What factors affect teacher mobility, attrition, and retention in U.S. public schools?

Research Questions
The researcher identified one specific and three general research questions.
Central question:
1. What factors affect teacher mobility, attrition, and retention in U.S. public schools?
Sub-questions:
1. What, if any, is the correlation between education/salary with teacher mobility?
2. What, if any, is the correlation between education/salary with teacher attrition?
3. What, if any, is the correlation between education/salary with teacher retention?
Objectives
The researcher aimed to achieve the following objectives:
1. Examine teacher mobility and attrition in the U.S. public schooling sector.
2. Investigate the impacts of teacher mobility and attrition levels in the U.S. public schooling sector.
3. Assess teacher retention practices in the U.S. public schooling sector.
The systematic approach to the research will be based on a literature review on the topic to assess the existence of gaps and niches for the study topic, followed by the methodology where the inquiry process will be described. After the methodology, the results will be highlighted, and discussion will be made regarding the study with correlation with the literature review findings. Subsequently, the research’s conclusion and recommendation will be made, and inferable outcomes deciphered in a practical setting. Thus, the dissertation is comprised of five chapters. The first chapter is an introduction to the investigation. In the first segment, the structure introduces the study and explains teacher attrition cases, retention practices, and mobility rates, globally and in the United States. The research also explains the problem that led to this investigation, and the objective of the research has been provided. The paper has enumerated the research questions and suppositions and the purpose and significance of the examination. A special section that guides the reader in comprehending this investigation’s scope and its discussions is included. The segment culminates with a description of the various elements of the introduction. In the second segment, the discoveries and conclusions of previous studies on the topic are made. The review is categorized into theoretical, empirical, and conceptual reviews to ensure the orderly evaluation of teacher mobility, retention and attrition concepts, empirical findings of previous researchers on teacher mobility, retention and attrition, theories, retention strategies, mobility rates, and attrition cases. The quantitative and qualitative data are presented, analyzed, and discussed separately. The paper concludes this section by sharing the crucial findings of the investigation. Lastly, chapter five contains a description of the conclusion and inferable outcomes of the findings and provides recommendations for future research work, policy, and practice.
Conceptual/Theoretical Focus
Using the Social Identity Theoretical Framework, various aspects of teacher retention, mobility, and attrition will be explored from collaboration and management. It will form the literature review groundwork where the social and economic factors underpinning teacher retention, mobility, and attrition will be achieved (Guan & So, 2016). The Social Identity Theory explores the self-concept and human agency from a collective and dynamic group sense that determines how individuals (s) relate to others and how they derive a sense of belonging or repulsion to people and their actions. From a pedagogical stance, Self-Identity Theory underpins how social systems in a teaching setting optimizes or minimizes the comfort and motivation to teach depending on how favorable the environment may be (Hogg, 2016). Hence, a Social Identity model of investigation is useful in assessing teacher mobility, retention, and attrition in public-sector education in the United States (Guan & So, 2016). The unfortunate ramifications of teacher attrition and mobility are detrimental to the future of public education, teacher labor supply, and teacher demand.
Further, assessing the increasing teacher attrition and mobility rates in schools around the United States and poor retention practices is feasible. The study has offered to identify practical solutions to the problems faced by both teachers and educational institutions. Profound motivation lies in examining the retention practices and attrition and mobility rates because of the increasing number of challenges caused by high attrition and low retention in most states. Increasing mobility and attrition robbed the teaching profession of its labor force, which is needed to achieve the millennium development goals. This study explores the challenges of teacher mobility, attrition, and retention faced in the United States and the implications of teachers’ attrition and mobility on the policy that governs the institutions, the imminent of education in the U.S, and the impacts of attrition and mobility on the interventions to eliminate or reduce attrition and mobility. Understanding the root causes of the teachers’ shortages from a Social Identity theoretical model will help implement resources that will reduce deficits. Previous researchers’ findings illuminate attrition, retention, and mobility in the teaching profession are inherently explored in Social Identity Theory. They are implicated in influencing the teaching and learning process from the teachers’ perspectives and thus bear relevance to the study topic (DeFeo, & Tran, 2019). The study’s narrative gaps that are identified through the literature review should also be correlated with Social Identity theoretical concepts. In the third section, the investigation procedure is illustrated in the context of teachers’ attrition and mobility rates. This section underpins the design, philosophy, strategy, approach, instruments, recording and analysis techniques, data gathering, and ethical aspects of the examination concerning answering the research questions and study objectives. In the fourth section, where the discussion of the data collected from the participants ensues, the social aspect of the problem is explored under a Social Identity theoretical lens.
