Teacher turnover in Texas secondary vocational industrial education programs

Abstract

The primary objective of this study was to determine the specific reasons for the high rate of public school vocational industrial education teacher turnover in Texas. Secondary objectives included: determining whether the reasons for entering the teaching profession as a vocational industrial teacher were different for those who continued to teach and those who terminated; determining if there was a difference in turnover rates between teachers of cooperative education programs and teachers of pre-employment laboratory programs; and, determining if there was a difference in turnover rates between vocational industrial education teachers of middle school programs (grades 7, 8, and 9) and the teachers of high school programs (grades 10, 11, and 12). Two hundred vocational industrial education teachers were randomly selected from a population of 426 teachers in Texas that started teaching in vocational industrial education programs during the 1976-1977 school year. One hundred of these teachers taught in their positions for only one year and then left those positions. The other one hundred teachers continued in their teaching positions after the first year. The teachers were surveyed to determine the reasons for their terminations. Also included in the survey were the teachers' reasons for entering the field of vocational industrial education. The data resulting from the survey were analyzed using the statistical procedures of analysis of variance and chi-square. After considering the analysis of the results and observations made during the study it was concluded that inadequate salary was the primary reason that vocational industrial education teachers terminated their teaching positions. It was also concluded that there was a significant difference in the salary paid to those who continued to teach and those who terminated. ...