STAFF TURNOVER AND SCHOOL EFFECTIVENESS IN PRIVATE SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN EDUCATION
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to look into staff turnover and school effectiveness in selected private secondary schools in Lagos State’s Education District II. The study used a descriptive survey research design and a sample of 60 academic and non-academic staff drawn at random from schools in Lagos State’s Education District. To achieve the study’s objectives, a questionnaire of (28) items was designed to collect preliminary information, and the supervisor determined the face and content validity.
The collected data was analyzed using Mean, Standard Deviation, and percentage for the research questions, and the Chi-Square statistical technique for the four hypotheses. The four hypotheses were tested using the (SPSS) testing program at the 0.05 level of significance.
The study yielded the following findings: Job comparability and satisfaction had a significant impact on staff turnover and effectiveness in private secondary schools, as did job migration. Furthermore, organizational conditions have a significant impact on staff turnover and effectiveness in private secondary schools, and financial constraints have a significant impact on staff turnover and effectiveness in private secondary schools.
In light of the study’s findings, the researcher made a number of recommendations and proposals, the most important of which are: that private school proprietors/proprietresses ensure adequate remuneration for their teachers.
To ensure a good organizational working condition, administrators should provide adequate facilities, sufficient instructional resources, small class sizes per teacher, and lower work loads. With significant taxation, the government should develop policies to encourage the growth of private schools.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
The Study’s Background
Turnover is a phenomenon that can be viewed from various angles depending on the subject at hand. Turnover among teachers refers to the rate of departure among staff employed in schools for a specific time frame or period. To determine the total scope of the problem, consideration was given to identifying the stock of teachers through government departments, school principals, and teachers themselves. This was compared to actual withdrawal cases in percentage terms, after accounting for re-entry, to calculate net turnover rates.
The voluntary or involuntary termination of an individual’s employment with a specific school or organization is referred to as staff or labor turnover. Staff turnover refers to the movement of workers within the labor market, such as between schools, jobs, and occupations, as well as between states of employment and unemployment (Abassi&Hollman, 2000).
Each time a position is created, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, a new employee may be hired; this replacement cycle is referred to as turnover (Woods, 1995). Staff turnover is a well-studied phenomenon (Lam, Foong, and Moo, 1995; Shaw, John, Jerkins, and Nina, 1998). (Booth &Hamer, 2007).
Staff turnover is a serious problem that has a negative impact on both individuals and governments, regardless of the perspective from which the problem is viewed. Thus, for the individual teacher, turnover entails a definite loss of earnings that would have accrued if the individual had been otherwise engaged.
This is especially important in the Nigerian context, because a loss of earnings brings with it a slew of negative externalities, such as an inability to meet the expectations of extended family members. This is closely related to the lack of adequate health care as a result of a lack of employment, because former employers cannot be held liable in a situation where government provision is grossly inadequate.
From the standpoint of the government, staff turnover is a much larger issue. Regardless of whether the teacher involved received government funding for his training or not, his departure results in a net financial loss to the government.
This is the case because public funds would have been squandered on the provision of materials, equipment, and facilities such as buildings for the education and training of the individual who, upon completion of his education, resigns for some other job for one reason or another.
Although one cannot ignore such an individual’s ultimate contribution to the overall development of a nation’s economy, the fact remains that a service for which the individual was trained is robbed to pay another without any bargain.
Staff turnover, or brain drain, as it is known in tertiary institutions, is one of the major challenges confronting education in Nigeria today, particularly in private secondary schools.
Staff turnover intentions appear to be very common in private secondary schools, which could be due to physical or social influences. Social influences, on the other hand, are shared cognitions by friends or organizational members that influence people’s decision on job movement (Albeson, 1993). Because of social pressure, hopping from one job to another is considered acceptable behavior (Naresh, Pawan& Chong 2003).
Thus, if a person has not changed jobs in a long time, he or she feels increasing pressure to do so due to social influence. Staff turnover intentions have been observed in some Asian countries, giving human resource managers sleepless nights, and employees have developed a bad attitude due to labor shortages. Naresh, Pawan, and Chong (2003)
It is now widely accepted that teacher effectiveness is critical to good student progress in school. Recent research has found quantitatively significant effect sizes for being taught by effective versus ineffective teachers. Modeling the separation rate of teachers from disadvantaged schools is the inverse of attracting teachers to disadvantaged schools. Studying teacher quits will help understand the matching of teachers to schools because quitting and accepting jobs are essentially different sides of the same decision, barring transaction costs.
