Teach For America is the largest supplier of novice educators in the United States as well as the largest postgraduate employment provider in the country. It is renowned for its unorthodox approach to teacher education, with the Summer Institute at the heart of its training model. The five-week, accelerated program is designed to prepare new recruits for their full-time teaching positions in the fall. Prevailing research on new teacher experiences, adult transitions, and teacher occupational stressors shows that teaching, especially in its early stages, is stressful. This empirical study explored self-perceptions of participant stress at Summer Institute, the coping responses employed by participants at Summer Institute, and the variation of experience by sociodemographic group. The mixed-method design included pre-and post assessments to understand stress and coping responses at Summer Institute. To establish a baseline of perceived stress and occupational stress factors, I administered the 10-item Perceived Stress Inventory (PSS10) and a modified teacher occupational stress inventory to 98 participants from Teach For America Los Angeles prior to their engagement with Summer Institute. Upon completion of Summer Institute, participants completed the PSS10, the occupational stress inventory, and the Coping Responses Inventory (CRI). I used socioeconomic background, race, and graduation year as variables for analysis. Based on participants' responses, I categorized them into subgroups by stress level and coping ability. Qualitative reflections from 16 participants with high/low stress and coping combinations provided further insight into trends from the quantitative data. Data from the pre-and post assessments revealed that perceived stress significantly increased during Summer Institute. Before the institute, participants anticipated that the workload and their relationships with students and other teachers would be the most stressful aspects of Summer Institute. Following the institute, they reported that workload and financial security were actually the most stressful factors. Participants from low-income backgrounds reported significantly higher levels of both anticipated and experienced occupational stressors. People of color and individuals from low-income backgrounds reported significantly higher levels of stress related to working with Summer Institute staff than their White peers and peers who did not identify as coming from low-income backgrounds, respectively. Additionally, participants from low-income backgrounds reported significantly higher levels of stress about working with students and about their financial security when compared to their White peers. Qualitative data confirmed the influence of task overload on stress and revealed that interpersonal conflicts seemed to be the most challenging and lasting form of stress for participants. Clashes in ideology and worldview were reported to be at the root of the most stressful moments at Summer Institute, typically materializing along racial lines. The findings from this dissertation can inform all teacher preparation programs but especially Teach For America about ways to improve new teacher training and development and bolster teacher wellbeing. Specifically, steps can be taken to better support new teachers in understanding how to anticipate and respond to stressors that may impede their ability to engage meaningfully in professional development. Investing time and energy in wellbeing for new teachers at the start of their careers could help ameliorate current challenges with teacher retention and job satisfaction.

Improve teacher retention by understanding and supporting the work of special education teachers! Are you concerned about special education teacher attrition? Do you wonder about how to meet the demand for highly qualified special educators? This book highlights the problems that drive many special educators out of teaching and outlines practical recommendations that leaders can use to increase retention. Drawing on field experience as well as research findings, Billingsley provides a comprehensive framework for supporting special educators. Cultivating and Keeping Committed Special Education Teachers provides effective ways to: Recruit and hire qualified special educators Provide responsive induction programs for new teachers Design effective professional development opportunities Create inclusive and collaborative schools Provide reasonable work assignments and reduce paperwork Promote wellness by reducing stress This book emphasizes the important role that principals play in supporting special educators and how they can make a difference in what special educators accomplish in their schools. Numerous assessments, tools, and resources are included to help leaders, mentors, and teachers improve the conditions of special education teaching.

This dissertation, "Teacher Stress Encountered by Hong Kong Secondary and Primary School Teachers: Similarity and Disparity" by Yee-mei, Loretta, Lam, 林綺薇, was obtained from The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) and is being sold pursuant to Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation. All rights not granted by the above license are retained by the author. Abstract: ********************************************************************* Abstract Research on teacher stress has become a major area of international research interest. This study begins with a quantitative research of teacher stress on primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong using a self-reported questionnaire, adapted from three well-known inventories on stress, i.e. the Teacher Stress Inventory, the Maslach Burnout Inventory, and the Barksdale Personal Stress Evaluation. Results of the quantitative research reveal that there are no significance between teacher stress and the demographic variables. Nonetheless, it reveals that overload is the major dimension of stress, and this factor is further investigated by a subsequent qualitative investigation in this study. Results confirmed that work overload was one of the main factors for teacher stress in the Hong Kong schools. The qualitative research also reveals major similarities as well as disparities on stress experienced between the primary teachers and their secondary counterparts in the Hong Kong context. ********************************************************************* 5 DOI: 10.5353/th_b3759867 Subjects: High school teachers - Job stress - China - Hong Kong Elementary school teachers - Job stress - China - Hong Kong

This quantitative causal-comparative study focused on different subscales of stress among teachers in Kanabec County, MN, who taught during the COVID-19 pandemic. Teachers' stress levels were compared among three groups (general education, special education, and specialist teachers), elementary versus high school teachers, and teachers' experience levels. In addition, teachers' overall composite scores from the three different school districts (Braham, Ogilvie, and Mora) in Kanabec County were analyzed. An adapted Teacher Stress Inventory (TSI) was used to gather data on the 10 subscales correlated with teacher stress. The TSI was sent out digitally to all teachers residing in Kanabec County with the approval of the superintendents from each school. Data were analyzed using independent t tests and ANOVA tests to determine differences between the teaching groups and school districts. There were three subscales (professional distress, cardiovascular manifestation, and work-related stressors) that showed statistically significant differences when comparing general education teachers with specialist and special education teachers.

First Published in 1993. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.