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District self-reporting and teacher retention.

Article Excerpt
Abstract

This article presents data problems from a longitudinal study on teacher retention in Florida. While many researchers experience delays or problems during data collection, the experiences of this research team present serious implications for the validity of any study or state policy built on district-reported data. Cross-district and within-district factors are also discussed.

Background

Our research team embarked on a study to identify the variables that affect teacher retention during teacher shortages. The study focuses on a group of new teachers hired during the 2000-2001 school year. A longitudinal approach to track which of our teachers were retained in their school districts was undertaken. As a team, we identified and defined variables we wanted to track in order to develop a predictive model for districts to use in teacher recruitment. We planned to use archival data collected on these variables from our four partner school districts. All we needed to do, we thought, was to ask the districts for the information, input the data, and watch the results roll out of SPSS.

That's where the plan went awry. Getting the data accurately proved to be difficult. Our data collection plan was similar to other models (Ross, 2000). We outlined a method to collect data, designed and assigned management of data collection, and created a timeline for completion. We had planned that the data collection portion of our study would take about a month. It became a year-long process during which we encountered problems that we had not anticipated--problems that could impact the validity of any policy or research based on self-reported data from school districts.

Cross-district

We identified several problems in data collection common among the districts with which we worked. One problem encountered was the inconsistency across...

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