Fundamentally, the assessment of the dependent variables, which are the socioeconomic factors influencing retention, attrition, mobility, and teacher perception, are implicated in the identification of aspects of teaching and learning that are affected. Teachers’ welfare, including remuneration, appraisal, and promotion, have important social and financial implications that influence retention, attrition, and mobility. As such, welfare should be explored in a positive light in the interest of teachers. Social Identity theoretical models implicated in teachers’ social cohesion in formal and informal contexts should be underpinned (Coleman, 2017). Thus, how teachers identify and categorize themselves and their teaching agency’s scope should be tailored to their professional workspace so that roles and responsibilities are well defined. Optimal participation, collaboration, and feedback are achieved. Social comparisons and collaborations also characterize teachers’ group dynamics and status and form the basis for professional engagement so that optimal teaching and learning is achieved (Hogg, 2016). These variables will be measured using comparisons and assessment tools based on evidence and practical application in teaching and learning frameworks and models and human agency social determinants such as relationships and finance. The intergroup competition and intragroup dynamics that create social categorization and avenues for social comparisons and collaborations will be achieved. A sense of positive distinctiveness between and among members of the teaching profession will thus be achieved, so that insight on what brings them together and represents their interests is overtly underpinned (Guan & So, 2016). Such an achievement will result in the delineation of how retention, attrition, and mobility occurs and how solving it can be achieved.
Definitions
There are various theoretical and operational definitions relevant to the Social Identity Theory. Theoretical definitions include:
I. Social categorization: social categorization refers to how similar or different people are from each other, determining how the group and identify themselves concerning each other (Hogg, 2016).
II. Social comparison: social comparison refers to how an individual or group identifies with itself and differentiates itself from other individuals or groups based on similar or different characteristics (Hogg, 2016).
III. Social identification: refers to how a person or group identifies and defines itself based on the people’s self-concept and how similar or different they are (Hogg, 2016).
 
Operational definitions include:
I. Intergroup competition: refers to the processes between groups that establish how different they are from each other and hence the attitudes and actions toward different groups in what is termed discrimination and prejudice, respectively (Guan & So, 2016).
II. Self-concept: refers to how individuals perceive themselves and form the basis for self-identity and social identification (Hogg, 2016).
III. Positive distinctiveness: refers to the processes of bringing out or refining the aspects of qualities of a group(s) to make it more distinct and desirable, so it is uniquely recognizable with other groups (Hogg, 2016).
IV. Teacher attrition: teacher attrition is the yearly rate at which instructors leave their careers. This rate can be calculated by computing the variance between the number of teachers each year to the total number of teachers from the previous year and then adding numbers to the new teachers’ (Oke et al., 2016).
V. Teacher mobility: teacher mobility is when instructors move from one teaching position, school, or specialty to another. Oke et al. (2016) calculated the mobility rate by completing new teacher admissions and pulling out during the year divided by the whole number at opening day official staffing.
VI. Teacher retention: teacher retention is a practice used by education stakeholders, such as a school administration, to maintain teachers. According to Oke et al. (2016), instructor retention motivates teachers to continue working at a specific school.
