Rural schools and other traditionally hard-to-staff schools continue to struggle with the recruitment and retention of qualified special education teachers. Beginning special educators are two and one half times more likely to leave their positions than their general education counterparts. The study reported here extends the literature base on teacher retention by exploring factors that contribute to the professional growth and job satisfaction of a particular group of beginning special educators in a variety of settings, including rural, urban, and suburban districts, both elementary and secondary school level settings, and resource or more self-contained settings. The study's findings hold implications for individuals responsible for teacher development and the administration of school funds and resources.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Babione,C., & Shea,C. (2005). Special education mentoring within the context of rural school.Rural Special Education Quarterly, 24(2), 3-10.
2.
Berliner,D. (1988). The development of expertise pedagogy.Washington, DC: AACTE Publications (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 298 122)
3.
Billingsley,B. (2002). Improving special education teacher retention: Implications from a decade of research.Journal of Special Education Leadership, 15, 60-66.
4.
Billingsley,B. (2004). Special education teacher retention and attrition: A critical analysis of the literature.Journal of Special Education, 38, 39-56.
5.
Billingsley,B. (2005). Cultivating and keeping committed special education teachers.Thousand Oakes, CA: Corwin Press.
6.
Billingsley,B., Carlson,E., & Klein,S. (2004). The working conditions and induction support of early career special educators.Exceptional Children, 70, 333-347.
7.
Boyer,L. (2005). Supporting the induction of special educators.Teaching Exceptional Children, 37(3), 44-58.
8.
Brantlinger,E., Jimenez,R., Klingner,J., Pugach,M., & Richardson,V. (2005). Qualitative studies in special education.Exceptional Children, 71, 195-207.
9.
Brownell,M., Bishop,A., & Sindelar,P. (2005). NCLB and the demand for highly qualified teachers: Challenges and solutions for rural schools.Rural Special Education Quarterly, 24(1), 9-15.
10.
Fuller,F. (1969). Concerns of teachers: A developmental conceptualization.American Educational Research Journal, 6, 207-226.
11.
Gehrke,R., & McCoy,K. (2007). Sustaining and retaining beginning special education teachers: It takes a village.Teaching and Teacher Education, 23, 490-500.
12.
Gehrke,R., & Murri,N. (2006). Beginning special educators intent to stay in special education: Why they like it here.Teacher Education and Special Education, 29, 179-190.
13.
Gold,Y. (1996). Beginning teacher support: Attrition, mentoring, and induction. In SikulaJ., ButteryT. J., & GuytonE. (Eds.), Handbook of research on teacher education (2nd ed., pp. 548-594). New York: Simon & Schuster.
14.
Griffin,C., Winn,J., Otis-Wilborn,A., & Kilgore,K. (2003). New teacher induction in special education.Gainesville, FL: Center on Personnel Studies in Special Education. Retrieved July 27, 2005 from http://www.coe.ufl.edu/copsse
15.
Holdman,L., & Harris,M. (2003). Special educators in a regional induction program.Rural Special Education Quarterly, 22(3), 12-18.
16.
Huling-Austin,L. (1992). Research on learning to teach: Implications for teacher induction and mentoring programs.Journal of Teacher Education, 43, 173-180.
17.
Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004, 20 U.S.C. §1400 et seq. (2004).
18.
Ingersoll,R. (2001). Teacher turnover, teacher shortages, and the organization of schools.Seattle, WA: University of Washington, Center for the Study of Teaching and Policy.
19.
Ingersoll,R. (2003). The teacher shortage: Myth or reality?Educational Horizons, 81, 146-152.
20.
Ingersoll,R., & Smith,T. (2003). The wrong solution to the teacher shortage.Educational Leadership, 60(8), 30-34.
21.
Johnson,S. (2004). Finders and keepers: Helping new teachers survive and thrive in our schools.San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
22.
