New public school teachers' reasons for leaving or thinking aboutleaving the teaching profession: 1992

Table 75.

New public school teachers'\1\ reasons for leaving or thinking aboutleaving the teaching profession: 1992

__________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________
                                |         |      School level           |    School location            |   Presence of lower
       Major factors for        |         |_____________________________|_______________________________|     income students
      leaving the teaching      |  Total  | Elemen- | Junior/ |  High   |Inner city/|Suburban/ |        |__________________________
           profession           |         |  tary   | middle  |         |   urban   |small town| Rural  |All/many| Some  |Few/none
________________________________|_________|_________|_________|_________|___________|__________|________|________|_______|_________
               1                |    2    |    3    |    4    |    5    |     6     |    7     |   8    |   9    |  10   |   11
________________________________|_________|_________|_________|_________|___________|__________|________|________|_______|_________
Percent of teachers very likely |      19 |      17 |      18 |      27 |        24 |       18 |     14 |     21 |    19 |      14
  or fairly likely to leave ....|         |         |         |         |           |          |        |        |       |
                                |=========|=========|=========|=========|===========|==========|========|========|=======|=========
                                | Reasons for leaving or thinking about leaving the teaching profession (percent of teachers)
                                |__________________________________________________________________________________________________
Lack of support or help for     |         |         |         |         |           |          |        |        |       |
  students from their parents ..|      40 |      32 |      41 |      51 |        40 |       38 |     46 |     50 |    36 |      23
Need to earn more money ........|      29 |      30 |      22 |      32 |        27 |       28 |     39 |     31 |    26 |      38
Lack of support from school     |         |         |         |         |           |          |        |        |       |
  administration ...............|      29 |      26 |      35 |      27 |        35 |       27 |     27 |     39 |    27 |      10
Social problems faced by        |         |         |         |         |           |          |        |        |       |
  students make teaching too    |         |         |         |         |           |          |        |        |       |
  difficult ....................|      25 |      23 |      18 |      33 |        35 |       21 |     22 |     32 |    22 |      13
Don't feel prepared to teach    |         |         |         |         |           |          |        |        |       |
  students with different ethnic|         |         |         |         |           |          |        |        |       |
  and cultural backgrounds .... |       5 |       3 |       6 |       6 |         8 |        4 |      5 |      5 |     6 |       3
Teaching became boring and      |         |         |         |         |           |          |        |        |       |
  less satisfying ..............|       5 |       4 |       4 |       6 |         8 |        3 |      7 |      6 |     6 |   (\2\)
________________________________|_________|_________|_________|_________|___________|__________|________|________|_______|_________

\1\Includes teachers with not more than 2 years of experience.
\2\Less than 0.5%.

SOURCE: Metropolitan Life/Louis Harris Associates, Inc., The American Teacher, 1992, copyrighted. (This table was prepared May 1993.)

1995 Tables and Figures

All Years of Tables and Figures

Most Recent Full Issue of the Digest