Abstract
Problem. As we enter the twenty-first century, more so than ever before, the State of California has a shortage of teachers. As a result, schools have resorted to hiring teachers from an older pool of teaching paraprofessionals, uncertified and emergency-certified teachers, and returned Peace Corps workers. Despite these efforts, schools will still need thousands of new teachers over the next decade, due to rising student enrollments. To complicate matters, California has a large amount of teachers leaving the profession. They depart, in many cases, due to low salaries, poor working conditions, and in search of opportunities for advancement. Ingersoll (2001) tells us that these trends are a major concern for the teaching profession. Purpose. The purpose of this study was to explore the affect of socioeconomic factors in relation to secondary teachers in PUSD over 6 years. The period of data focused on teachers hired in 1999 and will track teachers for longevity until 2004. The purpose of secondary data is to determine if significant differences in longevity exist among teachers based on ethnicity, age, gender, length of service, and salary. Secondary data were used to support the findings. Methodology. As examining data on the national level was difficult to narrow down, this study focused on one region of the country, California. This study looked at aggregate data with regard to teacher retention in California; but to grasp the more detailed information with regard to personal reasons of retention, this study examined a case study on a diverse district within Los Angeles County—the Pomona Unified School District. Future. This chapter presents the summary of the findings, and conclusions drawn from the findings, and offers recommendations for the future research. There is a teacher shortage resulting from teachers leaving the profession. Darling-Hammond (2003) sees the challenge as follows: "The problem does not lie in the numbers of teachers available; we produce many more qualified teachers than we hire. The hard part is keeping the teachers we prepare" (p.7). If we want to keep the best and brightest teachers for our schools we must respect, trust, and appreciate them as professionals.