Special Educators: Attrition, Recruitment, and Retainment
Attrition, recruitment and retainment of highly qualified staff have long been studied within the field of education. This research paper hopes to take an in depth look at attrition within the special education population and also ideas for recruiting and retaining quality teachers. Although teaching, in its own right, is a difficult profession, special education teachers, support staff, and administration face a unique set of challenges. Excessive teacher turnover with the resultant teacher shortages presents major problems for the development of a qualified teaching workforce (Boe et al. 2008). Turnover occurs when special education teachers leave their position for another position …show more content…
Carter (2011) looked at the practice of special education administration and how it is a highly rewarding yet often stressful job. The purpose his study was to determine whether or not special education administrators also experience burnout. Burnout research in regards to special education leadership is very limited. While there are many studies examining burnout among general and special education teachers, as noted above, very little is known about how burnout can affect special education administrators. The researchers chose to base their study on Maslach’s theoretical model of the three constructs of burnout. The three constructs of burnout are (a) emotional exhaustion, (b) depersonalization, and (c) lack of personal …show more content…
One strategy “grow your own” revolves around the idea that districts should seek to identify, prepare, and employ school employees, parents, and community members active in education in their communities as fully-certified teachers. Meaning that they search for individuals who are already active and contribute to their schools and offer them proper training and support to become fully immersed in the teaching role. A second strategy suggests the possibility of beginning recruitment efforts in high school classrooms and through extracurricular activities to encourage students who are included to work with children with disabilities to pursue careers in special education. A third strategy that could be used to recruit and retain special educators was to use targeted financial strategies, such as yearly bonuses, salary increases, annual additional fixed pay, and one-time bonuses for additional job duties. A fourth strategy discussed was overall marketing of their districts by educating the public and developing a positive and attractive image of their
Attrition, recruitment and retainment of highly qualified staff have long been studied within the field of education. This research paper hopes to take an in depth look at attrition within the special education population and also ideas for recruiting and retaining quality teachers. Although teaching, in its own right, is a difficult profession, special education teachers, support staff, and administration face a unique set of challenges. Excessive teacher turnover with the resultant teacher shortages presents major problems for the development of a qualified teaching workforce (Boe et al. 2008). Turnover occurs when special education teachers leave their position for another position …show more content…
Carter (2011) looked at the practice of special education administration and how it is a highly rewarding yet often stressful job. The purpose his study was to determine whether or not special education administrators also experience burnout. Burnout research in regards to special education leadership is very limited. While there are many studies examining burnout among general and special education teachers, as noted above, very little is known about how burnout can affect special education administrators. The researchers chose to base their study on Maslach’s theoretical model of the three constructs of burnout. The three constructs of burnout are (a) emotional exhaustion, (b) depersonalization, and (c) lack of personal …show more content…
One strategy “grow your own” revolves around the idea that districts should seek to identify, prepare, and employ school employees, parents, and community members active in education in their communities as fully-certified teachers. Meaning that they search for individuals who are already active and contribute to their schools and offer them proper training and support to become fully immersed in the teaching role. A second strategy suggests the possibility of beginning recruitment efforts in high school classrooms and through extracurricular activities to encourage students who are included to work with children with disabilities to pursue careers in special education. A third strategy that could be used to recruit and retain special educators was to use targeted financial strategies, such as yearly bonuses, salary increases, annual additional fixed pay, and one-time bonuses for additional job duties. A fourth strategy discussed was overall marketing of their districts by educating the public and developing a positive and attractive image of their