A QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE IMPACT OF PRINCIPAL LEADERSHIP AND BEGINNING TEACHER RETENTION

Educational reform efforts typically focus on schools or school systems and their capacity for change. The educational reform movement of recent years has focused primarily on issues of teacher preparation, recruitment, and compensation, but it has tended to overlook the basic premise of principal leadership--how understanding principal leadership within the organizational structure can assist schools in achieving their goals and the retention of new teachers. There is also a growing body of research that indicates that the social organization, or the sense of community, of schools directly influence student outcomes, and guide decisions by principals that affects the work and retention of beginning teachers. A complete redesign of teacher education, including pre-service training, recruitment, induction, professional growth opportunities, evaluation, and strategies that target the retention of teachers is needed. In particular, principal concern and support given to beginning teachers and whether or not these beginning teachers remained in their school is the problem researched. Data was compiled, analyzed, and findings reported using the National Center for Education Statistics’ Teacher Follow-up Survey Questionnaire for Current Teachers 200-2001 School Year.