THE IMPACT OF PRINCIPAL LEADERSHIP ON WORKING CONDITIONS AND TEACHER RETENTION IN NORTH CAROLINA MIDDLE SCHOOLS

Abstract

Research indicates that administrative leadership is the most important factor in determining the climate of a school, and there are specific leadership attributes such as improving working conditions that promote retention. This study seeks to identify leadership behaviors that positively affect quality teacher retention among two particular groups (Beginning teachers with 1-3 years of experience and career teachers with 4+ years of experience) in the middle schools of North Carolina. A Fisher's Exact Test was performed on the data that were collected from the 22 leadership questions on the 2006 North Carolina Teacher Working Conditions Survey. Ten of those questions were statistically significant at the .05 level. A Pearson Chi-Square was conducted to determine what working condition domain had the most impact on quality teacher retention for both beginning and career teachers. According to the findings of this study, there is a relationship between principal leadership and quality teacher retention, wherein different leadership attributes can be used as predictors for quality teacher retention.