Journal of K-12 Educational Research 41 of the workplace factors, except for Baby Boomers rating Development with a lower value than the Millennials did. The results provide support to the theory that generational differences are more perceived than actual and secondary teacher retention can be addressed with the same solutions regardless of the age of the teachers. All five of the workplace factors were valued by the secondary teachers with means that ranged from 5.88 to 5.22 on a scale from 1 to 7, with 1 (Not important at all) to 7 (Must have to work there). An additional within-subjects ANOVA was performed, resulting in a rank of the factors from highest to lowest value 1. (1) Purpose/Recognition, 2. (5) Work-Life Balance, (4) Workplace Relationships, 3. (3) Leadership, and 4. (2) Development. RQ2 Secondary teachers’ values of the 41 items on the STVPQ were compared to the same teachers’ perceived presence of the items in their current school using a dependentsamples t test. There was a significant difference between value and presence on all five workplace factors; thus, all five areas are needing improvement to aid in retention of secondary teachers. The differences from greatest to least were in this order: (5) Work-Life Balance, (1) Purpose/ Recognition, (3) Leadership, (4) Workplace Relationships, and (2) Development. Recommended priorities are to focus initial efforts in the areas of (5) Work-Life Balance and (1) Purpose/Recognition since these factors were two of the three greatest valued and the two greatest differences in value versus perceived presence. The items that defined each workplace factor are listed in Table 2 with bold face type highlighting the Table 2 Highest Priority Workplace Factors Item Analysis Mean ratings Workplace factor/Item topic Value Presence Difference (5) Work-Life Balance Reasonable workload 6.08 4.33 1.75 Reasonable emotional demands 6.01 4.31 1.7 Reasonable performance expectations 6.06 4.87 1.19 Flexible schedule 5.58 4.35 1.23 Flexible location 4.68 3.89 0.79 Technology 6.01 5.53 0.48 Balanced Life 6.17 4.52 1.65 Confident rehired 5.57 4.59 0.98 (1) Purpose/Recognition Respected by community 6.42 5.19 1.23 Respected by campus leadership 6.12 5.35 0.77 Respected by parents 5.83 5.02 0.81 Respected by students 6.01 5.23 0.78 Students want to learn 5.76 4.62 1.14 Parents involved 5.55 4.44 1.11 Purpose in students’ lives 5.72 4.71 1.01 Receive recognition 5.46 4.52 0.94 Adequate/Fair Pay 6.03 4.47 1.56
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