

IMPLICATIONS  The purpose of this gap analysis was to begin to address the teacher retention rates. If the Burton School District continues to see the attrition rates it has suffered recently, the staff demographics could represent a work force of 50% new teachers for the school year.  This problem, if not addressed will continue to have detrimental affects to the success of the students. This is not an isolated site problem, but an issue that needs to be addressed district wide.  If the issues addressed in this study are not resolved, the district will fail to meet the goal of graduating all students college and world ready.