- Year 2018
- NSF Noyce Award # 1439907
- First Name Timothy
- Last Name Scott
- Discipline Other: STEM, STEM
- Co-PI(s)
Hersh Waxman Texas A&M hwaxman@tamu.edu
Jenn Whitfield Texas A&M jwhitfld@tamu.edu - Presenters
Manjari Banerjee Texas A&M mbanerjee@tamu.edu
Need
Job satisfaction has been found to be an important determinant of teacher retention. Teachers who are more satisfied in their jobs have been found to stay in the profession longer (Borman and Dowling, 2008).While the Noyce scholarship is helpful in recruiting STEM teachers for high-needs, there is little research to show whether this specific incentive program is helpful in retaining teachers.
Goals
Our study is designed to analyze longitudinal data on job satisfaction from one such cohort of high-school STEM teachers, and to see if more Noyce scholarship recipients are happier in their jobs than their non-Noyce cohort. In doing so, we hope to establish a clear link between incentive programs, like the Noyce scholarship and teacher retention in STEM fields.
Approach
We conducted a multi-factor analysis of variance on a set of Noyce scholars and non-Noyce teachers (N=52) with data obtained from a three-year longitudinal panel study to determine if there were any differences in job satisfaction levels between these groups.
Outcomes
Results of the study did not yield statistically significant differences between the Noyce scholars and non-Noyce teachers.
Broader Impacts
Findings from this study suggest that deeper analysis of job satisfaction factors may be required to help determine the impact the Noyce scholarship may have on teacher retention, an example of which would be to include intrinsic factors that might effect job satisfaction in the data collection and analysis.
