What Makes Public School Teachers Stay

This work differentiated three groups of public school teachers: those who Leave, those who become Non-teaching educators and those who Stay in teaching and then analyzed their personal characteristics, beliefs, and perceptions leading to their decision. Low pay was cited as one of the main reasons for leaving teaching entirely. Moving within education for a non-teaching position was the reason for leaving for non-teaching educators. Compared to the other two groups, those who stayed in teaching were more likely to be satisfied in their current job/position in several aspects such as- fringe benefits, challenge of work, and further education. Additionally, those who stayed were more likely to stay and be satisfied with their professions when they had autonomy in their classroom, student discipline and class size were not a problem, when they received support from parents and students had motivation to learn. Decision tree models showed that younger teachers were more likely to be satisfied with student motivation and support from parents.