The nature, causes, consequences, and symptoms of stress and burnout among health-care staff working with people affected by HIV are identified. The extent to which these characteristics are specific to HIV/AIDS workers is discussed. Some options for prevention and management of burnout are presented. (Author)

Describes a first-year teacher's experience teaching unruly seventh graders and how she has learned, to a degree, to smile and to be patient, and find consolation in those students who have written to her to express how much she has helped them through her teaching and counseling. (TB)

Describes ways in which professional development activities can be rewarding. Offers details from a support staff event at Wytheville Community College in Virginia as a template for a successful event. Focuses on planning, instruction, humor, camaraderie, and appreciation. (NB)

This study with 77 special education teachers examined degrees of burnout and number of heterogeneous disability categories, caseload size, and proportion of students with emotional impairments. Only the proportion of emotionally impaired students affected teacher burnout by increasing depersonalization. Burnout was also related to dissatisfaction…

Research on bullying has demonstrated the negative effects it has on both protagonist and victim. Schools ignore this dynamic at their own risk because ridicule can also lead to explosive incidents. Schools need to address this challenge by replacing a culture of hostile cliques with a climate of respect. (BF)

Members of Teaching K-8's staff describe their visit to Brigantine Elementary School in Brigantine, NJ, where they were introduced to so many outstanding educators and enthusiastic volunteers that they wondered whether this was the "perfect school." Acknowledging that the school has some flaws, the Teaching K-8 staff note that Brigantine…

Approximately 70% of American high schools enroll 1000 or more students each, while almost one half of high schools enroll more than 1500 students each. A growing booty of evidence, however, is showing that small schools, especially small secondary schools, result in positive benefits for students, families, and communities that go beyond letter…

This study focuses on schoolteacher job satisfaction, dissatisfaction, morale, and facets of professional experience likely to lead to retention or exit from the profession within five years. It was undertaken in an English local education authority which has experienced difficulty in recruiting and retaining teachers. Forty facets of professional…

This practicum was designed to develop an incentive program for family home day care providers employed by an agency in Simcoe County, Ontario, Canada, that was undergoing a change from for-profit to non-profit status. During the period of changeover, provider uncertainty as to their status led to declining morale, lack of focus, and resistance to…

This is the ninth in a series of biennial surveys of Texas public school teachers, which have been taken since 1980 to form a database of demographic information related to characteristics of Texas teachers. A computerized systematic sample of Texas teachers (N=599) was selected from a population of 100,000 members of the Texas State Teachers…

Strategies for teacher retention are presented, including successful approaches and elements for operating a state system for personnel recruitment and retention in special education. Such initiatives as the Utah Mentor Teacher Academy; the Texas Teacher Recruitment, Retention and Assistance Program; and the Kansas Recruitment/Retention Project…

Research on school effectiveness has underscored the importance of the personal investment and commitment of teachers to education in general, as well as to the particular mission of their own school. This paper presents three analyses that examined the relationships among teachers' perceptions of school leadership, school culture, and teacher…

Findings of a study that determined factors of beginning teachers' work and career choice commitment and retention are presented in this paper. The data consisted of a nationally representative sample of first-year K-12 public and private, full- and part-time teachers derived from the 1987-88 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS). The final subsample…

Data collected during the 1989-90 school year reveal that middle schools in Guam exist in name only, with one notable exception. F. B. Leon Guerrero Middle School has implemented an interdisciplinary team model boasting many of the salient features of true middle schools. Leon Guerrero teachers rated the extent their school provided for students'…

A recent issue of importance in the vast literature on well-being and age concerns the factorial invariance of the construct across age groups. Current wisdom suggests that while differences in loadings exist among age groups, the construction of summary measures introduces little bias. To investigate age and ethnic variation in the meaning of…