Behavior management skills as predictors of retention among South Texas Special Educators.

A survey of South Texas Special Education teachers was conducted to determine how they perceived their behavior management skills in the classroom and what effect, if any, this had on their job satisfaction. The majority of teachers were confident in their ability to accomplish the management demands of the classroom. The teachers who showed the least confidence were the novice teachers. Most teachers had a variety of disabilities in their classroom during the same class period. No one disability appeared to affect behavior management, but grades two through seven appeared to be the most difficult to manage. Since novice teachers seemed to have the least confidence in their ability to manage the class, the recommendation was that mentors and/or extra training during the school year might help these teachers build their skills and confidence.

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One of the most important goals of the Bush Administration has been to support State and local communities in creating and maintaining a system of public education where no child is left behind. Under Section 3, Duties and Commission Report, the Order continues to state that an analysis of, and recommendations regarding, how the Federal Government can help State and local education agencies provide a high-quality education to students with disabilities, including the recruitment and retention of qualified personnel and the inclusion of children with disabilities in performance and accountability systems. With reflections of this Order, Texas A&M University-Kingsville initiated a study to evaluate the retention of special educators in South Texas. A survey was distributed to school districts throughout Educational Service Center Region 11 to poll teachers in the field of Special Education concerning teacher satisfaction. These criteria may provide insight on factors affecting teacher retention and a possible means to promote teacher longevity.

Statement of the Problem

School districts need to determine why their teachers are leaving if they hope to improve teacher retention. Teacher job satisfaction has been shown to be a predictor of teacher retention, determinant of teacher commitment, and, in turn, a contributor of school effectiveness (Shann, 1998). Moreover, special education attrition is considered to be the most troublesome issue facing the field of special education today. Special educators leave the classroom at about twice the rate of their regular education colleagues and some areas report attrition rates as high as 50% yearly. Reasons for attrition among special educators vary but some citings include (White, 1999):

* Support of teachers

* Classroom management

* Behavior management of students

According to the Texas Board for Educator Certification (2000, November), Texas is facing a serious teacher shortage because of increasing student enrollment coupled with decreasing rates of teacher retention. In the 1998-99 school year, Texas school districts had to fill over 63,000 teaching positions. No organization should be satisfied with losing its best personnel at anytime, and yet evidence suggests that education is indeed losing many of its most talented people.

Over the past 8 years, professionals in special education have contributed a growing body of research to this knowledge base, examining factors related to decisions of special educators to remain or leave the field and describe the exact nature of special education teacher attrition. A national survey of over 1,000 special educators recently conducted by the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) concluded: Poor teacher working conditions contribute to the high rate of special educators leaving the field, teacher burnout, and substandard quality of education for students for special needs (Gersten, 2001).

A review of research conducted on the relationship of behavior management and teacher outcomes by Paul Barton (2001) led him to conclude that discipline does make a difference in teachers leaving. Figure I demonstrates trends tracking problem behaviors in school year 1990-1991 as compared to school year 1996-997. The trends were found to be generally unfavorable.

[FIGURE I OMITTED]

Moreover, among teachers of students who experience emotional or behavioral difficulties, professional attrition has reached crisis proportions. Teachers of students with emotional or behavioral difficulties reported higher rates of occupational stress, job-related distress, and attrition. Occupational complexity is reflected in the task demands and roles that often leave these teachers overwhelmed and unable to cope, therefore, reducing their commitment to their job. These teachers reported they were more fearful of physical and verbal abuse, were troubled by loud and noisy students, and were concerned about student discipline. These teachers were also concerned with their interpersonal relationships with their students and a lack of long-term influence on student academic and prosocial skills (Wisniewski & Gargiulo, 1997).

Surveys of graduates of education schools and colleges indicate that the number one area of concern of new teachers is their feelings of inadequacy in managing classrooms. Despite clinical experience including practicum, student teaching, and other observations in classroom settings, this problem has persisted. Effective teaching requires considerable skill in managing the myriad of tasks and situations that occur in the classroom each day. Skills such as effective classroom and behavior management are central to teaching and require "common sense," consistency, a sense of fairness, and courage. These skills also require that teachers understand, in more than one way, the psychological and developmental levels of their students (Noble, 2002).

