Chapter I
Introduction
From last 30 years’ teacher resignation is a point of serious concern for schools. A great number of new educators quit their job in early five years of their service, which results in the consumption of a huge budget on employment and preparation of repositioned educators. If we need to shape a dedicated and skilled teachers team, delicate devotion for the better working environment and the initiation of early professional special teachers is required. Current accounts have recognized the growing lack of teachers of special education and increasing resignation frequency, along with the great amount of certain new special teachers moving in the teaching profession. As several qualified educators are resigning, same as many unqualified educators are also quitting. This increased percentage of resignation in early years point towards the need to concentrate on the preservation of teachers, especially in early few years. The lack of educators will not be sorted out by employing thousands of new teachers in teaching department every year if they quit their job in early years. Several reasons are postulated regarding increased frequency of resignation in new educators together with some own causes, for example, child care, better job opportunities, and discontent with their teaching profession(Conley & You, 2016).
Beginning educators have fewer responsibilities and commitments, and they are less devoted for their occupation and society, so they leave easily. Some other scholars proposed that many fresh educators quit due to dissatisfaction and preliminary complications which they face in the beginning of their teaching profession. In an analysis of literature about resignation, coaching, and initiation several teachers do not get the essential booties for working well as a teacher which they supposed to get in their early years of service. This disappointment results in frustration, stress and at last resignation. Quick response and better support system in the early years of service will not only help to lessen the rate educators leaving, but it will also help to correct the excellence of services which are collected by learners. Educators bring about obvious improvements in efficacy in the first five years of their teaching profession, consequently “decreasing the rate with which learners are educated by a continuous course of trained teachers” is significant for quality education(Kelly & Northrop, 2015).
It is important to sympathize what new educator’s skill is required to generating conditions in which they can be stayed and developed. Most of the literature covering many years reports the requirements and practices of new wide ranging teachers. Fresh educators face an endurance phase, during which they concentrate to be liked by their students, to completely hold all classroom activities and students and being appraised. This type of educators often undervalue the time required for teaching responsibilities, misjudge their skills and capabilities, and have some idealistic approaches. Fresh educators also experience a large number of complications, for example, learner conduct and self-control, problematic dealing with parents of students, inadequate support, and also face a lack of concern from coworkers.As the early years of the teaching profession are quite hard and challenging, because beginning educators are provided with the most demanding tasks and undesired courses and classrooms. The responsibilities and tasks of early years in teaching are combined with demanding projects and insufficient backing, results in increased rate of teacher’s resignation and transfer in early years of service(Evans, 2017).
Teachers leaving are at its peak and admission in teacher training schemes is dropped to 35% from last five years, an overall falloff of about 240,000 educators. Different parts of American state are facing a lack of educators, the most general deficient fields of education are mathematics, science, bilingual education and special education (Westervelt, 2016). About 49 countries recounted the lack of teachers of special education. It is estimated that 12.3% teachers belong to special education quit their profession as teachers. Approximately two times rate of teachers belongs to the common education system. It is reported that to fulfill the needs of special students having disabilities there are not sufficient experts and specialists are present. 51% of entire school regions and 90% of highly deprived schools are facing problems in employing highly trained and experienced special education teachers (NCPSSERS, 2017).
Background
The shortage of teachers due to increased attrition rates in special educational institutes is a major concern in the United States. Due to lack of skills, the educators cannot fulfill the needs of disabled students. It is expected that this shortage will increase to 17% in next few years and the enrollment of disabled students will increase to fifty-nine million until 2019(NCPSSERS, 2017). Previous studies on this subject mentioned several causes of increased rate of attrition among special education instructors. These causes include students perplexing activities, decreased support by the administration, conditions of workplace and stress (Tyler & Brunner, 2014).
The purpose of current study is to deeply comprehend the causes of attrition of special education teachers in the US, at the beginning of their career. By previous literature, different factors involved in attrition of teachers will be discussed in detail. The findings of this study will help the government and school administrators to develop strategies to decline the rate of attrition in the country.
