The Effects of School Facility Quality on Teacher

Retention in Urban School Districts

National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities
Jack Buckley
Lynch School of Education, Boston College
Mark Schneider
Department of Political Science, Stony Brook University
Yi Shang
Lynch School of Education, Boston College

February 2004
Abstract
The attrition of both new and experienced teachers is a
great challenge for schools and school administrators
throughout the United States, particularly in large urban
districts. Because of the importance of this issue, there
is a large empirical literature that investigates why
teachers quit and how they might be better induced to
stay. Here we build upon this literature by suggesting
another important factor: the quality of school facilities.
We investigate the importance of facility quality using
data from a survey of K-12 teachers in Washington, D.C.
We find in our sample that facility quality is an important
predictor of the decision of teachers to leave their
current position.
Introduction
A major component of the No Child Left Behind Act
(NCLB) mandates that all teachers in core subjects be
"highly qualified" by 2005-6. Leaving aside the debate
over the definition of "highly qualified," few would
challenge the assertion that the nation needs to attract
the best possible teachers to the profession. However,
as school administrators and education researchers
have long known, hiring bright new teachers is only part
of the problem-the attrition of both new and experienced
teachers is as great a challenge for schools and school
systems.
The importance of the issue of teacher retention has led
to a substantial literature on the subject in the field of
education research. In this paper, we make two
contributions to this literature. First, we argue that the
quality of school facilities is an important factor in the
decision making of individual teachers. Although, as we
note below, the importance of facility quality has been
studied only in the context of teacher retention in

developing countries, we believe that it is also relevant in

the United States, particularly in large, urban school
districts where facility quality is often poor.
Second, we test our argument empirically by comparing
the effect of facilities, ceteris paribus, to other factors
identified in the literature that affect teacher retention. To
do this, we use data from a survey of teachers in
Washington, D.C. conducted in the Spring of 2002. We
find that, even when controlling for a host of other
factors, the quality of school facilities is an important
predictor of the retention/attrition decision.
We begin with a brief review of the relevant literature on
teacher retention. After this, we discuss why facilities are
important. We then present our empirical evidence and
conclude with some implications of this research for
educators and policy makers.

Why Do Teachers Quit?

Many analysts argue that current school staffing
problems are caused as much by teacher attrition as by
the failure to attract new teachers. Indeed, research has
shown that approximately one-quarter of all beginning
teachers leave teaching within four years (Benner 2000;
Rowan et al. 2002). In general, teachers list family or
personal reasons, such as pregnancy, the demands of
child rearing, and health problems as reasons for leaving
the profession. Job dissatisfaction, primarily due to poor
salary, poor administrative support, and student
discipline problems, is also among the most frequent
reasons teachers give for leaving the profession (Tye
and O'Brien 2002; Ingersoll 2001; MacDonald 1999). In
addition, some qualitative research indicates that more
general factors, including government policies, portrayal
of teachers in the mass media, and community attitudes,
also influence teachers' general esteem and status in
society, which features largely in their professional
commitment and morale.
Because there are so many possible factors identified in
the literature that influence retention, we organize our
review of the literature below into factors related to
teachers, schools, and communities.

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Effects of School Facility Quality on Teacher Retention