In this project, I will analyze teacher turnover across schools and compute the distribution of job tenure in each school, including both the fraction of teachers who have been at the school for ten years or more and the fraction who were only recently hired. Addressing the notion that teacher turnover is a particular issue in disadvantaged urban schools.
Significant improvements in educational standards are only likely to result from increases in general teacher effectiveness and reductions in educational inequality as a result of different teacher allocations to schools. A policy like this is hampered by a lack of understanding of the teacher labor market, which is exacerbated by a lack of data. It is argued that higher turnover, combined with novice teachers’ lower effectiveness, may explain a portion of the significant test score difference between schools in deprived and more affluent neighborhoods.
There is also evidence that turnover can be detrimental to student progress (Ronfeldt et al, 2011).
The remaining association is largely explained by teacher characteristics, with poorer schools hiring significantly younger teachers on average.
Over the last two decades, substantial empirical research has been conducted to determine which types of teachers are more likely to leave teaching and why (e.g., Bobbitt et al., 1994; Chapman & Green, 1986; Chapman & Hutcheson, 1982;Grissmer & Kirby, 1987, 1992, 1997; Hafner& Owings, 1991; Haggstrom et al., 1988;Heyns, 1988; Marso&Pigge, 1991; Miech& Elder, 1996; Murnane, 1981, 1987; Murnaneet al., 1991; Murnane, Singer, & Willett, 1988; Rumberger 1987; Schlecty& Vance, 1981, 1983; Weiss & Boyd, 1990).
According to this study, teacher turnover is strongly related to the individual characteristics of teachers. One of the most important findings has been that academic field has a strong influence on teacher turnover. Despite inconsistencies in the data, special education, mathematics, and science are consistently found to be the fields with the highest turnover (Boe, Bobbitt, & Cook, 1997; Grissmer& Kirby, 1992; Murnane et al., 1991; Rumberger, 1987).
Another significant finding is that teachers’ decisions to remain or leave the teaching profession are heavily influenced by their age. The relationship between teachers’ age (or experience, in some analyses) and turnover has been discovered to be U-shaped. Although there is some debate as to why this is the case, researchers have consistently discovered that younger teachers leave at a high rate.
Following that, as those who remain “settle in,” turnover rates fall through the mid-career period before rising again in the retirement years (e.g., Bobbitt et al., 1994; Boe et al., 1998; Grissmer& Kirby, 1987, 1992, 1997; Hafner& Owings, 1991; Murnane, Singer, & Willett, 1988).
Furthermore, because the teaching force’s age distribution is skewed upward—older teachers outnumber younger teachers—many analysts have concluded that retirement due to a rapidly “graying” teaching workforce is the most significant factor behind teacher turnover, teacher shortages, and school staffing problems (e.g., Grissmer& Kirby, 1997).
Statement of the Issue
Researchers have observed with keen interest over the years that staff turnovers in private schools determine school effectiveness. As a result, teachers frequently change and migrate from one private school to another within a term.
There is some debate about whether the turnover rate in teaching is high in comparison to other professions (see for example, Ingersoll, 2001; Ingersoll, 2003; Henke, Zahn, & Carroll, 2001; Harris & Adams, 2007). Whether or not turnover is high in comparison to other professions, there are several reasons to believe that the nature of turnover in most schools is detrimental to school quality.
For starters, there is clear evidence that teachers with strong academic credentials are more likely to leave the profession (Manski, 1987; Murnane, Singer, Willett, 1991; Monk, 1994; Podgursky, 2004; Henke, 2001; Lankford, Loeb, and Wyckoff, 2002). Guarino, Santibanez, and Daley (2006) conducted an empirical literature review on teacher retention and concluded, “The preponderance of evidence suggests that teachers with higher measured ability have a higher probability of leaving…” (Page 186).
A second reason is that teachers who are new to the profession have the highest rate of attrition. According to previous research, teachers make significant gains in effectiveness during their first three years, followed by smaller gains over the next few years (McCaffrey, Koretz, Lockwood, and Hamilton, 2003;Hanushek, Kain, &Rivkin, 2005).