Statement of Purpose
Leaving of educators from special education schools is recounted as a point of concern from several years. It is estimated that after 2011-2012 out of 430,000 teachers of special education only 28,600 teachers are left (Goldring, Taie, & Riddles, 2014). The National Center for Education Statistics (2011) and Bureau of Labor Statistics (2012) stated that the figure of present special education teachers would rise to only 537,000 teachers by 2020. Council for Exceptional Children reported that alternative educators would meet the requirement of 12,000 special education teaching rank with every passing year because highly qualified teachers would not be discovered. After analyzing the estimates of requirement as compared to some special education teachers, according to researchers preservation of special education teachers is necessary to fulfill the needs to learners having disabilities.
The National Center for Education Statistics (2014) point towards the countrywide qualification rate of disabled students was about 61% in the long run of 2011 to 2012. Focused on the movement of special education teacher’s selection to resign from their jobs, special education leaving is a constant point of concern in the United States. Academics postulated various cause responsible for resignation in special education teachers: confronting conduct of students; absence of managerial backing; workplace environment and frustration; and absence of training and organization which harmfully affect the teacher’s self-ability (Tyler & Brunner, 2014).
Thus, there is a requirement endured in the developing figure of literature concerning special education teachers leaving and to find out the cause special education experts were familiar to often quit their jobs as teachers. Facts and figures collected from the investigation and exploration must help out the administration and management to design policy and plans to amplify the preservation of special education teachers. Assortment and evaluation of statistics must also provide vision about what steps should be taken on a governmental level to amplify the preservation of special education teachers in future.
Research Questions
Attrition of special education tutors is a common problem in every state of US which results in low achievement rate of students and causes financial problems for school districts. According to literature, it is a national issue and research on this subject is limited. This study aimed to enrich research on the context of attrition of special instruction teachers, as a lot of teachers leave their profession in early stages of their profession. The research questions which guided this study are as follows:
RQ1: What factors are involved in the attrition of special education teachers?
RQ2: What strategies can be useful to deal with such attrition of teachers?
RQ3: How teacher’s attrition may influence the education system?
Assumption
A lot of assumptions are present about this study. The first and foremost assumption was that several elements are responsible for special education teacher leaving in the school region. The second supposition was that respondents would provide helpful answers about the rate of attrition. The third postulation was about the understanding of questions y participants to provide an honest response. The last notion was that bias would not be exhibited by respondents.
Significance
Special education leaving was discovered to be a general point of concern for several school region headships. It was specified that the total of present special education teachers would only enlarge to 537,000 educators by 2020 as according to current statistics 127,690 secondary and elementary school teachers are working in special education schools(Statistics, 2016).
The National Center for Education Statistics pointed out that the admission of disable students will rise to 59 billion by 2019. A significant lack of special education teachers is present in the United States and school headship point towards the basic and crucial requirement for special education teachers. This research was organized to report the rising rate of leaving in highly trained and experienced special education teachers and fulfill the requirements of disabled students in future.
Limitations
There were several limitations of this study. The sample selected for the study was comprised of fewer participants due to their concern of time restraints and many of the participants were hardly willing to respond for a 45 minutes’ interview. Due to ethical issues the small sample size was chosen for the study. All the participants were concerned about the privacy and confidentiality of the information. Another limitation is that due to small sample size the data may not be able to apply in a broader perspective.
Delimitations
This study was delimited as it focuses a specific group of teachers relating to secondary school special education from 2015 to 2017. It focused the SPED teachers who left or were still in the position as a teacher with an experience of three or more years. The study was focused on teachers, so other professionals relating to special education like psychologists or service providers were not included in the study.
Definition of Terms
Attrition
Attrition in special education is usually referred to as leaving of a current teaching position, transfer to a catholic school, or switching job to another school by teachers (Boe, Cook, & Sunderland, 2008).
Job Satisfaction
The perception of an individual to his experience of employment with certain factors which can enhance the perception of recognition, flexibility, development potential and enhanced responsibility (House & Wigdor, 1967).
Chapter II
Literature Review
Overview
The topic of special education teacher’s objectives to get a permit is an old discussion for scholars and experts. The study done by Conley & You (2016), accounts the research which tested the workshop analyst of educators’ objectives to allow for a illustrative USA model of 2060 secondary institution special education instructors. Practicing the 2007-2008 institutes and Employment Review data set, two samples were verified to evaluate job fulfillment and obligation as moderators. According to them, managerial backing and educator’s staff efficiency had convincing, major direct and indirect influences on special education instructor’s objectives to get a permit. Educator’s job policy, independence, bad social and financial conditions, and learner’s detachment also greatly impact their fulfillment and loyalty. Thus managerial backing and staff efficiency were having great importance for teachers of special education in their results. Along with different demographic changes, the age of educator was the most influential element, with more experienced educators having secondary objectives to leave. The writers advise that various situations and approaches rooted in the educator’s reactions are affected by managers(Conley & You, 2016).