Teacher Factors
Relatively low wages (especially considering the number
of years of higher education that the average, statecertified teacher has completed) are frequently cited as a
cause of teacher attrition. For example, in a 2002
survey, teachers in California who are considering
leaving the profession rank "salary considerations" as
the most important factor driving their decision (Tye and
O'Brien 2002). Similarly, Gritz and Theobold (1996) find
that compensation is the most important influence on the
decision to remain in the profession for male teachers
and experienced female teachers.
Using the National Longitudinal Study of the High School
Class of 1972 (NLS-72), Stinebrickner (2001) develops a
more complex model of the effect of wages on attrition in
the context of the larger labor market. According to this
research, graduate education and teaching experience
are significant determinants of teaching salary, which, in
turn, has a positive effect on teacher retention. While
men and women receive similar wages in teaching, men
have much greater opportunities for higher-paying nonteaching jobs. Individuals with higher SAT math scores
have notable wage advantage in non-teaching jobs but
lose it if they choose to teach. In turn, the relative
attractiveness of non-teaching jobs may be the primary
cause of teacher attrition for the academically gifted
teachers (as measured by SAT math scores) and male
teachers, but not necessarily for the other teachers. This
is supported by the fact that most teachers who quit
teaching quit the workforce altogether (also see
Murnane and Olsen 1989, 1990). From a comparative
perspective, Dolton and Klaauw (1995) report that
teacher attrition rate in the U.K. is also driven by poor
salary relative to non-teaching jobs.
The idealism of teachers also matters. Perhaps counterintuitively, there are higher attrition rates among
teachers who have a strong "service ethic" (measured
by the importance of service to society for individual
teachers relative to other motivations to teach). Miech
and Elder (1996) find that evidence of this effect is still
strong after controlling for variables such as family SES
background, occupational commitment, salary, marital
status, number of children, public-private schools, race,
employment history, and academic ability. The authors
offer various explanations for the high attrition rates
among idealists, perhaps the most compelling one
suggests that school environment in general provides
less than sufficient guidance on the goals, means, and
evaluation of their work and people who are highly
service-motivated get easily frustrated with this
uncertainty.

There are debates about the effects of teacher

preparation on recruitment and retention. Teachers who
graduate from traditional university-based programs
have lower attrition rates than teachers with other, nontraditional forms of preparation (Harris, Camp, and
Adkison 2003). A large percentage of new teachers also
report that the teacher preparation programs they went
through did not provide enough help for them to cope
with their first-year experience, which intensifies the
need for proper mentoring, professional development,
and administrative support in their working environment
(Tapper 1995).
School Factors
Hanushek, Kain and Rivkin (forthcoming) argue that,
while clearly important, teacher salaries are not all that
matter-they show that teacher preferences across a
range of job and school conditions may be just as
important as salary in the retention decision. According
to their study, "teachers might be willing to take lower
salaries in exchange for better working conditions" (also
see Antos and Rosen 1975; Chambers 1977; Murnane
1981; Baugh and Stone 1982; and Hanushek and Lugue
2000).
Rosenholtz and Simpson (1990) offer a detailed analysis
of how organizational factors contribute to teacher's
commitment to the workplace. Their evidence shows that
school management of student behavior and the burden
of non-teaching obligations affect new teachers'
commitment much more than it does experienced
teachers (see also Hargreaves 1994; Macdonald 1995).
On the other hand, experienced teachers appear to be
more concerned with the discretion and autonomy they
have in their schools. Other important predictors of
teachers' commitment include: performance efficacy-a
teacher's perception of how his or her teaching, in the
particular school context, will affect students' learning;
psychic rewards-a variable which, like performance
efficacy, is generated both from a teacher's own
qualification and from school's organizational quality that
allows free flow of supportive/constructive feedback; and
learning opportunities-including mentoring for new
teachers and other plans for professional development.
Rosenholtz and Simpson (1990) further find that
teachers' commitment to the workplace, measured by
their disaffection, absenteeism, and defection, is highly
correlated with turnover.
The lack of resources in a school also contributes to
teacher job dissatisfaction, which then can lead to
attrition. In interviews with public school teachers in New
York City, a large percentage of new teachers said they
did not have access to adequate basic supplies. Most

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Effects of School Facility Quality on Teacher Retention

teachers had to use their own money to equip their

classroom. Of the teachers interviewed, 26 percent
report spending $300 to $1000 of their own funds on
classroom supplies over the year, 14 percent spent $100
to $200, and 12 percent $50 to $75. In addition to this,
most teachers report that they do not have enough
textbooks or that the textbooks they do have are in poor
condition. In turn, photocopying materials becomes a
considerable part of their tasks, but school copy
machines are frequently broken, and teachers have to
rely on family, friends, or other private resources to
reproduce the materials (Tapper 1995).