Lack of discipline has topped the annual Gallup Poll of Public Attitudes towards public schools since 1968. The way teachers solve this problem will determine how well students learn and perform in the classroom. However, all too often teachers are unaware of the effectiveness of the discipline and classroom management techniques they adopt (Geiger, 1998). Stressed teachers are less effective in managing classroom disciplinary problems and more likely to use aversive techniques to modify student behavior. The use of aversive techniques further intensify a cycle of maladaptive behaviors and lead to student withdrawal (Wisniewski & Gargiulo, 1997).

One implicit aspect of job satisfaction is effective discipline or behavior management (Xin, & MacMillan, 1999). Hence, through the examination of survey document information provided from respondents, we can explore the outcomes of the survey with regard to behavior management as contributing factors towards teacher satisfaction in South Texas.

Procedure

Surveys were sent to ESC Region 11 and were distributed to all the Special Education Directors at a regularly scheduled meeting. In turn, the directors distributed the surveys to the current special education staff. Each staff member was to complete the survey anonymously to preserve privacy and return it to the director who returned the materials to Region 11. The surveys were then compiled and analyzed for the study. A total of 750 surveys were distributed with a 30% return of 228. A total of forty-eight school districts and charter schools were involved in the survey.

The survey instrument was composed of two sections. The first section required demographic information such as: age, marital status, gender, academic background, and teaching history. The second section contained a variety of inquiries concerning teacher satisfaction and the teaching environment with responses recorded in a Likert Scale format.

Research information from professional literature and information derived through system schools of Texas A&M University provided the inquiries developed for the second section of the survey. Special education professors from four other Universities reviewed the instrument for content validity.

Upon collection of the surveys, the data were analyzed to determine how behavior management abilities are described by special educators in public schools in Region 11 in South Texas. The Likert Scale format of the document required responses from five categories: I strongly disagree, 2-disagree, 3-neutral, 4-agree, and 5-strongly agree. Upon retrieval, data was divided into three groups: behavior management, classroom management, and reaching the most difficult student. The data was expressed in two categories from the Likert scale. Ratings of four or five were representative of strong skills resulting in satisfaction at work, while ratings of one to three represent less effective skills and diminished work satisfaction. A rating of three was considered neutral, without a definite opinion, in turn representing a tendency of dissatisfaction and less effective behavior management skills.

Analysis of Data

From the second section of the survey document, query number two stated: "I have strong skills in behavior management." Upon compilation of the data it was found that 88% of the teachers reported having strong behavior management skills leaving 12 % of the teachers with less effective skills in behavior management. The self-reported ease of classroom management displayed a de finite difference with only 42% of the teachers acknowledging strong skills. The teacher's selfreported ability to get through to the most difficult or unmanageable student reflected percentage ratings between the other results with 68% of the teachers portraying positive skills and 32% percent less skilled.

Further examination of the responses of teachers reporting less adequate behavior management skills was analyzed to determine factors what may contribute to the dilemma. When the number of employable years was broken down, it was found that the largest groups reporting inadequate behavior management abilities were newer teachers with 35.7% of the respondents having taught up to five years and 25% having taught between six and ten years. The next largest group had between sixteen to twenty years experience representing 17.7% of the respondents, while 14% of the respondents responded with twenty-one to twenty-five years of experience. Teaching experience beyond twenty-five years was less than one percent (figure 2).

[FIGURE 2 OMITTED]

In addition, teachers indicated that they served a multiplicity of disabilities within their classrooms, with a greater number of teachers serving the higher incidence disabilities and a fewer number of teachers serving the blind, deaf and autistic student (figure 3).

[FIGURE 3 OMITTED]

Information from the surveys also indicated that the largest group or 46% of teachers were college students before entering teaching and 32% of the teachers came from education-related fields before entering teaching (figure 4). Furthermore, the data suggest that 54% teach in small towns up to 10,000 in population followed by 25% of the teachers originated from cities of 5 1,000 or more.

After reflecting to determine teacher preparation or support concerning behavior management, the data implies that 74% of the teachers reported favorably towards professional development opportunities, while conversely 64% reported insufficient preparation at the university. Of the respondents, 40% of the teachers responded that a mentor was assigned to them upon their enhance into teaching. Moreover, respondents served multiple grade levels of which 46% percent were second through fourth grade. This number was equaled by fifth through seventh grade assignments. However, taking all the data into consideration, overall, 48% of the teachers indicated that they were satisfied with their job and happy teaching special education.