The challenge for reducing shortage is the unavailability of a complete collection of data regarding the interior, and exterior elements encourage and discourage secondary school, special educators. The research was important for the reason that is lacking this information; it is not possible for education managers as administrative CEOs to design real employment and withholding policies on a stage when federal directives put strict mandates on educators and call for highly experienced and trained educators. According to William (2015), the educators were contented, and the contentment was mostly internal. But the open interrogation discovered that a large number of educators were in fact displeased, and their main sources of dissatisfaction were mostly external elements. The basic three factors responsible for dissatisfaction were workplace supervisors, area managers, and the income of educator. Further results were that this research was in favor of early studies, which revealed that the educator’s satisfaction factors and dissatisfaction elements varied a little in about 30 years, because they are generally free from educator’s demographic conditions, and the contentment and this contentment levels are directly linked with educator’s inner want or desire to quit their job as a teacher and leave their existing position. Thus, as a whole, the research advised that education managers must think about educator’s discontentment and its influences on the preservation of skilled and enthused educators, and also give some place to educators to talk about their problems(Williams, 2015).
Attrition among fresh educators
From last 30 years, leave of educators is a major issue for various school systems. A lot of teachers quit their job as a teacher in first five years of their job, generating great budget results in their appointment and training of replaced educators. Job quit is an important issue for several middle schools. Fresh educators in middle schools often revealed that their salary is not enough to fulfill their needs easily. Moreover, the regional administration faces some financial falloffs and demographic changes in the learner’s number, and growing percentage of new educators who are quitting their profession as a teacher in middle schools. The main objective of this research was to reveal and explain the views of new educators regarding their job, their training for classroom teaching, and their consideration about school environment and values. The interrogation regarding study was based on apparent contentment with teaching, readiness for classroom teaching, and contentment with the environment and values of that school. The information was gathered with the help of direct dialog with an interview procedure. Results exposed that new educators were gratified with their teaching career, but their contentment level switched with the passage of time as they became more engaged in their routine life required for learners and classroom organization. The statistics revealed that the new educators were not contented with the environment and the values of the school. As an answer to their discoveries, a specialized advanced support group scheme for new educators was designed. This scheme play a part in the gradual social shift by providing reliable and trustworthy conditions to new educators to support each other make them able to face problems and adjust in their new school with change environment(Evans, 2017).
The research exposed some general apparent statistics regarding credentials and training of secondary satisfaction and special education teachers in schools of special education and other various school sets, in contrast with educators in regular schools. Results show that a valued noteworthy link is not present in school categories and different educator ideas. But a link between special education training and setting is present in secondary content educators. Furthermore, findings bring to light the insufficient amount of secondary educators, in content region and special education both, who possessed a degree in special education. Operational and strategic effects of these discoveries are argued, and shortcomings are focused on overcom(Loretta & Gagnon, June 27, 2016).
This research was held to explore the elements linked with the resigning of professional teaching in secondary schools. A Teacher Attrition Survey Instrument was exercised to analyze existing professional teachers of secondary schools, along with six elements responsible (readiness, personal, skill, budgetary, management and liability) for educators intention to quit their teaching profession, to depart the school area, or to quit the teaching profession for incentives other than withdrawal or promotion. Results of this study show that these six elements evaluated by the analysis, the liability element were discovered to be numerically more important in educators who recognized as not trained customarily. However the remaining five elements (readiness, personal, skill, budgetary and management) were unsuccessful in representing a noteworthy link with resigning. In educators who are recognized as customarily trained, the management element was discovered to be numerically important part responsible for resigning. The remaining five elements (training, personal, skill, budgetary and liability) flopped to represent a noteworthy association with leaving(Marie, 2016).
Scholastic efforts are designed to appeal the “best and brightest” people in the teaching occupation are well known, and consist of various country wide plans, provincial and country based plans, town centered plans, and university centered plans. But the researchers of resigning in schemes pointed at employing highly refined educators offer few indications highly discriminating candidates are less often stick to the teaching profession. By examining facts collected in the early three years of the Beginning Teacher Longitudinal Survey (BTLS), it was explored that the increased rate of resigning in particular post graduates can be clarified by the evaluation of first professional management.
