Highlights

• The attrition rate from the teaching profession between school years 1993-94 and 1994-95 was 6.6 percent in public schools and 11.9 percent in private schools (table 1).
• Teacher attrition varied by teacher's age. The rate for teachers in the 25 to 29 age category was 10.0 percent for public school teachers and 13.1 percent for private school teachers; the rate for the 60 to 64 age category was 30.5 and 13.1 percent for public and private school teachers, respectively (table 2).
• Almost all public school teachers who changed schools between school years 1993-94 and 1994-95 transferred to other public school (95.7 percent); about one-half (47.6 percent) of the private school teachers in 1993-94 who changed schools for the 1994-95 school year stayed in private schools and about one-half (52.4 percent) transferred to public schools (table 7).
• Some 16.2 percent of former public school teachers and 17.1 percent of former private school teachers cited homemaking and/or child rearing as their primary occupational status in 1994-95. About 27.1 percent of former public school teachers said they were retired, versus 10.8 percent of the former private school teachers who said they were retired (table 8).
• Twenty percent of former public school teachers and one-third of former private school teachers were employed elsewhere (table 8).
• The main occupation for these former teachers working outside of elementary or secondary education in 1994-95 was employment in a private company, business, or individual for wages, salary, or commission (70.3 percent for public and 76.2 percent for private) (table 9).
• The two main reasons public school teachers cited for leaving the teaching profession in the 1994-95 school year were retirement (27.4 percent) and pregnancy/child rearing (14.3 percent). For private school teachers, the two main reasons cited for leaving the teaching profession were to pursue another career (16.3 percent) and for a family or personal move (16.2 percent) (table 10).
• Among teachers who left the teaching profession between 1993-94 and 1994-95, 25.7 percent of public school teachers expected to retire, while 24.1 percent of the private school teachers expected to work outside the field of education (table 11).
• Among public school teachers who left between 1993-94 and 1994-95 and cited dissatisfaction with teaching as a career, student discipline problems (17.9 percent), poor student motivation to learn (17.6 percent), and inadequate support from administration (15.3 percent) were cited as the main reasons that they were dissatisfied with teaching as a career (table 12).
• Among private school teachers who left between 1993-94 and 1994-95 and cited dissatisfaction with teaching as a career, lack of recognition and support from the administration (30.2 percent), poor opportunity for professional advancement (14.6 percent), and inadequate support from administration (12.5 percent) were cited as the main reasons that they were dissatisfied with teaching as a career (table 12).
• Among teachers who stayed in the same school between school years 1993-94 and 1994-95, 53.1 percent of public and 59.2 percent of private school teachers felt that "providing higher salaries or better fringe benefits" would be the most effective step that schools might take to encourage teachers to remain in teaching (tables 14 and 15).

Introduction

How the Teacher Followup Survey is related to the Schools and Staffing Survey

The Teacher Followup Survey is a one-year followup of a sample of teachers who were originally selected for the Teacher Questionnaire in the Schools and Staffing Survey. The Schools and Staffing Survey is an integrated set of surveys of public and private schools, principals, teachers, and public school districts throughout the United States of America. There have been three data cycles for the Schools and Staffing Survey, and likewise, three Teacher Followup Surveys.

The 1994-95 Teacher Followup Survey data in this report links responses from the 1994-95 school year to characteristics of those same teachers who participated in the 1993-94 school year SASS. Within this report, there are some data that are drawn directly from the 1993-94 SASS. These data are termed base year because the SASS sample is the base for the teachers who are selected for the Teacher Followup Survey. Base year characteristics include personal and professional descriptors of the teacher (age, sex, race, field of teaching assignment), as well as characteristics of the school in which the teachers worked in 1993-94: whether the school was public or private, region of the country in which the school is located, and the community type or locale of the school. These base year characteristics provide the context for the data collected in the Teacher Followup Survey.

Purpose of the Teacher Followup Survey

How do teachers who remain teaching at the same school from year to year ( stayers ) compare with those who don t? How many teachers move from one school to another ( movers )? What percentage of teachers are leaving the profession between one year and the next ( leavers )? These types of questions can be answered with data from the Teacher Followup Survey. For teachers who leave the profession, TFS asks about their occupational status (are former teachers working, retired, or caring for family members?) or whether they are seeking further education, and reasons for leaving teaching, as well as recommendations for how schools might retain teachers. Those who remain in teaching are asked about changes in teaching assignment, opinions about retaining teachers, and retirement plans. Both current and former teachers are asked for their current family income. Teachers who move from one school to another are asked to describe the type of school to which they moved. Data from the Teacher Followup Survey can be used to compare public and private teachers job satisfaction, as well as movement within and out of the teaching profession.

Technical Notes