Supportive Teacher Working Conditions as a Tool to Retain Non-Local Teachers in Rural Schools

June 2025

Rural school administrators prefer hiring homegrown teachers because they are more likely to stay than non-local teachers; however, administrators need to hire non-local candidates to meet their staffing needs. Our examination of rural teachers’ preferences for local was guided by person-organization fit theory. Specifically, we investigated the role of teacher working conditions (TWC) in the relationship between community connectedness and rural teachers’ job satisfaction and retention plans in one American state. More connected teachers held more favorable perceptions of TWC and were more satisfied and more likely to intend to stay. TWC mediated the connectedness-satisfaction relationship and partially mediated the connectedness-retention plans relationship. Our findings suggest that if rural administrators provide candidates with working conditions they perceive as supportive then non-local teachers will be equally as satisfied with their jobs as homegrown teachers and the differences in the two groups’ retention intentions will be reduced.

Keywords

homegrown teachers, job satisfaction, retention intentions, rural teachers, United States, working conditions

Education level

K-12 Education

Topics

Staffing, Finance, and Operations