Trained teachers in Special education
This research summarizes the credentials and training of teachers linked with special education from 2003-2004 Schools and Staffing Survey and explores their link with teaching in a greatly deprived school. In these schools, incapable learners are not given sufficient and rightful education and training. The findings recount the liability accounts which report the lack of special education trainers be acquainted with extremely acceptable teacher levels in greatly deprived schools and further research reviews regarding the unequal appointment of educators. Approaches, for example, alternate certification programs, financial inducements, and initiation schemes designed to employ and preserve experienced, trained teachers of special education take into consideration initiatives for future investigation.
To provide every disable learner with a trained and experienced special education teacher (SET) is a major task for about 30 years. Though latest indications submit a noteworthy deterioration in the general requirement for teachers of special education, the biased appointment of SETs is still in practice, mainly in hard to staff schools where school deprivation is at its peak, great sectional admissions, or the landscape location of the school is a big hindrance in appealing and preserving experienced and trained teachers belong to special education. This is the basic reason that the unequal appointments of teachers hinder the required objectives of educational impartiality for all disable learners.
Perceptions of Teachers Regarding Special Education Teacher Attrition
The resignation of teachers belong to special education has been renowned as a popular point of concern for various school regions. There is a basic requirement to improve the developing structure of literature concerning the resignation of teachers belong to special education and to find out the movement well known in the related literature, further details and explanations, which play a role in special education teachers selection to quit their profession. The problem under discussion was the current lack of special education teachers in schools. The main objective of this diverse study was to collect the facts and figures about the elements responsible for the resignation of special education teachers. The people aimed for this research were the teachers belong to special education who decide to quit their job and the school region and school managers who offer viewpoints on elements which influence resignation of special education teachers. Different ways are used to collect facts which involve investigation and face to face dialog. Assessment of the collected information points out that additional amount of work, pressure due to job burdens, and a shortage of managerial support and leadership greatly affect special education teachers which result in their resignation from the job. The performance of learners, the absence of real teachers, the absence of upkeep, and a shortage of specialized improvement, documentation, class bulk, and better job repositioning were elements discovered to participate in the resignation of special education teachers.
Teacher Retention in special education
Perception about job contentment, teacher training, and school environment which participate in the decision of special education teachers to quit their job must offer vision and statistics for school region guidance on policies and efforts concentrated on the employment and preservation of teachers belong to special education. Forthcoming research suggestions must lengthen this exploration in metropolitan and other school regions, also inspect how the absence of particular course programs in pre-service teacher training plans play a part in special education teacher resignation. Good research on special education teachers from other educators training plan and special education teachers as compared to customary teacher training plans concerning special education resignation would also spread this investigation.
The study done by Vittek (2015), concentrated on the journal articles published from 2004 to present time. The findings facilitated to explain and describe preservation and resignation of special education teachers. The main focus in the results were the job contentment, managerial support, initiation plans, and mentoring. The literature reveals a required general managerial support to develop job contentment and the probability a teacher of special education will continue in their profession.
Conclusion
This chapter shows that different literatures have been published in which the authors have discussed the reasons of the increasing attrition of the teachers of the special education students. Each research have discussed different elements that contribute to the attrition of the teachers and that is why the teachers prefer to leave their jobs and either transfer to other teaching system or chose any other profession for themselves. However different strategies are really helpful in reducing the attrition in the teachers of special students. These strategy will make the teachers able to make the students able to learn new things easily and will help them to make their career in the teaching of special students.
Chapter III
Methodology
Rationale
Focused on the movement of special education teacher’s selection to resign from their jobs, special education leaving is a constant point of concern in the United States. Academics postulated various cause responsible for resignation in special education teachers: confronting conduct of students; absence of managerial backing; workplace environment and frustration; and absence of training and organization which harmfully affect the teacher’s self-ability (Tyler & Brunner, 2014).
Thus, there is a requirement endured in the developing figure of literature concerning special education teachers leaving and to find out the cause special education experts were familiar to often quit their jobs as teachers. Facts and figures collected from the investigation and exploration must help out the administration and management to design policy and plans to amplify the preservation of special education teachers. Assortment and evaluation of statistics must also provide vision about what steps should be taken on a governmental level to amplify the preservation of special education teachers in future.
