| This study examined teacher characteristics, school characteristics, and organizational factors that relate to teacher job satisfaction and teacher retention by using national longitudinal datasets---1999--2000 School and Staffing Survey (SASS) and 2000--2001 Teacher Follow-up Survey (TFS) with Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) as the analytical technique.;The findings from this study indicate: (1) School climate, teacher autonomy, teacher compensation, and professional growth significantly influence teacher job satisfaction, among which, the effects of school climate and teacher compensation are the most prominent. (2) School climate, professional growth, and teacher job satisfaction significantly influence teacher retention, among which, the effect of teacher job satisfaction is the most prominent. (3) Movers are different from stayers in that teacher autonomy is significantly associated with professional growth, while the relationship does not exist for stayers. (4) Teacher age, years of teaching experience, and general field of main assignment have mediating effects on the paths either to teacher job satisfaction or to teacher retention.;In addition, a post-hoc analysis is conducted resulting in the following findings: (1) among all school climate factors, teacher participation in decision making is found to be the best predictor of teacher job satisfaction. Teacher compensation is as important as teacher participation in decision making as related to teacher job satisfaction. (2) Student preparedness to learn and parental involvement significantly influence teacher job satisfaction. (3) Parental involvement may to a certain extent buffet the effect of students' un-preparedness to learn on teachers' job satisfaction. This research lends more understandings to the phenomena of teacher job satisfaction and teacher retention. The implications for policy and practice are discussed. |