In the United States this problem may again be

exacerbated by the same legislation that currently
mandates high quality teachers. As several researchers
have suggested, the provisions in NCLB that brand
schools as failing if they do not meet "adequate yearly
progress," by stigmatizing them with the "in need of
improvement" or failing label, may perversely increase
the difficulty of hiring and retaining good teachers in the
schools where they are needed most (Darling-Hammond
and Sykes 2003; Figlio 2001).

Ironically, NCLB itself may be working against the

improvement of the nation's stock of quality teachers. In
Tye and O'Brien's (2002) survey of teachers, the topranked reason for quitting teaching among those who
had already left the profession is "accountability" and the
increasing use of high-stakes, standards-based testing
with the associated "drill and kill" curricula that often
come with it (see also Darling-Hammond and Sykes
2003).

Myriad factors clearly affect teacher retention, but most

teaching takes place in a specific physical location (a
school building) and the quality of that location can affect
the ability of teachers to teach, teacher morale, and the
very health and safety of teachers. Despite the
importance of the condition of school buildings, serious
deficiencies have been well documented, particularly in
large, urban school districts (see for example, GAO
1995). Moreover, since school buildings in the United
States are, on average, over forty years old-just the time
when rapid deterioration often begins-we should expect
problems with school facilities to worsen.
Many factors contribute to the quality of the school
building and, in turn, affect the quality of teacher life and
educational outcomes. For example, poor indoor air
quality (IAQ) is widespread and many schools suffer
from "sick building syndrome" (see, for example, EPA
2000), which in turn increases student absenteeism and
reduces student performance (see EPA 2000; Kennedy
2001; Leach 1997; Smedje and Norback 1999; Rosen
and Richardson 1999). Since current student-focused
asthma studies show that students lose considerable
school time because of the poor conditions of schools, it
is not surprising to find that poor IAQ also affects
teachers' health. In our study, fully two-thirds of
Washington teachers surveyed reported poor indoor air
quality in their school.

Community Factors
Erratic government education policies (such as those
relating to teacher licensing and certification) and
unresponsive education bureaucracies are a significant
source of frustration for new teachers. Tapper (1995), for
example, reports that a majority of the teachers
interviewed "spoke at length and with anger" about the
confusion of policies, the lack of clear and accurate
information, and repetitive and costly licensure or
certification procedures. Some also expressed worries of
staying in the teaching profession because of
government budget-cutting.
Another important factor in the retention decision may be
the social status of the teaching profession in the
broader community (Tye and O'Brien 2002). In
interviews with rural Australian teachers, for example, a
primary source of their anxiety about the profession was
dealing with a misinformed community. Teachers report
that they have to repeatedly battle public stereotypes
that their professional day begins at 9:00 am and ends at
3:00 pm, that they enjoy high salaries and numerous
vacations, and that their jobs are easier than most other
professions. All the teachers in the sample report being
alienated from people in non-teaching professions.
Overall, teachers find a professional paradox-their
community has great expectations from education, but
teachers are accorded low social status and held in low
esteem (Jones 2001).

Do School Facilities Matter?

Another area in which research has linked school

facilities to teacher performance is thermal comfort.
Lowe (1990) found that the best teachers in the country
(winners of State Teachers of the Year awards)
emphasized their ability to control classroom
temperature as central to the performance of both
teachers and students. Lackney (1999) showed that
teachers believe thermal comfort affects both teaching
quality and student achievement. Corcoran et al. (1988)
focused on how the physical condition of school
facilities, including thermal factors, affects teacher
morale and effectiveness (also see Heschong Mahone
Group 2002).

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Effects of School Facility Quality on Teacher Retention

Classroom lighting plays a particularly critical role in

student performance (Phillips 1997). Jago and Tanner
(1999) cite results of seventeen studies from the mid1930s to 1997. The consensus of these studies is that
appropriate lighting improves test scores, reduces offtask behavior, and plays a significant role in the
achievement of students. Over 21% of the Washington
DC teachers that responded to our study reported that
the lighting in their school was inadequate.
Recently there has been renewed interest in increasing
natural daylight in school buildings. Until the 1950s,
natural light was the predominant means of illuminating
most school spaces, but as electric power costs
declined, so too did the amount of daylighting utilized in
schools. But recent changes, including energy efficient
windows and skylights and a renewed recognition of the
positive psychological and physiological effects of
daylighting, have heightened interest in increasing
natural daylight in schools (Benya 2001).