Research Questions
Attrition of special education tutors is a common problem in every state of US which results in low achievement rate of students and causes financial problems for school districts. According to literature, it is a national issue and research on this subject is limited. This study aimed to enrich research on the context of attrition of special instruction teachers, as a lot of teachers leave their profession in early stages of their profession. The research questions which guided this study are as follows:
RQ1: What factors are involved in the attrition of special education teachers?
RQ2: What strategies can be useful to deal with such attrition of teachers?
RQ3: How teacher’s attrition may influence the education system?
Triangulation Matrix
| Research questions | Data source #1 | Data source #2 | Data source # 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| What factors are involved in the attrition of special education teachers? | Interview | Literature available on Internet | Analysis of Case Studies |
| What strategies can be useful to deal with such attrition of teachers? | Interview | Literature available on Internet | Analysis of Case Studies |
| How teacher’s attrition may influence the education system? | Interview | Literature available on Internet | Analysis of Case Studies |
Participants
A purposeful sampling was done to select participants who were working as SPED teachers in a school or left the position within first three years of their job. To develop a proper understanding of the concept, it is significant in a case study to include few cases or individuals. So, 25 teachers were selected for the interviews who had experience of secondary school teaching in special education. They agreed to take part in the study as volunteers and signed consent forms. To gain many outlooks, it was recommended by previous researchers to interview multiple people, so ten administrators were also invited to respond to the current study. Their views were crucial to understanding the causes and effects of attrition of secondary school SPED teachers and possible solutions and strategies to be followed to reduce the rate of attrition.
Research Design
The approach used to carry out this research was a qualitative case study to gain insight and develop a deep understanding of the factors contributing to high rates of attrition among SPED teachers in the US. For this purpose, along with the qualitative study, quantitative study was done to collect data with the help of interviews to increase the body of knowledge on the subject.
The participants of the study included teachers of students with disabilities and school administrators. Qualitative research provided rich, purposeful data of the subject. A multimethod study was done with the help of qualitative and quantitative method to get appropriately detailed data which can enhance the understanding of the phenomenon along with the provision of solutions. The main priority of a study is ethical consideration of the respondents, so confidentiality of every participant’s response was crucial. The participants were assured that all the information would remain confidential and through an email, they were informed about the purpose of this study. All the participants were aware of the fact that they can withdraw at any time from this study. All participants who responded to emails were then interviewed face to face, and their responses were recorded. The interviews were done outside the school to keep complete confidentiality of the respondents.
Data Collection
Interviews were conducted to collect the data for the study as in qualitative research an important role is played by interviews when the topic cannot be observed readily. The main source of data collection was interviewed which took 45minutes for each respondent. To get precise information from the respondents, the interviews were conducted outside the school building to keep complete confidentiality and to protect the rights of participants. Another source was previous literature relating to this issue which included 20 case studies of the phenomenon.
What type of data collection
After data collection, all data obtained from interviews was analyzed after transcribing the interviews into MS Word. The data were analyzed using MS Excel which served as an organizational tool for the collected data. Due to time constraints, the qualitative research method was preferred. Qualitative research involves the examining of a topic through a concept. Once the data collection is complete, then come to the analysis of the data. The term “data” means the statistics which are gathered from an experiment, analysis, and old information. The data collected through interviews and case studies were analyzed to evaluate the results.
Anticipated Significance
This methodology helps to analyze that how the attrition in the teachers of special education teachers increasing and what are those element which need to be controlled or overcome in order to decrease the attrition in teachers. With the help of this understanding, the teachers will be able to enhance the learning skills of the disable students.
Summary
A multi-method study was conducted to investigate the causes of attrition of Special education inclusion teachers having an experience of 3 or fewer years in middle school. This project investigated the causes of attrition of SPED teachers and its effects on the educational system. With the help of qualitative as well as quantitative method, attrition of teachers was evaluated. A qualitative case study was done to understand the causes and effects of attrition of SPED teachers and along with this quantitative method was followed with the help of interviews. A sample of teachers was selected to participate in the study which included SPED teachers having an experience of three years or more in the field. The teacher’s perception was a significant source of data about reasons and effects of attrition along with the possible solutions for declining the rate of attrition. This chapter of study outlines the employed methodology of research, sampling procedure and participant selection, the role of researcher, data collection method and data analysis.