Significance
This investigation’s discoveries may be relevant to different stakeholders in the education sector, such as school administrators, state and federal governments, policymakers, teachers, and research fraternities. Investigating teacher attrition and mobility rates is crucial because doing so illuminates the problem across different states. Once a problem and its root causes are recognized, real and effective change can make it better. Education policymakers and government stakeholders can consider these results when discussing and deciding measures to reduce the looming crisis of acute teacher shortages (Chambers et al., 2019). This investigation can help teachers comprehend the dynamics of teacher attrition, mobility, and retention. As uncovered, most teachers who leave their jobs later rejoin the profession after five years, revealing a sophisticated issue. Teachers can look inward and assess their motivations for leaving or staying in their profession, helping them make informed decisions. School administrators may also appreciate this study’s findings as they illuminate the factors that cause teacher mobility and attrition. The school administrators will then find strategies that can be used to improve instructors’ working conditions and, thus, retention rates (Coleman, 2017). This study homes in on different aspects of teacher retention, mobility, and attrition, providing crucial information for stakeholders across the education sector.
There are various gaps that the study intends to fill by identifying potential niches for exploration. The study is centered on three subjects: teacher attrition, teacher retention practices, and teacher mobility rates, all within the United States. The investigation on attrition would be done by reviewing global and U.S. attrition statistics. The study focused on understanding factors that lead to attrition, preventive interventions, and their effects on teacher supply and demand dynamics in the teaching profession (Craig, 2017). The discourse on teacher attrition reviews researchers’ findings, concepts of attrition, and related shortcomings. This study also includes discussion on the U.S. mobility rates, focusing on contributing factors and their impacts. This study investigates retention practices, including current retention policies and strategies and implementing said policies for retaining teachers at high attrition–risk schools. The findings also have policy, research, and practice implications, extending the study’s impact. The study will underline the inherent gaps in the literature intended to be filled, including the nature of teacher mobility and attrition in the U.S. public schooling sector, by examining relevant data and information on the subject (Darling-Hammond et al., 2019). Investigation of the impacts of teacher mobility and attrition levels in the U.S. public schooling sector will also be underpinned and teacher retention practices in the U.S. public schooling sector. When these aspects of the study topic are underscored, the information inferred from the study outcome will be applied in pedagogical models and frameworks to optimize and enhance the teaching and learning experience of students, scholars, learners, and teachers.
Summary
Various aspects of the study’s introduction have been explored, including the nature of teaching in the context of attrition and retention rates and how it may be affecting teaching and learning. The significance of teaching in creating and nurturing human capital, a practice in which teachers are considered essential building blocks of the education sector, has been explored. Teachers’ initial position in primary education, their attrition, retention, and mobility, has been underpinned by showing their fundamental nature in terms of a students’ performance (Meyer et al., 2019). Hence, the teachers’ movement and how it affects equitable education has been underpinned. The challenges that emerge when measures are not taken to restore the workforce by recruiting new teachers have been suggested due to mobility and attrition with reduced retention and set the stage for subsequent aspects of the introduction. The problem statement has also been discussed and has been based on the increasing rate and incidence of attrition and the proliferation of teacher shortages that have increased across different states (Dee and Goldhaber, 2017). Although some teachers leave for other professions, some change their teaching specialty or school, thus leaving schools with inadequate teachers. Mobility rates have also increased due to teachers’ relocation, mainly from one school to another, hence showing that optimal teaching is becoming compromised with the need for urgent intervention. As such, the basis for the research question and study objectives was established.
The theoretical and conceptual focus of the research was also underpinned under the Social Identity Theory, which explores self-concept and human agency from a collective and dynamic group sense that determines how an individual(s) relates to others and how they derive a sense of belonging or repulsion to people and their actions. How the Social Identity Theory underpins social systems from a pedagogical stance in a teaching setting has been described, showing that it optimizes or minimizes the comfort and motivation to teach depending on how favorable the environment may be (Hogg, 2016). Thus, the theory’s usefulness in the investigation of the study problem by assessing teacher mobility, retention, and attrition in public-sector education in the United States is thus underpinned (Guan & So, 2016). Various theoretical and functional definitions of the study topic have also been described and the significance of the research. Hence, a basis for exploring the study problem concerning teacher attrition, teacher retention, and teacher mobility has been set for exploration in the literature review.