A new survey of Kansas teacher attitudes offers ideas on how to help keep educators in the profession at a time when most school leaders say finding and keeping teachers is one of their greatest challenges. With the cost to replace a teacher estimated at $20,000 to $30,000, the statewide impact is nearly $50 million.

Almost 26,000 Kansas educators, nearly 60 percent of the total, participated in the Kansas Teacher Retention Initiative Survey last fall. More than 25 percent said they are “more likely than not” or “very likely” to either leave the profession (16 percent) or retire in the next three years (12 percent). That is a slight improvement over two years ago when 30 percent of respondents said they were inclined to leave teaching. 

Those results are concerning, according to Dr. Bret Church. “Engagement is not only predictive of educator retention, but educator engagement is also related to increased student engagement and academic success,” Church said. The survey results offer insights on how to boost teacher engagement and retention at both the state and district levels. Dr. Church co-directs the Educator Perceptions and Research Center (EPIC) along with industrial organizational psychologist Dr. Luke Simmering.

The 2023 survey was conducted in collaboration with the Kansas National Education Association (KNEA), Kansas Association of School Boards (KASB), United School Administrators (USA-Kansas), and Emporia State University. A similar survey was conducted in 2021. Church has been holding meetings around the state to show district leaders how they can use their own data to craft district decisions aimed at strengthening both retention and engagement. He also briefed the State Board of Education in March.

Educator satisfaction, engagement, and future intentions

The survey focused on three areas: 

• Satisfaction with being a teacher
• Engagement focused on connection, growth, feeling heard, and motivation
• Future intentions which included the likelihood of leaving the teaching profession, retiring in the next three years, moving to another district, or moving to administration

EPIC Researchers identified educator experience factors (drivers) that significantly predict both teacher engagement and retention. Church says boosting teacher satisfaction in these areas is most likely to boost teacher engagement and retention. Satisfaction is rated as low, moderate, or high on these drivers.

The 2023 survey results found 11 statewide drivers highly associated with both engagement and retention. Low satisfaction was reported with four of these:

• District’s attention and approach to supporting mental and emotional health
• Support in place to handle challenging student behaviors/situations
• Salary growth potential
• Society’s view of the teaching profession

School boards have some control over the first three but the fourth, and lowest rated, is more difficult to address locally.

Teachers reported high satisfaction with five of the 11 drivers:

• Relationships with colleagues within your school
• Relationship with your principal
• Opportunity to work with a diverse student population
• Location of district in which you teach
• Size of district in which you teach.

Building principals seem to play a critical role and generally get high marks. Among 13 factors related to just engagement, respondents reported high levels of satisfaction with principal communication and responsiveness, principal instructional leadership, and the quality of the principal. Low satisfaction was reported for the vision and leadership of the board of education and the quality of professional development.

Among the four drivers of retention only, low satisfaction was reported for the amount of plan time provided and current salary. 

Teachers most at risk of leaving

For Church, one red flag is that teachers who have been educators between 4 and 11 years are significantly less engaged and significantly more likely to leave the profession than those in other ranges of experience. This group makes up approximately 31 percent of current educators and largely coincides with the millennial generation (ages 23-38). This group is growing as a percentage of the workforce. “Millennials are at a higher risk of leaving the profession than other generations,” says Church.

Other groups at risk of leaving are those with children attending school outside of their district, those holding a second (non-education) job, and educators with a specialist or doctoral degree.

Based on state-level responses, Church suggests the following top priorities for state and local education leaders:

• Strengthening support for employee mental and emotional health
• Increasing help with challenging student behavior
• Salary growth potential
• Improving society’s view of the teaching profession

District-level survey results can drive local response

State level data isn’t necessarily applicable to individual school districts, especially when local participation is limited. However, districts with response rates of at least 30 percent can receive a deeper report about the attitudes of their staff. “School districts will often have drivers and/or satisfaction with certain items in the survey that vary significantly from the state level data,” said Simmering. “Using the State level data as a benchmark within the district reports helps illuminate these differences and can help district leaders focus on the teacher experience specific to their educators.”

See how one Kansas district used survey data to improve teacher satisfaction.

In working with districts, Church stresses that increasing engagement not only retains teachers but has a positive impact on students. He says retention is key because there are simply fewer teachers to recruit. “Every teacher in your district has already chosen your district once,” he noted. Using data about teacher attitudes can help district’s identity what areas are most important, improve areas with low satisfaction, sustain areas of high satisfaction, and monitor areas that impact engagement and retention.