Johnson,R.B. & Turner,L. (2003). Data collection strategies in mixed methods research. In TashakorriA. & TeddlieC. (Eds.), Handbook of mixed methods in social and behavioral research.Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
23.
Johnson,S.M. & Birkeland,S., (2003). Pursuing a “sense of success”: New teachers explain their career decisions.American Educational Research Journal, 40, 581-617.
24.
Johnson,S.M., Birkeland,S., Kardos,S., Kauffman,D., Liu,E., & Peske,H. (2001). Retaining the next generation of teachers: The importance of school-based support.Harvard Educational Letter: Research Online. Retrieved March 3, 2005 from http://www.edletter.org/past/issues/2001-ja/support.shtml
25.
Kelchtermans,G., & Ballet,K. (2002). The micropolitics of teacher induction. A narrative-biographical study on teacher socialization.Teaching and Teacher Education, 18, 105-120.
26.
Kortman,S. & Hornaker,C. (2002). The BEST beginning teacher experience: Program facilitator guide.Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt.
27.
Lacey,C. (1985). Professional socialization of teachers. In HusenT. & PostethwaiteT. (Eds.), The international encyclopedia of education (pp. 4073-4084). Oxford, England: Pergamon.
28.
Luekens,M., Lyter,D., & Fox,E. (2004). Teacher attrition and mobility: Results from the teacher follow-up survey, 2000-01. U.S. Department of Education, NCES. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
29.
McClure,C., Redfield,D., & Hammer,P. (2003). Recruiting and retaining high-quality teachers in rural areas.Charleston, WV: Appalachian Educational Laboratory. Retrieved January 31, 2007 from http://www.edvantia.org/publications/pdf/PB_Rural_Teachers.pdf
30.
McLeskey,J., Tyler,N., & Flippin,S. (2004). The supply and demand for special education teachers: A review of research regarding the chronic shortage of special education teachers.The Journal of Special Education, 38, 5-21.
Moir,E. (1999). The stages of a teacher's first year. In SchererM. (Ed.), A better beginning (pp. 19-23). Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
33.
National Education Association (1998). Status of public education in rural areas and small towns: A comparative analysis. Retrieved January 31, 2007 from http://www.nea.org/companal-rural.html
34.
No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, 20 U.S.C. 70 § 6301 et seq. (2002).
35.
Patton,M. (2002). Qualitative research and evaluation methods.Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
36.
Prater,M. (2005). Ethnically diverse rural special educators who are highly qualified: Does NCLB make this impossible?Rural Special Education Quarterly, 24(1), 23-26.
37.
Pugach,M. (1992). Uncharted territory: Research on the socialization of special education teachers.Teacher Education and Special Education, 15, 133-147.
38.
Quaglia,R., Marion,S., & McIntire,W., (1991). The relationship of teacher satisfaction to perceptions of school organization, teacher empowerment, work conditions, and community status.Education, 112, 206-217.
39.
Rosenkoetter,S., Irwin,J., & Saceda,R. (2004). Addressing personnel needs for rural areas.Teacher Education and Special Education, 27, 276-291.
40.
Schwartzbeck,T., & Prince,C. (2003). How are rural districts meeting the teacher quality requirements of No Child Left Behind?Charleston, WV: Appalachian Educational Laboratory. Retrieved February 1, 2007 from http://www.edvantia.org/publications/pdf/AASA-AELReport.pdf
41.
Smith,T. & Ingersoll,R. (2004). What are the effects of induction and mentoring on beginning teacher turnover?American Educational Research Journal, 41, 681-684.
42.
Southeast Center for Teaching Quality (2002). Recruiting teachers for hard-to-staff schools: Solutions for the southeast and the nation.: Chapel Hill, NC: Southeast Center for Teaching Quality. Retrieved January 8, 2007 from http://www.teachingquality.org/pdf/HTSS_regional.pdf.
43.
Zeichner,K., & Gore,J., (1990). Teacher socialization. In HoustonW. (Ed.), Handbook of research on teacher education (pp.329-348). New York: Macmillan.
