Special Education Teacher Retention Issues

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Literature Review Special Education Teacher Retention Issues Sheryl Bolton Liberty University ABSTRACT Our nation has reached the crisis stage concerning the quality of education that students with disabilities receive. This code red situation is a systemic result of not only a lack of qualified teachers, but the lack of ability to retain those educators who are highly qualified. Every state department of education nationwide looks for methods to improve the retention rates of this critical career field. If they are to be successful, they must first understand the factors that influence retention and turnover. This literature review seeks to provide a thematic synthesis of reputable studies that probe into several of these predominate factors. The topics discussed are the basic characteristics, individual indicators, teacher aptitudes, school culture, and teacher responses that impact turnover. Included in this review there is a critical analysis defining key terms and the theoretical/procedural approaches that were employed to investigate special education teacher retention and turnover. Additionally, there is a discussion establishing precedence for further research. Keywords: retention, turnover, transfer, engaged and dis-engaged INTRODUCTION There is an extreme challenge for the hiring team responsible to staff for the needs of special education. Human resources focus on the development of talent to produce a highly qualified work force, and to create an organizational culture that will maintain engaged special educators. The ever increasing demand for special educators has been a great concern to policy makers for many years (Morsink, 1982). There are not enough new teachers entering the field, and there are many qualified teachers that have resigned or retired and no longer work in the special education career field. Research found that
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