Susan Moore Johnson

Pursuing a “Sense of Success”: New Teachers Explain Their Career Decisions

This article, based on a longitudinal interview study of 50 new teachers in Massachusetts, presents respondents’ reasons for staying in their schools, moving to new schools, or leaving public school teaching within their first 3 years of teaching. Although the respondents’ prior career orientations, financial situations, and preparation played a role in their career decisions, their experiences at the school sites were central in influencing their decisions. Teachers who felt successful with students and whose schools were organized to support them in their teaching—providing collegial interaction, opportunities for growth, appropriate assignments, adequate resources, and schoolwide structures supporting student learning—were more likely to stay in their schools, and in teaching, than teachers whose whose schools were not so organized.

Counting on Colleagues: New Teachers Encounter the Professional Cultures of Their Schools

Within the context of an impending teacher shortage, this article considers the professional cultures that new teachers encounter in their schools. Using new entrants’ accounts, we characterized three types of professional cultures or subcultures within schools: veteran-oriented cultures, novice-oriented cultures, and integrated cultures. In veteran-oriented cultures, new teachers described norms of professional interaction determined, in large part, by the veterans, with little attention to the particular needs of beginning teachers. In novice-oriented cultures, on the other hand, new teachers described norms of professional interaction determined by novices, thus leaving them with little experienced guidance about how to teach. However, in integrated professional cultures, new teachers described being provided with sustained support and having frequent exchanges with colleagues across experience levels. Principals proved to be important in developing and maintaining integrated professional cultures where the particular needs of new teachers were both recognized and addressed.

Lost at Sea: New Teachers' Experiences with Curriculum and Assessment.

ed by Benjamin Dotger Results of this study were published in Teacher College Record, 104, 273-300.

New Teachers' Experiences of Hiring: Late, Rushed, and Information-Poor

Purpose: Teacher hiring decisions have far-reaching consequences for a school, its students, and faculty. This article examines how new teachers in four states are hired and explores whether the process leads to good matches between these individuals and their schools. The authors conceive of hiring as a two-way process and examine the extent to which the hiring process provides opportunities for prospective teachers and schools to collect rich information about, and form accurate impressions of, one another. Research Methods: This study surveyed a representative random sample of 486 first-year and second-year teachers in California, Florida, Massachusetts, and Michigan. Participants were chosen using two-stage stratified cluster sampling, and the study achieved a response rate of 65%. Statistical methods used in the analysis include principal components analysis, chi-square analysis, and t tests. Findings: The data reveal that the majority of new teachers in these states are hired through a decentralized, school-based process. Despite the opportunity this provides schools and prospective teachers to explore the potential match between them, most new teachers actually have limited interactions with school-based personnel during the hiring process, and the process is relatively information-poor. Many new teachers are also hired quite late—more than one third of new teachers in California and Florida are hired after the school year has already started. Implications: The results of our analysis suggest that shifting hiring decisions to the school level is not sufficient to guarantee information-rich hiring. They also suggest that schools may need help removing barriers to conducting more information-rich hiring.

The Price of Misassignment: The Role of Teaching Assignments in Teach For America Teachers' Exit From Low-Income Schools and the Teaching Profession

Teach For America (TFA) recruits high-achieving college graduates to teach for 2 years in the nation’s low-income schools. This study is the first to examine these teachers’ retention nationwide, asking whether, when, and why they voluntarily transfer from their low-income placement schools or leave teaching altogether. Based on a survey of three entire TFA cohorts (n = 2,029), this longitudinal, retrospective study uses discrete-time survival analysis. We found that teachers who have more challenging assignments—split grades, multiple subjects, or out-of-field classes—are at greater risk of leaving their schools or resigning from teaching than those with single-grade, single-subject, or in-field assignments. It is notable that in-field science teachers’ risk of resigning was higher than that of their out-of-field counterparts with nonscience degrees. This study informs policymakers and school officials seeking to retain TFA and other promising teachers.

New Teachers and the Massachusetts Signing Bonus: The Limits of Inducements.

In 1998, Massachusetts instituted a

Teach for America Teachers: How Long do They Teach? Why do They Leave?

20,000 Signing Bonus to address concerns about the supply of quality teachers. This article reports on a longitudinal, qualitative study of the experiences of 13 of the original 59 recipients of the Signing Bonus, and analyzes their responses to various incentives embedded within the Massachusetts Signing Bonus Program (MSBP). Interviews revealed that the bonus money had very little influence on recipients’ decisions to enter teaching. Far more important was the alternate certification program created to implement the policy. Findings suggest that the MSBP: (a) relied too much on inducements and not enough on capacity-building; (b) focused too narrowly on recruitment and not enough on retention, and (c) centered too much on individuals and not enough on schools.

Life in the Fast Track: How States Seek to Balance Incentives and Quality in Alternative Teacher Certification Programs

Most TFA alumni continue to teach after completing their two-year obligation. Those who leave the profession exit because of the same poor working conditions that drive away other young teachers.

Will VAMS Reinforce the Walls of the Egg-Crate School?

The prospect of overseeing the rapid preparation of many participants in fast-track alternative certification programs presents several challenges for state education officials who seek to maintain, or even enhance, the quality of the state’s teaching force. This study examined a range of fast-track alternative teacher certification programs in 11 sites in three states—Connecticut, Louisiana, and Massachusetts. We found that participants were attracted by the incentives of the fast-track programs but also expected to have coursework and student-teaching experiences that would prepare them well to teach in September. Overall, candidates were satisfied with what the programs offered, though many wanted more preparation in content-based pedagogy and better student-teaching placements. There were advantages and disadvantages to centralized and decentralized approaches by the states to ensure quality of participants.

Is PAR a Good Investment? Understanding the Costs and Benefits of Teacher Peer Assistance and Review Programs

Throughout the United States there is an increasing trend toward using value-added methods (VAMs) for high-stakes decisions. When policymakers use VAMs to identify, reward, and dismiss teachers, they may perpetuate the egg-crate model of schooling and undermine efforts to build instructional capacity schoolwide. At any time, in any school, some teachers are more knowledgeable, experienced, and skilled than others. Schools function best when they continuously leverage teachers’ expertise so that all students in all classrooms are well served. Drawing from research about the incentives and norms that influence teachers’ work within schools, this article illustrates what can happen when these methodologies are used to make job decisions and it identifies the hazards of using VAMs for this purpose. Contextualizing this within the larger discussion about performance evaluation systems, the article suggests how VAMs can be used productively as one source of information to promote improvement schoolwide.