Preliminary Development of an Attrition Risk Assessment Instrument for Secondary Agricultural Educators

Abstract

Secondary agricultural education has consistently faced a shortage of teachers for the past several decades. Because there are not enough newly qualified teachers certified annually to fill all the vacancies, attrition must be addressed. The purpose of this research was to develop and pilot test an attrition risk assessment instrument. Items were written and included in a preliminary instrument based on existing literature as well as a qualitative study we conducted previously. Principal components analysis resulted in a 25-question instrument, with 17 questions measuring attrition risk in four constructs including alternative career opportunities, expectations versus realities, passions, and people frustrations. Cronbach's alpha indicated overall instrument reliability was α = .76. Individual construct reliabilities ranged from α = .57 to α = .85. Recommendations include further development and refinement of constructs and questions. Additionally, longitudinal data should be collected in order to identify the threshold magnitude of each risk factor that results in actual exit of a teacher from the profession. Finally, implementation of the instrument could assist researchers and teacher educators in identifying the most prevalent risks contributing to teacher attrition in a population.

Factors Contributing to Illinois School-Based Agriculture Teachers’ Final Decision to Leave the Classroom

“…As current literature consistently finds that agriculture teachers are generally satisfied with their careers, the overarching job satisfaction variable was eliminated from the revised model. When referring to the job responsibilities of school-based agriculture teachers, similar levels of overall job satisfaction exist between (a) teachers who stay in the profession, and (b) teachers who leave the profession of teaching (Greenhaw, Brashears, Burris, Meyers, & Morrison, 2017;Walker et al, 2004). Using this evidence, the modified conceptual model suggests one or more of the specific job satisfaction variables within the proposed constructs may directly impact teacher retention/attrition without being attributed to overall job satisfaction.…”

“…It is important to note that the overwhelming majority of literature generated addressing teacher retention and attrition has focused on teachers who are retained, as opposed to those who have left the profession. Even an instrument developed to assess risk of attrition of agriculture teachers has only been validated among current teachers (Greenhaw et al, 2017). The need for this study addresses the American Association for Agricultural Education's (AAAE) National Research Agenda Research Priority 3 as, "Sufficient Scientific and Professional Workforce that Addresses the Challenges of the 21st Century" (Roberts, Harder, & Brashears, 2016).…”

“…Previous studies have attempted to determine attrition factors within agricultural education (Bennett et al, 2002;Chenevey et al, 2008;Murray et al, 2011;Rice et al, 2011;Sorensen et al, 2016b;Tippens et al, 2013;Torres et al, 2009;Walker et al, 2004); however, very few have provided evidence from teachers who have already exited the profession (Lemons et al, 2015). There has been an Agriculture Teacher Risk Assessment instrument developed (Greenhaw et al, 2017), however to date it has only been validated among current agriculture teachers in the state of Texas. This study provided responses from ninety-one (N = 91) agriculture teachers who have left the profession within the last 10 years to help provide some clarification as to why agriculture teachers leave the profession in Illinois.…”

Teacher Longevity and Career Satisfaction in the Secondary Agricultural Education Classroom

“…Smith and Meyers (2012) citing Voorhis and Sheldon (2004) reported administrators as a "critical force in creating and maintaining strong schools" (p. 56). Greenhaw, Brashears, Burris, Meyers, and Morrison (2017) found no current or past studies have investigated agricultural education teacher attrition from former agricultural educators while Kantrovich (2010) identified 660 of the 10,600 secondary agricultural education programs required replacements in 2009.…”