Nationwide, approximately 40 percent of new teachers leave the profession within the first five years. In some urban schools, these percentages are significantly higher. Researchers have found that teachers most often cite a positive, collaborative school climate and support from colleagues and administrators as the most important factors influencing whether they stay in a school.

To learn more about the influence of teaching and learning conditions on teacher retention and its effects on school improvement, CTQ is launching a new initiative —  TeacherSolutions: Teacher Working Conditions 2.0 — which will engage a team of accomplished teachers in a close study of TWC research.  This project will lead to a more detailed understanding of large-scale quantitative data and a more nuanced mining of qualitative data than is typically achieved with most studies. With support from the Ford Foundation, CTQ will begin this work by examining the most relevant research on working conditions and consider which conditions are most likely to increase teacher retention and student learning. How does preparation and commitment to teaching influence a new teacher’s view of working conditions? We know that teachers need more time to learn, but how much time, and how should time be used? How do NCLB mandates and accountability provisions influence how different teachers at different grade levels perceive their working conditions — and what are the consequences for staffing high need schools? What are the key elements that need to be in place to staff high need schools with effective teachers who will stay long enough to make a difference?

Survey data from two diverse, large urban districts will then be analyzed to more clearly identify the working conditions more likely to affect teachers’ intentions to remain in their current classrooms, move to another school, or leave teaching altogether. These data will be supplemented by information gathered through case studies of schools with similar schoolwide teaching and learning conditions but divergent student achievement trajectories.

In the second stage of the project, a cadre of accomplished teachers will review the data and the preliminary CTQ analysis and provide their insights into the relationships between various working conditions and teaching quality. Based on their experiences and expertise as practitioners, the TeacherSolutions TWC 2.0  team will develop recommendations for educators and policymakers who seek to improve teaching and learning conditions in K-12 schools.

What's up now: The TeacherSolutions TWC team has embarked on their collaborative venture from across multiple time zones, from varying subject areas and grade levels, from school districts across the country, three urban school districts. The teacher team is using both a virtual learning community space on the Teacher Leaders Network and live-session, focused webinars to access the latest research and engage in ongoing discussion. Live webinars enable to teachers to communicate using both voice and presentation-sharing tools. Recent webinar topics for the group have included an introductory overview of working conditions, the strategic management of human capital, and targeted discussion of teacher working conditions survey results.