Conclusions

In consideration of the 30% response to the South Texas survey, this report is to be considered a sampling of the overall picture, thus making it difficult to draw definite conclusions or suggest unerring recommendations. Nevertheless, the survey can provide input and valuable considerations concerning teacher satisfaction and retention in the Region 11 Service Center area.

It appears that despite documentation of the influence of student behaviors on teacher retention, teachers within the Region 11 area have confidence in their ability to manage student behavior and their ability to get through to difficult students. This is accomplished despite the management demands of the classroom, which were indicated by respondents to be more demanding than the management of student behaviors.

In addition, evidence drawn from the respondents who reported weaker management skills indicates that the respondents tend to be new teachers between the ages of twenty and thirty. The majority of these teachers have come directly from the university setting and are employed in a small town. Even though a single disability did not appear to affect behavior management, data indicates that classrooms are comprised of students exhibiting a variety of disabilities, and/or students with multiple disabilities, and various grade levels. Grades two through seven appear to be slightly more difficult to manage compared to the remaining grade levels.

Small town classrooms are often comprised of multiple disciplines at the same time due to staff, scheduling or funding constraints within the school district. This evokes a more challenging environment on educators, especially novice teachers. Yet, the majority of the respondents replied positively concerning professional development opportunities and satisfaction in their careers at this time.

Recommendations

Even though a small number of teachers responded having weak skills in behavior management, these teachers are new and need to be prepared for long-term success in education at the district and university level. At the district level, effective mentorships

Behavior Management needs to be developed and implemented for inexperienced teachers. This may need to proceed into the second year of teaching. Allowing unskilled teachers to observe in the classroom of a master teacher offers modeling and training that can prove invaluable. This should not be substituted for professional development, but in conjunction with applicable staff development. Administrators may need to offer encouragement and establish specific training sessions in classroom and behavior management for novice teachers.

Districts need to assure that time to adequately plan and prepare for all students served is available to special educators. Lack of preparedness directly affects teacher control and function in the classroom. In turn, instruction, student achievement, and student behavior can be adversely affected.

Likewise, universities may need to examine student teaching programs. Universities need to probe into the amount or quality of time the student teacher has in class management from a variety of settings. Securing training in classrooms with multiple disciplines to expose and acquaint the student teacher with the demands that will be required is an option. Universities may want to examine the implementation of a follow-up program by tracking job placement of graduates and their success and concerns.

Figure 4

Occupation Prior to Teaching

College              46%
Education Related    32%
Industry             13%
Military              9%

Note: Table made from pie chart.

References

Barton, P.E. (2001, July). A policy information perspective: Facing the hard facts in education reform. Educational Testing Service. http:www. ets.org/research/pic/facing facts.pdf 6/15/01.

Gersten,R.; Keating, T.; Yovanoff, P.; & Hantiss, M.K. (2001). Working in special education: factors that enhance special educators' intent to stay. Council for Exceptional Children, 67(4), pp. 549-567.

Geiger, B. (1998). Discipline in K through 8th grade classrooms. Journal of Education, 121 (2), pp.383-393.

Nobel, A. (1998) Classroom Management and Managing Student Conduct. Newark: University of Delaware, Delaware Education Research & Development Center.

Shann. M. H. (1998). Professional commitment and satisfaction among teachers in urban middle schools. Journal of Education, 92(2), pp. 67-74.

U.S. Department of Education (2001, October). Executive Order 13227-The President's Commission on Excellence in Special Education. Washington, D. C.: U.S. Department of Education.

Texas State Board for Educator Certification (2000, November). The Cost of Teacher Turnover. Austin: Texas Center of Educational Research. White, M. (1999). A national program for beginning special education teachers: Mentoring induction project (MIP). Connections Newsletter, 3 (2), p. 1.

Wisniewski, L.; & Gargiulo, R.M. (1997). Occupational stress and burnout among special Educators: A review of the literature. The Journal of Special Education, 31(3), pp. 325-346.

Xin, M. & MacMillan, R.B. (1999). Influences of workplace conditions on teachers' job satisfaction. Journal of Educational Research, 93(1), pp. 39-48.

Ann Mitchell, BA, MEd., Educational Diagnostician, UVALDE, Texas. Mitylene Arnold, EdD, Professor, Special Education, Texas A&M University-Kingsville.

Correspondence concerning this article shold be addressed to Mitylene Arnold, Professor, Special Education, Texas A&M University-Kingsville, 700 University Avenue, Kingsville, TX 78363; Email: [e-mail].