Racial Mismatch and School Type: Teacher Satisfaction and Retention in Charter and Traditional Public Schools

Studies of teacher satisfaction suggest that satisfaction is related to both the racial composition and the organizational structure of the schools in which teachers work. In this article, the authors draw from theories of race and organizations to examine simultaneously the effects of school type (traditional public vs. charter) and racial mismatch on teacher satisfaction and subsequent turnover. In doing so, they examine the organizational differences between traditional public and charter schools that contribute to systematic differences in satisfaction and turnover across these school types. Using 1999-2000 Schools and Staffing Survey data, the authors find that charter school teachers are more satisfied than are public school teachers because of greater autonomy. Charter school teachers, however, are more likely to leave teaching than are traditional teachers. The authors also show that teaching in racially mismatched schools results in lower levels of satisfaction for white teachers and that being in a charter school reduces this negative effect.