Section four of the survey, specifically asked respondents to rate the factors that influenced their decision to accept a job offer. These factors related to financial issues, personal issues, working conditions, and support. The results are broken down by level of experience and whether the respondent was from Oregon or out of state. The results are broken down further by urban-suburban positions, small city positions and rural/isolated positions.

The September strategy briefing will discuss the results related to financial considerations. We will discuss additional factors in the coming months.

Financial Considerations

The research literature is unclear as to whether financial considerations significantly impact recruitment efforts. However, many authors do suggest various forms of compensation (i.e., merit pay, loan forgiveness, bonuses, and salary increases) as a way to attract and keep teachers in the field.

The responses to our survey were fairly consistent with this. While financial incentives such as hiring bonuses were not identified as being particularly important to many of the respondents (a little over 25%), salary and benefits did emerge as an important consideration in the decision to accept one job offer over another:

• While salary and benefits were fairly important to all categories of respondents, they were especially important to beginning special educators moving from another state and experienced career changers new to special education. Along a similar vein, one of the biggest complaints among experienced special educators who had moved to a new agency was the process and constraints associated with receiving credit for prior work experiences for placement on the salary schedule.
• Survey results indicate a wide disparity in the importance of salary and benefits by agency size or geographic location. Respondents working in small cities/towns or in rural/isolated settings did not indicate that salary and benefits were nearly as important as those working in an urban/suburban setting or an ESD serving varied settings.

Potential Implications for Policy and/or Practice: Salary and benefits are important. Current salary schedules reflect both historical patterns and budgetary constraints. The results of this survey, however, would indicate that other non-financial considerations are just as (or more) important than salary and benefits. Certainly agencies having lower salary schedules do need to promote these other considerations. While placement on a salary schedule based on previous experience is usually determined through the collective bargaining process, agencies may want to explore modifying existing agreements that are very restrictive. At the very least, agencies should ensure that the process for receiving credit for previous experience is not viewed as confrontational.