Salient Factors of Urban Teacher Job Attraction Related to Job Satisfaction: An Empirical Study

Experts agree that selecting and retaining a quality teaching force is key to impacting schools and improving student achievement. A critical and less researched component of the teacher selection is the study of teacher job acceptance and job satisfaction. This study sought to address a gap in current research and to connect applicant job attraction factors with job satisfaction. Teachers in their first year of hire within a large urban school district in California were surveyed on factors related to their acceptance of job offer and their current job satisfaction. Respondents rated factors in four areas related to job acceptance: economic factors, school factors, community factors, and hiring process factors. Results showed that relational factors were most important to teacher acceptance of a job offer. A Step-wise linear regression equation revealed that only hiring process factors significantly predicted job satisfaction in the sixth month of employment.