performance. Indeed, it appears that external noise

causes more discomfort and lowered efficiency for
teachers than for students (Lucas 1981). Again schools
in our study are failing to provide this basic input to
education: Almost 70% of Washington teachers report
that their classrooms and hallways are so noisy that it
affects their ability to teach.
While a literature linking school facilities to learning
outcomes and teacher morale is developing, there is
little research on the effects of school facility quality on
teacher retention decisions. What literature there is
limited to research on the education systems of
developing nations, where the poor condition of
classrooms, lighting, and furniture have been linked to
attrition (Chapman 1994; Kemmerer 1990). The
possibility of a direct link between school facility and
teacher turnover, however, has not been well-explored in
this literature. It is this link that we explore next.

A Multivariate Model
Lemasters' (1997) synthesis of 53 studies pertaining to
school facilities, student achievement, and student
behavior reports that daylight fosters higher student
achievement. The study by the Heschong Mahone
Group, covering more than 2000 classrooms in three
school districts, is perhaps the most cited evidence
about the effects of daylight. The study indicated that
students with the most classroom daylight progressed
20% faster in one year on math tests and 26% faster on
reading tests than those students who learned in
environments that received the least amount of natural
light (Heschong Mahone Group 1999; also see
Plympton, Conway and Epstein 2000). Despite the
importance of natural lighting for learning and
achievement, over 20% of the teachers in Washington
DC reported that they can't see through the windows in
their classroom.
The final facility condition that we note here pertains to
noise levels. The research linking acoustics to learning is
consistent and convincing: good acoustics are
fundamental to good academic performance. Earthman
and Lemasters (1997) report three key findings: that
higher student achievement is associated with schools
that have less external noise, that outside noise causes
increased student dissatisfaction with their classrooms,
and that excessive noise causes stress in students
(1997:18; also see Crandell, Smaldino, and Flexer 1995;
Nabelek and Nabelek 1994; ASHA 1995; Crandell 1991;
Crandell and Bess 1986; and Evans and Maxwell 1999).
Teachers also attach importance to noise levels in
classrooms and schools. Lackney (1999) found that
teachers believe that noise impairs academic

To test the extent to which facilities quality affects

teacher retention, we use data from the survey of
teachers in Washington, D.C. noted above. Our
dependent variable is the dichotomous response a
question that asked teachers: "Do you plan to remain
another year in your current school?" Thus we are
operationally defining attrition more narrowly than a
departure from the profession-however, retaining
teachers in any given school is essential to its
functioning and ultimately to meeting the mandate of
NCLB.
The review of the literature above identified many
potential factors associated with teacher retention.
Therefore, in order to get an accurate estimate of the
effect of school facilities on teacher retention decisions,
we must control for other factors in any empirical model.
Accordingly, we estimate a maximum-likelihood probit
regression of the individual teacher's reported decision
to stay (coded 1 if yes) on a set of covariates reflecting a
host of factors that may drive the retention decision.
Our main variable of interest is the condition of the
school facility, reflected by the grade that the teacher
assigns to their school facilities (on the familiar A-F
scale, which we treat here as a continuous measure). In
addition, we include a series of measures that reflect
individual, school and community factors that can affect
the propensity to leave. These include such individual
measures as the respondents' age (actually measured
categorically but assumed to be continuous here) and
their age squared (to account for a likely nonlinear

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Effects of School Facility Quality on Teacher Retention

To reflect school and community conditions, we measure

the level of satisfaction with their central district
leadership and management; the level of involvement of
parents and the local community; whether community
and parents are "very important;" and whether they
would be willing to be involved planning improvements in
their school's facilities.

As Table 2 shows, we find a statistically significant

coefficient for the effect of facilities grade on the decision
to stay. As the perceived quality of the school facilities
improves, ceteris paribus, the probability of retention
increases. We also find significant effects for teacher
age, dissatisfaction with pay, dissatisfaction with the
involvement of parents and the community, and for
length of service at the present school. Overall, the
model correctly predicts 83% of the observations, for a
modest but measurable reduction in error of 6% over
simply using the modal category to predict. In addition,
based on a chi-squared test of the ratio of loglikelihoods, we can reject a constant-only model
compared to the full model at p <.01.

