Teacher retention is a foundational issue and schools have historically struggled to retain teachers. Previous research indicates that teachers leave the profession at high rates before year five of teaching expertise. Lack of teacher retention contributes to instability and lack of trust in school districts. This secondary data study explores…

In January 2022, music teacher shortages accounted for eight percent of all vacancies in U.S. school systems. After emerging from COVID-19 lockdowns, many education stakeholders began to reconsider the ways in which teaching and learning have shifted. By committing to a strong understanding of teacher self-efficacy and empowerment, administrators…

Attracting and retaining teachers can be an important ingredient in improving low-performing schools. In this study, we estimate the expressed preferences for teachers who have worked in low-performing schools in Tennessee. Using adaptive conjoint analysis survey design, we examine three types of school attributes that may influence teachers'…

The purpose of this study was to discover factors about first-time freshmen that began at one of the six 4-year universities in the former Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR) system, transferred to any other institution after their first year, and graduated with a degree or certificate. These factors would be used with predictive models to identify…

The primary aim of this study is to use the survey items from the TELL Tennessee Survey (2013) using the Competing Values Framework (CVF) to determine whether teachers' observations about a set of topically organized school climate dimensions and performance levels are associated with teacher satisfaction. Specifically, the study sets out to…

In 2010, HCM Strategists received support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to engage academic researchers in identifying and discussing the best currently available ways to account for differences in college "inputs"--students, resources, and fixed characteristics--when evaluating postsecondary outcomes. The project, Context…

The purpose of this study was to analyze school and district characteristics for 2005-2006 through 2007-2008 to determine which factors impacted science achievement for the graduating class of 2008-2009 in Tennessee. School size, socioeconomic status, per pupil instructional expenditures and rurality/urbanicity were predictor variables.…

In 1991, the investigators completed a series of studies of data on Tennessee's 1988-89 school district report cards. The relationships among eight variables (average attendance, professional salaries, county per capita income, expenditure per student, average daily membership, percentage of oversized classes, percentage of students on free or…

Report cards (RCs) on schools have become common in several states. This study determined relationships among factors reported in RCs developed for local school districts within Tennessee in 1988-89. Every year the state board of education produces an RC for each school district containing student outcome data (test results and achievement data)…

The relationships among factors reported on report cards developed for local school districts in Tennessee and how they related to student outcomes were studied. The study revealed few, if any, straight-line relationships between inputs and outputs reported. Report cards are vastly overrated as indicators of educational quality. (SLD)

Investigators completed a series of studies of data reported in Tennessee's 1988-89 school district cards, and compared these with 1990-91 school district report cards. The relationships among 15 school district variables and relationships between each variable and student outcomes were determined. The 1990-91 report cards contain results of the…

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships between and among various demographic and test score data with American College Testing (ACT) scores in 281 Tennessee high schools. This study also addressed which high school characteristics were related to the number of students meeting the ACT requirement for Tennessee lottery…