Given that nearly half of all teachers leave the profession within their first five years (Ingersoll & Smith, 2003), many teachers leave the classroom before developing into optimally effective practitioners. Furthermore, exiting new teachers are frequently replaced by similarly inexperienced teachers, and as a result, students in high turnover schools may rarely be exposed to experienced teachers.
Third, turnover has an impact on many organizational conditions critical to effective education, such as instructional cohesion and staff trust. Effective schools share common beliefs in common instructional goals and practices (Fuller &Izu, 1986; Bryk& Driscoll, 1988).
High turnover schools face the challenge of developing a shared commitment to the same goals, pedagogy, and curriculum. The constant turnover of teaching staff makes collaboration, developing standard norms of practice, and maintaining progress toward common goals difficult. This can result in fragmented instructional programs and professional development plans that must be adjusted year after year to meet the needs of a constantly changing teaching staff (Guin, 2004).
High turnover also makes it difficult for teachers to establish relational trust, which is essential for productive collaboration in the classroom (Bryk& Schneider, 2002; Guin, 2004). Aside from the costs of turnover to school quality, there are significant financial costs associated with teacher attrition and mobility.
These expenses include the costs of removing the teacher from the school, recruiting and hiring a new teacher, and/or filling the vacancy with a substitute until a new teacher can be hired. Some districts include signing bonuses and school material stipends for new teachers in their costs.
The Study’s Purpose
The following is the study’s goal:
1. To determine whether or not staff turnover is high in comparison to other professions, there are a variety of reasons to support the argument that the nature of turnover in most schools is detrimental to school effectiveness.
2. To discover why so many teachers leave the classroom before they have developed into optimally effective teachers. Furthermore, exiting new teachers are frequently replaced by similarly inexperienced teachers, and as a result, students in high turnover schools may rarely be exposed to experienced teachers.
3. Determine the impact of staff turnover on many organizational conditions critical to effective schooling, such as instructional cohesion and staff trust.
4. In addition to the costs of turnover to school quality, there are significant financial costs associated with teacher attrition and mobility.
Research Issues
The following research questions have been formulated and will be investigated for the purpose of this investigative study on staff turnover and school effectiveness:
1. Will job comparison and satisfaction influence staff turnover and effectiveness in private secondary schools?
2. Will job migration optimally reduce staff turnover and effectiveness in private secondary schools?
3. Will organizational factors influence staff turnover and effectiveness in private secondary schools?
4. Will financial constraints have an impact on staff turnover and effectiveness in private secondary schools?
Hypotheses for Research
In this study, the following hypotheses will be tested:
1. Job comparison and satisfaction will not have a significant impact on staff turnover and effectiveness in private secondary schools.
2. Job migration will not have a significant impact on staff turnover and effectiveness in private secondary schools.
3. Organizational conditions will have little impact on staff turnover and effectiveness in private secondary schools.
4. Financial constraints will have little impact on staff turnover and effectiveness in private secondary schools.
The Study’s Importance
The goal of this research is to look into staff turnover and school effectiveness in a private secondary school in Lagos State’s Educational District II. This research will be extremely beneficial to:
1. School administrators who want to open private schools in Lagos state should understand the importance of school effectiveness as measured by staff turnout.
2. The staff should prioritize student academic performance when deciding whether to leave one job for another.
3. The recommendations that will be made at the end of the study may be useful to teachers, business owners, and school administrators.
Delimitations
The participants in this study were drawn from the staff of selected private secondary schools in Lagos State Educational Districts II. Twelve (12) private schools were chosen at random from this region, with five (5) respondents for each, for a total of sixty (60) respondents.
Limitations
Due to time constraints and other investigation difficulties such as distance, finance, and mobility, the study will be limited to five (5) staff members from each school. Because of the small sample size, the findings of this study will be limited to Lagos State private secondary schools.
Common terminologies defined
Turnover is defined as both attrition from the profession as well as mobility between schools.
Effectiveness: The ability to accomplish a goal by producing the desired or expected result.
Organization: A group of people who have come together to do some underwork.
Financial: Concerned with monetary receipts and expenditures; concerned with money matters.
Job Satisfaction: The degree to which a person’s hopes, desires, and expectations about his current job are met.
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