Chapter IV
Data Analysis
Introduction
After data collection, all data obtained from interviews was analyzed after transcribing the interviews into MS Word. The data were analyzed using MS Excel which served as an organizational tool for the collected data. Due to time constraints, the qualitative research method was preferred. Qualitative research involves the examining of a topic through a concept. Once the data collection is complete, then come to the analysis of the data. The term “data” means the statistics which are gathered from an experiment, analysis, and old information. The data collected through interviews and case studies were analyzed to evaluate the results.
Research Question One
RQ1: What factors are involved in the attrition of special education teachers?
Findings
According to data collected by interviews and qualitative studies, it became evident that workload and administrative support are main contributing factors for attrition. According to the perception of secondary school special education teachers and administrators, workload contributes about 27% while organizational behavior being major contributor caused 38% of total cases of attrition. The other two important causes of attrition are student disengagement which contributes about 22% and job satisfaction about 13%, as shown in figure 1. So as compared to student disengagement and job satisfaction, workload and administrative support are the main influencing factors. As new educators need administrative support to start and pursue their career(Evans, 2017). Teachers belong to special education narrate about complications and difficulties related to their job. Moreover, studies revealed that special education teachers were not satisfied with their profession and were facing continuous pressure from management, students, and their parents. The team of special education teachers in the USA is constantly facing stress and tension which have damaging effects on their physical and mental health. All these facts result in a possibility of carelessness and insufficiency of required attention towards students. In the USA most of the experts also noticed that the job of special education teachers is so demanding which results in leaving in very early years of career(Kelly & Northrop, August 1, 2015).
Various elements are responsible for increasing rate of resignation in teachers belonging to special education. According to Evans (2017), teacher’s responsibilities and circumstances affect the rate of resignation, and these elements are mostly unchangeable. Working environment and conditions also responsible for teachers leaving but these elements are mostly changeable. Workplace elements such as managerial support and student behavior issues are greatly significant for educator’s attrition normally. Teachers belong to special education, especially beginning teachers show discontent and are most likely to leave their job early. The results of old researchers propose four basic elements which may preserve teachers of special education from attrition. These four basic elements are given below: decrease in frustration (by preparation and following policies and shared abilities), specialized training in teacher training programs, developing friendly dealings, and endorsing visions for inventiveness, and self-sufficiency(Evans, 2017).In this review, we tried to find numerous workplace elements responsible for example managerial support, teaching staff efficiency, job independence, and student’s detachment was projecting of purposes to resign from secondary school special education teachers.
Interpretation
It is interpreted according to results that several factors are involved in attrition of secondary school special education teachers. The main contributing factors are administrative support, workload, student disengagement and job satisfaction. According to prior studies, it can be stated that an assumed sample was verified which postulate job contentment and approval as possible facilitators among workplace elements educator’s objectives to quit their teaching profession. Researchers discovered that male, young and unqualified special education teachers were more expected to quit as early as compared to female, mature and qualified teachers(Conley & You, 2016). These results are by prior researches which have recognized that freshly employed and less trained teachers are more likely to more likely to quit their teaching profession in early five years of their career.The studies mentioned that the results are by other educational policies comprising the feminization of teaching profession need advance research(Lewis, 2016). In the United States, it was examined that problems in employing and preserving male teachers belong to first education rise due to social standing, less income, the approach that teaching is profession specified for females and many other elements. A wide range of literature gives the impression to focus on a primary level only, a lot of research is needed to determine the factors affecting attrition of secondary school teachers.The problems related to attrition can be solved, if decision makers and managers are successful in finding changeable workplace elements which affect educators changing aims for teachers belong to special education.
Research Question Two
RQ2: What strategies can be useful to deal with such attrition of teachers?
Findings
According to the findings of this study, the strategies which can be applied to decrease the rate of burnout among special education teachers included collegial support, increased salaries, increased funding and teacher induction programs. According to results of this study, increased incentives and collegial support could be the main focus of strategies to reduce the rate of attrition among secondary school special education teachers. The strategy of increasing salary can be useful enough as responded by 30% participants of the study who were extremely in favor of increased incentives to decrease burnout rate as shown in figure 2. The other main strategy which can be employed by schools could be collegial support for new educators; this strategy was supported by 26% of the total respondents. So, collegial support and increased incentives could be main strategies to decrease the rate of attrition(Conley & You, 2016).
