Date of Award

12-2023

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Educational Leadership

First Advisor

Dr. Tamara J. Williams

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to showcase the process of a local Research- Practice Partnership (RPP) with possible policy implications by analyzing teacher attrition patterns over many years. The RPP is a collaboration between a principal, the practitioner, and statistic students, the researchers. All groups were graduate-level students at the University of Nebraska-Omaha. This collaboration is part of the Nebraska Education Policy Research Lab (NEPRL). NEPRL is a collaboration between the Nebraska Department of Education (NDE) and researchers at the University of Nebraska. It was established as a learning lab to conduct rigorous research for the purpose of developing a body of evidence-based policy solutions that can be shared and applied widely within the Nebraska education system. To guide the research, a variation of the Plan, Do, Share Conceptual Framework was used to emphasize the need for expertise, trust, and adjustments throughout the RPP. The research was conducted using staff and student data provided by the Nebraska Department of Education, containing data from the years 1982 to 2021. The researchers explore various methodical calculations to make sense of the data, including a Survival Analysis Model. This research details the process of the Research-Practice Partnership and how expertise and trust were used and developed between the partners to make adjustments to gain useful results. The results found that teachers in Nebraska have higher attrition rates in the early and later years of their careers. Additionally, it was found that female teachers had a higher probability of leaving their role than males. White teachers were mostly to stay in their role compared to other ethnicities. Additional results also found that teachers’ average years of experience has been decreasing year to year. This research established that a Research-Practice Partnership is a reliable means to conduct a data analysis based on the Plan, Do, Share Framework. With further collaboration with NEPRL, this research should be expanded upon to gain further understanding of teacher attrition patterns in Nebraska.

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