Chapter 8: The S.T.A.Y. Culture: Why Teachers in Faith-Based Schools Stay

Concerns over teacher attrition and teacher retention have been the focus of educational leaders for decades. Principals are held responsible for student achievement without having any direct contact with students in the classrooms. Because student achievement is the ultimate objective, principals must indirectly contribute to student achievement through hiring and retaining teachers who have a commitment to the school and who share a belief system consistent with the philosophy or ideology of the school. Principals must also cultivate a higher collective teacher efficacy as well as greater teacher commitment to school mission, school community, and schoolcommunity partnerships, all of which directly affect student achievement. Most of the current research highlights these concerns in the public sector. The research on why teachers choose to work and remain in the Christian sector is scant; therefore, the need to determine such factors was necessary. In this mixed-methods approach the researchers collected quantitative and qualitative data from K-8 principals and teachers in Christian schools in the Greater New Orleans area. Two survey instruments developed by the researcher, The Principal Survey and the Teacher Survey, were used as well as a focus group protocol. The purpose of this research study was to investigate teachers’ perceptions of factors which contribute to higher retention in Christian schools. Further, a framework emerged and was developed using the acronym “S.T.A.Y.”—support, teamwork, autonomy, and yearly growth— to consolidate thematically teacher retention factors attributed to job satisfaction. Findings indicated that the participating schools retained 99% of their teachers over a 3-year period. Moreover, 89% reported that their personal alignment with the organizational vision and mission was very important based on their Christian values, faith-based curriculum, freedom to pray, and their beliefs of core values of the school community.