It is concluded by previous literature that continuous rise in income would effect the leaving rate of teachers belonging to special education. It is an agreeable fact that increase in income will decrease the attrition rate, but it is not a permanent element to work along.To influence teachers leaving rate by increasing salary, few evaluations show that real payment incentives required to be much enough about 20-25% increase in wages to preserve teachers in most schools. All this need to focus on less income, to improve the performance of teachers and students in turn. If regions are capable of improving income is a possibility to preserve special education teachers, the rate of growth in income need to make sure positive changes which have a major effect on regions entire budget and other educational schemes(Evans, 2017).
A lot of academic researchers had proposed that reshaping the special education teacher’s task policies by lessening teachers burden, increasing training period, and reducing student’s number in every section will result in lessening rate of teachers leaving, but all these suggestions need a sufficient and constant amount of educational budget to apply. Nowadays, different countries are confronting financial decrease in educational budget. This decrease in budget directly affects the school performance, to continue training programs and to fulfill the unique requirements of special education teachers and to control the entire body of special education department(Boe, Cook, & Sunderland, 2008).The estimated decrease in educational budget, and if the decrease remains constant, teachers of special education will face an upsurge in the total of students they will be needed to serve. The Council of Exceptional Children (2000) stated that absence of staff support brings about a feeling of loneliness which results in leaving of special education teachers.
Interpretations
According to previous literature and current study results absence of staff, support is a basic cause for quitting the job. Shortage of teacher training greatly affect the leaving intentions of special education teachers, but a large number of academics have found that highly qualified teachers are more likely to leave special education school earlier. Special education teachers who are highly qualified and less experienced are more possible to have intentions of attrition because they have faith in that they can get better opportunities as compared to special education(Conley & You, 2016). Beginning teacher’s initiation program concentrates on researches which result in medications to reduce leaving rate. Different studies proposed that initiation programs may positively influence the leaving rate of teachers to belong to normal education, but it will not prove effective in the case of special education teachers(Kelly & Northrop, 2015).
A lot of studies specified that better professional training and preparation would effectively increase the retention of teachers in special education schools(Lewis, 2016). Many researchers have indicated that high quality and possibilities of professional progress and development will reduce the extent of leaving intentions of special education teachers(Conley & You, 2016). But a grave evaluation of the comebacks achieved from a study organized by Brownell, Miller, and Smith (1999) exposed that, “contentment with professional development, reveals no essential dissimilarities among people who leave, who stay or get transferred.” As regions are facing a constant reduction in budget, it will result in a reduced amount of professional progress available to educators(Miller, Brownell, & Smith, 1999).
Research Question Three
RQ3: How teacher’s attrition may influence the education system?
Findings
The findings of this study suggested that according to the perception of teachers and administrators of special education public school teacher attrition causes extremely damaging effects. The total number and requirement for special education teachers are affected by multiple elements. To cope with this problem school region may cut services provided to disable students or increase the number of students in a class to deal with the shortage of certified and experienced teachers. This lack of teachers had negative influences on students with disabilities. The after effects of this lack involves insufficient academic experience required for disabled students, will results in lower success rate, and inadequate capability of graduates in a place of work. However, the reasons of lack issue are complicated and multifaceted; the teacher is leaving is obviously an important reason for this shortage. Current indications propose that in special education subjects like mathematics and science are the areas of maximum change and that special educators are more possible to quit their teaching profession(Westervelt, 2016).
Special education teachers have great intentions to leave as compared to general teachers. The shortage of certified and experienced special educators is a great risk for the excellence of education for disabled students. Leaving play an important role in the lack of special education teachers, and reforms to reduce attrition and increase retention should be enlightened by the comprehension of elements which are responsible for resignation(Goldring, Taie, & Riddles, 2014). Especially, the writers offer a theoretical evaluation of researchers examining elements which involve in special education teacher resignation and preservation. Four basic themes are teacher personal responsibilities, teacher certificates, working conditions, and teacher’s effective response to work. All these factors are the analytical, theoretical and practical methodologies employed to inspect special education leaving intentions.
