Congratulations to Meghan McGourty who on Thursday, April 16, 2026, successfully defended her final dissertation.
The title of Meghan’s dissertation is, "JOB SATISFACTION AMONG SPECIAL EDUCATION ADMINISTRATORS IN NEW YORK STATE AND THE RELATIONSHIP TO TURNOVER INTENTION."
Overview of Problem: Special education administrators (SEAs) hold significant responsibility (e.g., IDEA compliance, IEP quality). Yet, compared to research on special education teachers, SEAs remain underrepresented in the literature. Existing studies often emphasize the technical and procedural demands of the role (e.g., compliance, paperwork, disputes, supervision), while giving less attention to the organizational and individual factors that shape job satisfaction and decisions to stay or leave. Turnover in these positions can disrupt program continuity, strain trust, and weaken the stability required for consistent, high-quality services.
Research Purpose: This study examines the relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intention among SEAs and explores whether administrator characteristics are associated with job satisfaction, with the goal of identifying actionable organizational levers that districts can use to strengthen retention.
Research Design: This quantitative, survey-based, study is guided by Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory and Mobley’s turnover process model.
Sample: SEAs serving in NY State school districts.
Data Collection and Analysis: Participants completed an online survey measuring job satisfaction, turnover intention, and demographic/background items. Analyses include descriptive statistics and correlational and group-difference analyses to examine relationships between job satisfaction, turnover intention, and selected demographic variables. Findings inform district-level retention strategies by clarifying which conditions are most strongly associated with SEA satisfaction and intent to stay.
Findings/Results: The results showed that job satisfaction was an important predictor of turnover intention among SEAs. Administrators who were more satisfied with their jobs were less likely to report intent to leave. Regression analysis was statistically significant and showed that variables in the model explained about 23% of the differences in turnover. Of all the variables examined, overall job satisfaction was the only significant predictor. Descriptive results revealed participants reported moderate job satisfaction overall, although their responses varied.
Conclusions/Implications: Findings suggest that job satisfaction plays a critical role in influencing SEAs’ intent to remain in their positions and that organizational factors may be key elements for improving retention. The lack of significance among demographic variables and turnover intention highlights the importance of workplace conditions over individual characteristics. These results emphasize the need to prioritize strategies that enhance job satisfaction to promote stability in special education leadership, thereby supporting program continuity and improved outcomes for students with disabilities.
Dissertation Committee Chair(s):
Dr. Nora C.R. Broege
Dissertation Committee Member(s):
Dr. Martin Fitzgerald
Dr. Selena Fischer
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