Teachers Choose Good Working Conditions over Pay

But that simple solution often runs out of steam when veteran teachers are asked to transfer to the schools that need help. Even big bonuses are often not enough to entice experienced teachers to move from a school with good working conditions to one where they may not get the same level of support or have the resources they need.

Research has shown that the supply of experienced, certified teachers is inequitably distributed among schools, with high-poverty schools and schools in rural areas having fewer of those teachers and much higher rates of teacher turnover.

So the schools that need good teachers the most have the hardest time hiring and retaining them. Many districts, including some in Texas, have attempted to right that wrong by offering “combat pay,” a substantial bonus to reward experienced teachers who transfer to the neediest schools, often those with the most difficult working conditions. But new research suggests that while the bonuses are a helpful and necessary component in staffing needy schools, they won’t solve the problem alone. Improved working conditions may be a key component in attracting and retaining teachers.

Knowing what matters

Susan Moore Johnson, an education professor at Harvard University’s graduate school of education, says that teachers will leave if a school’s working conditions preclude success in the classroom. In a study of 50 Massachusetts teachers who started their careers in 1999, Johnson and her graduate students found that teachers who leave after a year or two at a school cite the following factors, all of which fall under the umbrella of working conditions:

• Problems with administrators
• Sink-or-swim courseloads
• Student discipline issues
• Inadequate resources

A 1993–96 study of the career moves of 375,000 Texas primary school teachers by Stanford University researcher Eric A. Hanushek yielded similar results. Teachers systematically moved to schools with fewer minority students, fewer poor students, and higher test scores, for about the same pay as teachers in the schools they left behind. Hanushek concluded that teachers are motivated by many things besides money. “I think it’s much more likely to be the general set of working conditions,” he said.

School leadership emerges as a factor in teacher retention in a study by Susanna Loeb, associate professor of education at Stanford. Loeb and her colleagues tracked a cohort of New York City teachers who started their careers in 2004–05. Those who left their original schools after a year indicated that the lack of an effective and supportive administrator was a factor in their decision.

The Center for Teaching Quality has highlighted working conditions as part of its effort to develop a high-quality teaching force. While it’s clear that working conditions matter, what’s less clear is exactly which conditions matter most to teachers.

Effective and supportive leadership is consistently the single most important issue teachers cite in the center’s working-condition surveys. “Good teachers will not work for bad principals,” said Barnett Berry, president of the center. The center has surveyed more than 150,000 teachers in seven states on working conditions thus far.

The center’s surveys also show that teachers value time to prepare and collaborate with other teachers, having a say in what gets taught and how, opportunities for professional development, and adequate facilities and resources.

Studies of teachers by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards indicate that teachers appreciate the chance to work with a group of motivated colleagues. Teachers most often work in isolation, and that tends to make them view their jobs less favorably.

Finally, even the most accomplished teachers find they have less control over the material that gets taught in high-needs schools. The pressure to meet achievement goals usually means a set curriculum gets put in place, so there’s less opportunity for veteran teachers to make instructional decisions. That’s a troubling detail for some teachers who would otherwise consider making a move.

Texas’ take

At least one school district in Texas has put money on the table for experienced teachers willing to teach in high-needs schools. In 2007–08, Dallas ISD offered $6,000 bonuses to teachers to work in one of 16 high-needs schools in the district.

Principals at those schools hoped the incentives would be enough to persuade experienced teachers to transfer, but so far that hasn’t been the case. Just 65 teachers took the district up on its offer. District leaders weren’t disappointed with the result given that it offered the incentive for the first time this year. Also, the district gave teachers a relatively short time to decide whether they wanted to transfer, a fact that may have skewed the outcome.

In any event, the result reinforces the point of researchers: bonuses alone—even generous bonuses—weren’t enough to bring many of the district’s best teachers to its most challenged schools. Perhaps the district will find a way to change that for the 2008–09 school year.

One thing is certain: Dallas won’t be alone next year. Neighboring Fort Worth ISD is proposing a performance-pay plan that includes bonuses for experienced teachers who agree to teach at struggling schools. The board will vote on the plan, dubbed the PEAK Rewards Program (Public Educators Accelerating Kids) at its March meeting.

Austin ISD (AISD) will also offer bonuses to teachers who agree to transfer to high-needs schools, though the district’s performance-pay plan is designed to do more than just get teachers to make the leap. The district aims to keep its experienced teachers working in the schools where they’re needed the most and has structured its stipends accordingly.

AISD teachers who transfer to high-needs schools will earn an additional $1,000 per year for the first three years they work there. In years four through six, they will earn a retention stipend of $3,000 per year. Those who stay seven years or more will take home an additional $7,000 per year. The district hopes that structuring the bonuses as it has will help to stabilize the teacher workforce long term and allow the district to achieve the result it seeks: higher student achievement.

—“Working Conditions Trump Pay,” by Debra Viadero, Education Week: Quality Counts 2008/Tapping into Teaching, Jan. 10, 2008.
—“DISD bonus plan draws few teachers to struggling schools,” by Kent Fischer, The Dallas Morning News, Dec. 16, 2007.
—“Schools hope variety of incentives will bring in strong teachers,” by Diane Smith, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Feb. 26, 2008.