As examined by Ingersoll, the lack of teachers can’t be sorted out by employing thousands of new teachers in teaching department if a lot of them quit in early years of job. There are various types of leaving such as quitting the teaching profession, relocating to other teaching or education ranks. It is a point of concern that the special education schools bear the loss of several teachers to general education, with a considerably increased rate of special education teacher’s relocation towards general education than the converse. Schnorr (1995) stated that from educators who intend to quit special education teaching career, 12% wish to shift to general education. General education teaching is evidently a position of attraction for various special education teachers, while many others want to quit due to bad working settings in special education(Schnorr, 1995).
Figure Perception of teachers about the factors affecting Attrition
Figure Perception of teachers about effective strategies to reduce attrition
Conclusion
The strategies which can be applied to decrease the rate of burnout among special education teachers included collegial support, increased salaries, increased funding and teacher induction programs. It is concluded by previous literature that continuous rise in income would affect the leaving rate of teachers belonging to special education. It is an agreeable fact that increases in income of secondary school special education teachers will decrease the attrition rate. The effects of teacher attrition are also studied in detail which revealed that it could reduce the effectiveness of the educational system as skilled teachers are leaving the profession and ignorant people will take their place to fill the gap.
Chapter V
Synthesis and Recommendations
Summary of Findings
Attrition of secondary school teachers in special education is a common issue. There are several factors contributing to higher rates of attrition among teachers of special education from 2015 to 2017. The main factors considered in this study were administrative support, workload, student disengagement and job satisfaction. The strategies which can be applied to decrease the rate of burnout among special education teachers included collegial support, increased salaries, increased funding and teacher induction programs. It is concluded by previous literature that continuous rise in income would affect the leaving rate of teachers belonging to special education. It is an agreeable fact that increases in income of secondary school special education teachers will decrease the attrition rate. The effects of teacher attrition are also studied in detail which revealed that it could reduce the effectiveness of the educational system as skilled teachers are leaving the profession and ignorant people will take their place to fill the gap.
Interpretation and Recommendations
By findings, it is recommended that properly driven strategies are required to deal with the issue at local as well as state level. It is need of the time to train an effective and stable teachers workforce to serve as special education teachers. The secondary school teachers should be given financial incentives to increase the rate of retention. Administrative support is compulsory and vital in early years of teaching career which can help the teachers to face the problems and deal with several issues. It is the duty of administration to reduce the workload of special education teachers to reduce their stress, which will result in better efficiency of teachers. The increase in some teacher training programs can help to increase the skills and expertise of teachers in early years of their career.
Finding one and Recommendations
The main factors identified are work load, administrative support and student disengagement which affect teacher performance and forces them to quit their job. Out of all these factors, the major contributor was administrative support and the second one was workload of secondary school special education teachers. Guidance, feedback, and trust are the major factors of organizational support acknowledged by teachers which help them to decide about leaving or continuing their job. Studies revealed that middle, as well as high school special education teachers, were more prone to workload and stress.
The support of school administration and reduced workload can reduce the rate of attrition of special education teachers. Administration can play a vital role in reducing the stress of teachers related to extra workload. In the early years of a teaching career in special education administrative support is crucial for an employer to continue his career. It was indicated by findings that collegial support, respect, and appreciation could reduce the rate of attrition among special education teachers.
Finding two and Recommendations
There is a need for several strategies to be developed and implemented by the state and school administration to increase the rate of teacher retention. According to the current study, it is concluded that strategies should be implemented in areas of collegial support, educational funding, as well as an increase in incentives, can play a role in the reduction of burnout. The most effective strategy according to findings is the increase in salaries of special education teachers as the increased incentives were considered as the main strategy to drop the rate of attrition. Along with salary incentives, increased support to early teachers is also useful in retention of special education teachers in secondary schools. Increased funding in the area of education can help to decrease attrition by providing more provisions and training to teachers.
Finding three and Recommendations
The higher rate of attrition is increasing complexity in educational setting and has several negative impacts on educational system as well as on students with disabilities. It weakens the school systems as they become unable to provide services to a class of special students and decreased number of special education expert teachers can create a vacuum which cannot be filled by untrained teachers. The problem of teacher shortage has long-term effects as it will reduce the number of qualifying and graduating students in all states of the country. It will reduce the levels of achievement of students and result in reduced competency of graduate students. Immediate steps should be taken by the government and school administrations to decrease the rate of teacher attrition by the help of policies and strategies. Teacher training programs should be started in each state to increase the skills and number of qualified teachers who can serve in special education as secondary school teachers until retirement.
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