A study of the causes of teacher attrition in regular and
special education in Wisconsin The purpose of this study was
twofold. First, the study was undertaken to determine an
accurate picture of teacher attrition in Wisconsin based on
information from the Wisconsin Department of Public
Instruction's (DPI) data base. Secondly, the study sought to
discover causes of teacher attrition in Wisconsin and to
determine whether special education and regular education
teachers left for similar reasons. The study determined
attrition rates of regular and special education teachers over a
three year period (1984-1987) using the DPI data base. A survey
was then sent to a random sample of 400 teachers (100 regular
education teachers and 100 special education teachers who
remained in teaching; 100 regular education teachers and 100
special education teachers who left teaching). Principal
components analysis and Alpha factoring was used to reduce the
37 variables included in the survey to thirteen factors. On the
basis of t