Rewards at Work: Using QCA to identify combinations and thresholds of rewards to keep high-achieving teachers in urban schools Pubblico

Abstract

Teacher turnover, especially as it affects urban, high-poverty, minority public schools, is a heavily researched topic. This study specifically explores why some top teachers decide to stay in their urban workplaces, while others leave their school or the profession altogether. What particular combinations of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards from teaching influence whether high-achieving teachers will choose to stay, leave, or transfer from their job? Through surveys and interviews with 42 high-achieving teachers in one southern, urban school district, 21 of them having stayed in the district for three or more years, and 21 having left the district, mixed data analysis methods are used. Principle Components Factor analysis and Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) confirm the expected combinations: that teachers who enjoy high levels of both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards tend to stay; those who lack both rewards tend to leave; and those with a mixture of the two have mixed commitment outcomes. Two key findings include the apparent weakness of collegiality in promoting work commitment, as well as the extremely deleterious effect that absence of all extrinsic rewards has on commitment decisions. This finding casts doubt on prior work satisfaction studies, which have suggested that salary and extrinsic rewards have a weaker affect on workers' expressed work satisfaction than intrinsic rewards. QCA results and textual analysis of open interview responses enable the creation of a general teacher typology among high-achieving teachers, such that four major teacher types are identified and described: the Intrinsic Committers, the Extrinsic Acceptors, the Satisfied Stayers, and the Ready Leavers.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Theory 3

Literature Review 10

Conceptualization, Operationalization, Hypotheses 14

Methods and Sample 24

Data Collection 28

Data Analysis 30

Conclusion 54

Policy Implications 58

Notes 62

Appendix 65

Works Cited 67

List of Tables/Figures

TABLE 1. Sample Descriptives (p. 25)

TABLE 2. Expected Indexed Variables (p. 34)

TABLE 3. Actual PCF Mapping of Dimensions onto Each Index, and

Coefficients and Weights of Indexed Variables (p. 36)

TABLE 4. Sufficiency Table (p. 37)

FIGURE 1. A Typology of Stayers and Leavers (p. 45)

FIGURE 2. Teacher Typology (p. 49)

TABLE 5. Factor Loadings using Principal-Components Factoring (p. 65)

TABLE 6. STATA Output, PCF With "3" Coded as "Presence of" (One) (p. 65)

TABLE 7. STATA Output, PCF With "3" Coded as "Absence of" (Zero) (p. 66)

TABLE 8. STATA output, PCF Predicted Coefficients with Cutoff at 3=1 (p.

66)

About this Master's Thesis

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School	Laney Graduate School
Department	Sociology
Degree	MA
Submission	Master's Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Education, Sociology of
Parola chiave	teacher turnover working conditions
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Rubinson, Richard, Emory University
Committee Members	Lewis, Amanda Evelyn, Emory University Downey, Charles A, Emory University Browne, Irene, Emory University

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