Table 1: Factors that May Affect Retention

Table 2: Results of the Model

effect); whether the respondent is female; whether they

are "very dissatisfied" with their present salary; the
number of years spent at their present school; whether
they hold D.C. teaching certification; and dichotomous
variables for self-reported race as white or other (black is
the excluded, modal category).

Facilities Grade
Age (Categorical)
Female
Very Dissatisfied
with Pay
Very Dissatisfied
with Community
Very Dissatisfied
with Administration
Years at Same
School
(Categorical)
Community Very
Important
Willing to Volunteer
D.C. Certified
White
Other Race

Sample Mean,
Percentage, or
Modal Category
1.98
41-50
75.3%
21.2%
40.5%
26.2%
4-10

75.5%
50.3%
78.0%
18.7%
7.2%

Number of Observations = 835

Table 1 summarizes the list above and reports the
observed sample mean or proportion responding in the
affirmative for the various covariates. After listwise
deletion of missing values, the remaining sample size is
835. The results of the estimation of our model are
presented in Table 2. We should note that because, in
most cases, we received responses from several
teachers in the same school, we estimate robust
standard errors clustered on the reported D.C. school
building number (White 1980, Rogers 1993).

Facilities Grade
Age
Age Squared
Female
Very Dissatisfied
with Pay
Very Dissatisfied
with Community
Very Dissatisfied
with Administration
Years at Same
School
Community Very
Important
Willing to Volunteer
D.C. Certified
White
Other Race
Constant
Log-likelihood
Percent Correctly
Predicted
Percent Reduction
in Error

Coefficient
(Standard Error)
.117 (.059)**
.950 (.248)***
-.153 (.043)***
.137 (.104)
-.319 (.110)***
-.469 (.117)***
-.055 (.114)
.094 (.055)*
-.177 (.143)
.175 (.116)
-.025 (.120)
-.171 (.158)
.035 (.226)
-.455 (.406)
-346.78
83%
6%

*** p<.01; ** p<.05; * p<.10, two-tailed

Number of observations = 835

Coefficients are from prohibit regression of respondent's
intention to remain at present school. Standard errors
reported are robust standard errors (Huber-White)
clustered on individual schools.

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Effects of School Facility Quality on Teacher Retention

As is well known, due to the nonlinearity of the probit

model, we cannot gauge the magnitudes or relative
effects of the various factors on the retention decision
simply by looking at the estimated coefficients (Liao
1994). Accordingly, we compute predicted probabilities
using stochastic simulation (King, Tomz, and Wittenberg
2000; Tomz, Wittenberg, and King 2000) to explore our
results in greater detail. Our general approach is to
explore the marginal effect of the various factors
individually while holding the other covariates constant at
their observed sample means or, for dichotomous
variables, the modal values as reported in Table 1.

Figure 2: Comparison of the marginal effects of the

various statistically significant factors on the
predicted probability of the decision to remain at the
present school.

Figure 1: Predicted probabilities (and 95%

confidence intervals) of deciding to remain at
present school for increasing levels of school
facility quality, holding all other covariates constant
at their mean or modal values.
In Figure 1, we present predicted probabilities of an
average teacher deciding to remain at her present
school across increasing levels of perceived facilities
quality. As the figure shows, the mean predicted
probabilities increase over the range of grades, but at a
slightly decreasing rate. The maximum difference
between predicted probabilities is about .05-this
represents the predicted average increase in probability
of a teacher deciding to stay at her job were she moved
from a school with the lowest facility quality to one with
the highest and all other factors held constant.

As Figure 2 shows, the effect of facilities quality, while

small in comparison to the effect of being middle-aged
versus very young and the other two factors, is
nevertheless larger than the effect of dissatisfaction with
pay (p <.05). While this comparison is based on the
change of a school's facility quality from F to A, even a
change in perceived quality from F to only C yields an
increase in predicted probability of retention of .03almost two-thirds of the pay effect. In short, the effect of
facilities quality on retention is substantively significant.

