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Table 12.  Percentage of 2004–05 public school teacher leavers who would consider returning to the position of a K–12 teacher, and of those, percentage who rated various factors as very important or extremely important in influencing a decision to return to K–12 teaching, by selected teacher and school characteristics in the 2003–04 base year

    Among leavers who would consider returning, percent who rated various factors as being very important or extremely important in influencing a decision to return  
Teacher or school characteristic in base year Percent of
leavers who
would
consider
returning
to the position
of a K–12
teacher
Ability to maintain teacher retirement benefits State certification reciprocity   Availability
of part-time teaching assignments
  Forgiveness of student loans   Housing incentives   Salary increase Availability of suitable childcare options  
Total1  56.2 60.1 34.7   36.1   24.2   16.5   63.1 28.3  
                           
Teaching experience                           
1–3 years  74.9 53.5 37.8   29.8   32.9   26.3   64.6 38.7  
4–9 years  73.6 62.1 30.1   36.2   34.5   19.9   67.3 43.2  
10–19 years  60.6 39.7 22.2   36.3   5.3   10.1   52.0 20.3  
20 years or more  35.3 76.8 46.7   41.3   15.2 ! 7.7   63.5 4.3 !
                           
Age                           
Less than 30 years  75.6 53.9 20.1   37.1   31.0   16.2   68.0 46.2  
30–39 years  70.3 56.8 43.5   45.4   36.3   27.2   70.7 59.2  
40–49 years  77.0 56.0 45.6   8.7   25.3   10.6   60.6 5.8 !
50 or more years  33.4 73.1 32.3   50.2   5.2   12.0   53.3 1.0 !
                           
Base salary                           
Less than $30,000  74.2 43.1 27.5   39.4   20.9   13.8   52.3 31.5  
$30,000–$39,999  63.0 61.5 40.5   33.1   37.8   20.0   74.1 35.7  
$40,000 or more  47.4 66.6 33.8   36.9   15.8   15.1   60.0 21.6  
                           
Sex                           
Male  43.2 51.2 29.5   22.3   15.7   16.3   55.4 10.2  
Female  59.9 62.0 35.8   39.0   26.0   16.5   64.8 32.1  
                           
Race/ethnicity                           
White, non-Hispanic  58.2 58.5 33.8   35.9   24.4   13.9   61.8 28.2  
Black, non-Hispanic  38.2 73.7 44.5   39.0   22.4   35.0   71.2 17.6  
Hispanic, single or
  more than one race 
63.1 66.8 37.9   34.6   25.9   31.2   65.0 40.8  
Asian, Native Hawaiian,
  or Other Pacific
  Islander, non-Hispanic 
30.3 72.2 53.2   65.8   22.1 ! 39.7 ! 76.6 28.9  
American Indian/Alaska
  Native, non-Hispanic 
68.1 47.8 #   4.0 ! 36.9   23.7 ! 61.0 8.7 !
More than one race,
  non-Hispanic 
92.0 65.7 26.9 ! 23.6 ! 13.4 ! 10.5 ! 95.6 44.8 !
                           
Teaching status                           
Full time  55.4 59.1 32.4   36.2   23.5   18.9   64.0 30.6  
Part time  59.8 64.6 44.5   36.0   27.1   6.5   59.6 18.7  
                           
Community type                           
Central city  54.5 57.5 27.6   37.3   28.0   17.2   73.3 29.6  
Urban fringe/large town  57.3 65.4 42.3   37.2   24.9   17.6   62.3 31.9  
Rural/small town  55.9 49.0 24.5   30.8   15.6   11.7   48.1 15.2  
                           
School level                           
Elementary  58.6 63.2 37.5   35.2   27.6   17.4   66.0 32.2  
Secondary  51.5 52.6 26.5   38.2   16.1   13.0   55.8 19.2  
Combined  53.0 61.8 47.5   36.4   24.7   26.5   66.9 27.6  
                           
School enrollment                           
Less than 200  49.6 51.6 39.5   42.7   30.2   28.7   59.9 37.6  
200–499  56.7 61.5 33.8   31.2   27.3   9.3   59.6 32.2  
500–749  59.7 66.3 44.9   54.8   33.8   27.8   76.4 34.0  
750 or more  54.6 56.1 28.7   28.3   14.5   14.8   58.6 19.9  
                           
Percent of K–12 students
 who were approved for
 free or reduced-price
 lunches 
                         
Less than 15  53.2 58.4 30.3   19.9   10.3   6.4 ! 39.2 8.7  
15–49  58.0 52.9 33.9   38.7   20.4   14.3   64.6 33.9  
50 or more  56.5 64.7 36.9   38.1   34.2   21.1   72.8 31.2  
School did not parti-
 cipate in free or
 reduced-price lunch
 program 
60.4 64.2 41.9   58.7   32.9   20.9   72.9 39.4  
                           
Percent of K–12 students
 who were minorities 
                         
Less than 10  54.1 60.4 37.2   22.2   21.4   7.6   54.0 19.2  
10–34  50.9 54.5 31.1   44.4   14.6   13.7   52.6 28.7  
35 or more  59.4 61.9 34.8   40.1   28.8   21.7   71.1 32.6  
# Rounds to zero.
! Interpret data with caution. The standard error for this estimate is equal to 50 percent or more of the estimate's value.
1 Free or reduced price lunch program data are collected at the school level and placed on the teacher file. In cases where the sampled school did not respond, data were imputed from the Common Core of Data (CCD). In some cases, CCD data were not available for the school's free or reduced price lunch program participation. A very small number of teachers from these schools are missing data for this variable.
NOTE: Leavers are teachers who left the teaching profession after the base year (2003–04). Respondents were asked to rate the importance of various reasons in influencing a decision to return to the position of a K–12 teacher. Response choices were based on a 5-point scale, and included the following: "Not at all important," "Slightly important," "Somewhat important," "Very important," and "Extremely important."
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS), "Public School Teacher Data File," 2003–04; Teacher Follow-up Survey (TFS), "Former Teacher Data File," 2004–05.