Attrition from Teaching Careers: A Discriminant Analysis

Building from J. I. Holland’s theory of career choice, this study investigated differences in (1) skills and abilities and (2) criteria used to judge differences in success between individuals who started as teachers and subsequently changed careers and those who started in and remained in teaching. Discriminant analyses were conducted separately for elementary and high school teachers whose first jobs after graduation were as teachers, on data provided by alumni (N = 690) from three Indiana universities. Those who did and did not leave teaching differed significantly in both their self-rated skills and abilities and in the importance they assigned to selected criteria of success. The results support hypotheses developed from Holland’s theory on the characteristics that would discriminate between those leaving and those staying in teaching.