Discussion
Schools and school districts attempting to increase their
rate of teacher retention have several possible
strategies, some more feasible than others. The results
of our empirical analysis suggest that the most important
factors-age and time in service at the school-are largely
not under the control of administrators.
Of the remaining significant factors, pay, parent and
community involvement, and facilities quality, the one
with the largest effect is improving the teachers'
relationship with parents and the broader community.
Strategies to accomplish exactly this have been a staple
of education reform for decades, but progress is difficult
and the challenge of increasing parental involvement is
perhaps greatest in urban districts such as Washington,
D.C., the school system we study in this research.
Increasing teacher salaries appears to improve
retention, but this is also a difficult task in a time of

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Effects of School Facility Quality on Teacher Retention

reduced budgets-and personnel are the single largest
expense in the provision of education.
Improving the quality of school facilities can be
expensive as well. However, as our research here
suggests, the benefits of facility improvement for
retention can be equal to or even greater than those
from pay increases. Furthermore, a major facilities
improvement is likely to be a one-time expense, last for
many years, and have supplemental sources of state or
federal funding available. It could thus be more costeffective teacher retention strategy than a permanent
salary increase for teachers in the medium- to long-term.
Indeed, in the limited research on facilities and retention
in developing nations, facilities improvement has been
found to offset low wages (MacDonald 1999; Oliveira
and Farrell 1993). Our research suggests the same may
be true in the United States as well.

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10

Effects of School Facility Quality on Teacher Retention

i There is a large literature linking facility quality to

educational outcomes. See for example, Cash (1993),
Earthman and Lemasters (1996), Lemasters (1997),
Lackney (1999), and Schneider (2002).
ii In the next few paragraphs we supplement our
review of the literature linking facilities to outcomes with
examples from Washington DC. The data upon which
these examples are drawn and which we use more
extensively later in the paper, are from a pencil-andpaper survey of all teachers in Washington, D.C.
administered in May-June of 2002. Approximately 25%
of teachers in the District returned the survey, which was
distributed and collected by building representatives of
the Washington Teachers Union.
iii In a study of Chicago teachers that paralleled the
DC survey, over one-quarter of Chicago teachers
reported asthma and respiratory problems as the most
frequent health problems they encountered. Another 16
% reported other problems (such as sinus infections)
that may also be linked to poor IAQ.
iv Recall that the response rate was about 25%.
Although this is rather low, it nevertheless represents an
improvement over much of the empirical literature on
retention. For example, Tye and O'Brien (2002) only
attain a response rate of 12.6% to their mail survey. The
key issue, of course, is whether-or-not the self-selection
to respond biases our results in any way (e.g. if only the
most disgruntled teachers respond). Even if this is true,
however, this self-selected sample may actually been
exactly those teachers most likely to respond to changes
in the various factors discussed below.

Sponsorship
This research was supported in part by the Ford
Foundation and the 21st Century School Fund through
its BEST (Building Educational Success Together)
program.

Authors
Jack Buckley
Department of Educational Research,
Measurement, and Evaluation
Boston College
Lynch School of Education
Campion Hall 336E
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
[email protected]
Mark Schneider
Department of Political Science
Stony Brook University
Stony Brook, NY 11794-4392
[email protected]
Yi Shang
Department of Educational Research,
Measurement, and Evaluation
Boston College
Lynch School of Education

v The number of teachers responding to the survey

from a given school ranges from 1 to 34, with an
average of about 13. As a sensitivity test of our model,
we also estimated a generalized estimating equations
(Liang and Zeger 1986) model assuming that the
teachers are exchangeable within schools. These results
are substantively similar to those reported below.
vi Note that the positive coefficient on age but the
negative coefficient on the square of age supports the
general conclusion of the teacher retention literature
that, "most of those who leave teaching in any given
year are either disillusioned beginners with just two or
three years in the classroom or 30-year veterans who
are ready to retire." (Tye and O'Brien 2002: 24).

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