Uncovering Working Condition Concerns to Retain Teachers

Why measure working conditions?

Salary often gets the most attention in retention conversations. But working conditions, the day-to-day environment teachers work in, predict retention at least as strongly. When teachers feel supported, valued, and effective in their roles, they are more likely to stay. 

Rural districts feel this acutely. Rural teachers are more likely than their nonrural peers to cite dissatisfaction with working conditions as a primary reason for leaving (Ingersoll & Tran, 2023). Each vacancy in a small, geographically isolated district has an outsized impact on students, remaining staff, and the district’s capacity to improve.

Measuring working conditions gives districts specific, actionable data. Rather than guessing where working conditions are strong or in need of improvement, using a working conditions survey can give district leaders a clear picture of where to invest, what to protect, and whether conditions are improving over time. REL Northwest’s Working Conditions Survey Question Bank draws from validated survey instruments to help leaders create their own surveys that measure eight key domains of working conditions that drive retention.

The eight working conditions domains

REL Northwest identified eight, evidence-based categories (or domains) that consistently emerge as relevant to whether teachers stay or leave, especially in rural settings (table 1). The domains are summarized in the handout, Addressing Working Conditions to Improve Teacher Retention: An Exploration of the Research.

Table 1. Working conditions that may impact teacher retention.

Using the Working Conditions Survey Question Bank

The Working Conditions Survey Question Bank translates research into a practical measurement tool. Rather than designing surveys from scratch, district leaders can browse, select, and adapt validated survey items organized by domain and use what they learn to identify priorities and monitor progress over time.

District leaders should consider the following when creating their own working conditions survey.

Set your focus

Before you filter the questions, decide what you want to learn. Are you:

• Responding to something you heard in exit interviews?
• Focused on a specific domain? 
• Doing a broad annual check? 

Clarity makes the bank easier to use and the results easier to act on.

Filter and select

Use the filter arrows in the Question Bank tab to narrow by domain, subdomain, or scale. Mark Y for “yes” in the Include column for questions you want to use. Use the Notes / Adaptations column to document any local modifications to the questions.

Keep it short

Aim for 10–15 questions for a full survey, which will take respondents about 5–10 minutes to complete, or 3–5 questions for a quick pulse check. Keep in mind that a shorter survey with a strong response rate is more useful than a longer one that respondents are more likely to ignore or abandon partway through.

Act on what you learn

Identify a small number of priority areas. Define what improvement would look like and implement changes. Administer the same survey the following year to track progress.

Close the loop

Make sure to close the feedback loop. Always share results with the staff who participated and tell them what you’re doing with their feedback. Working conditions surveys can only build trust when teachers can see that their responses are being used to make improvements.

What’s in the Working Conditions Survey Question Bank

The bank contains more than 160 survey questions drawn from four publicly available, validated instruments:

• 2025 SC Teacher Working Conditions Survey (Gao et al., 2025)
• Center on Great Teachers and Leaders Teaching Conditions Rubric (Center on Great Teachers and Leaders, 2020)
• National Teacher and Principal Survey 2020–21 (National Center for Education Statistics, 2021)
• NC Teacher Working Conditions Survey (Teacher Working Conditions Survey North Carolina, 2025)

The bank also contains some custom questions that REL Northwest developed under Contract ED-IES-22-C-0009. 

• All the questions in the bank are focused on conditions that are within a district’s control and responsive to leadership actions. The bank is an Excel file with three tabs: 
• A How to Use This Bank orientation guide.
• The Question Bank itself with filters and a selection column.
• A Survey Design Guide with survey administration guidance and source citations.

The rural teacher retention toolkit

The Working Conditions Survey Question Bank is part of a broader rural teacher retention toolkit that REL Northwest developed to help district teams move from research to action. The toolkit, Retaining Rural Teachers by Addressing Working Conditions: A Guide to Develop and Test Localized Strategies, includes facilitation materials, worksheets, and additional resources.

Download the survey question bank here. 

For more information about REL Northwest’s Alaska Improving Teacher Retention and Recruitment in Rural Schools partnership, check out the blog How Rural Districts Can Improve Teacher Retention by Strengthening Working Conditions.