Teachers’ Perceptions of Their Working Conditions

This quantitative study examines the relationship between teachers’ perceptions of their working conditions and their intended and actual departures from schools. Based on rich administrative data for North Carolina combined with a 2006 statewide survey administered to all teachers in the state, the study documents that working conditions are highly predictive of teachers’ intended movement away from their schools, independent of other school characteristics such as the racial mix of students. Moreover, school leadership, broadly defined, emerges as the most salient dimension of working conditions. Although teachers’ perceptions of their working conditions are less predictive of one-year actual departure rates than of intended rates, their predictive power is still on a par with that of other school characteristics. The models are estimated separately for elementary, middle and high school teachers and generate some policy-relevant differences among the three levels.