Date of Award
1-23-2026
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Educational Leadership, Ed.D.
First Advisor
Topeka Singleton
Committee Members
Karyn Christian; Peter Ghazarian
Call Number
ISBN 9798273347410
Abstract
Teacher attrition is a problem that results in inequities for students in urban contexts. This study investigated factors associated with teacher retention and compared these relationships between urban and suburban school districts using Mason and Matas’s Four Capital Theoretical Model of Teacher Retention. Using a cross-sectional, quantitative research design, data was collected through a survey distributed to 124 teachers in urban and suburban school districts in West Tennessee. Descriptive, correlational, comparative, and logistic regression analyses were used to examine the relationships between retention outcomes, teacher mindset, and four subdomains of school climate: collegial leadership, achievement press, institutional vulnerability, and professional teacher behavior. Key findings revealed that suburban teachers’ perceptions of school climate were significantly more positive than urban teachers, and school climate was statistically associated with teacher retention. Professional teacher behavior was found to predict teacher retention in the urban district but not in the suburban districts. The study concludes that fostering participative leadership and increasing teacher autonomy are critical strategies that may improve teacher retention. Future research should examine these statistical results on a larger scale and further explore the relationship between teacher mindset and retention.
Rights Management
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Walters, Valeria Louise, "Teacher Retention in West Tennessee: An Analytical Cross-Sectional Study" (2026). Student Theses and Dissertations. 1115.
https://arch.astate.edu/all-etd/1115
