Teacher retention is an important factor in determining a school’s learning environment. It is difficult for school administrators to implement new policies, effect necessary changes or meet higher standards when the teaching workforce is in constant flux. Low performing, high poverty urban schools are at a greater disadvantage because teacher retention in these schools tends to be lower than in higher performing schools. More qualified teachers are more likely to transfer out of lower performing schools, leaving the least qualified teachers to teach the neediest students.
Many factors contribute to teacher retention; we examine some in the following papers.
“Concern over low student performance has a long history, however, it has taken on recent urgency in an era marked by court cases that focus on adequacy, by dramatic increases in achievement information, and by widespread calls for accountability. Recent research has emphasized the link between teachers and student outcomes. An understanding of how schools differ in the qualifications of their teachers and the mechanisms driving these differences is useful for designing effective policies that address inequities or inadequacies in instructional resources.”
Who Leaves? Teacher Attrition and Student Achievement. September 2007. Donald Boyd, Pam Grossman, Hamilton Lankford, Susanna Loeb, and James Wyckoff.
Teacher attrition has attracted considerable attention as many federal, state and local policies intended to improve student outcomes focus on recruiting and retaining more qualified and effective teachers. However, policy makers are often frustrated by the seeming high rates of attrition among teachers early in their careers. This paper considers patterns of attrition and retention among teachers in New York City elementary and middle schools and explores the crucial question as to whether teachers who transfer among schools or leave teaching entirely are more or less effective than those who remain. We also consider how teacher attrition may enhance or reduce the misdistribution of teacher quality by the race, income and achievement of students in those schools. Our findings raise questions about current retention and transfer policies. Research Paper
Explaining the Short Careers of High-Achieving Teachers in Schools with Low-Performing Students. American Economic Review, May 2005, Vol. 95, No. 2. Donald Boyd, Hamilton Lankford, Susanna Loeb, and James Wyckoff.
This paper examines the decisions of elementary teachers in New York City to stay in the same school, transfer to another public school within NYC, transfer to a school outside NYC, or leave teaching altogether during the first five years of their careers. This study improves on existing research in that it examines how teachers’ transfer and quit behaviors are influenced by (i) interactions between teacher qualifications and school-level student achievement (ii) unobserved variation in teachers’ responses to school-level student attributes, and (iii) the distance from new teachers’ prior homes to their first jobs. Journal Article, Research Paper, Policy Brief (forthcoming).
Improving Science Achievement: The Role of Teacher Workforce Policies. May 2005. Donald Boyd, Hamilton Lankford, Susanna Loeb, and James Wyckoff.
This paper examines the difficulty hard-to-staff and low-performing schools have in hiring and keeping high quality teachers. Students failing to achieve even minimal levels of educational achievement are most dependent on their teachers and schools for academic learning, yet they typically are taught by individuals with relatively weak and/or inadequate qualifications. This study explores what traditionally hard-to-staff and low-performing schools can do to attract and keep the quality workforce that will provide their students with the requisite schools and learning demanded by future employers and required by state and national standards. Research Paper, Policy Brief (forthcoming)
The Impact of Assessment and Accountability on Teacher Retention: Are There Unintended Consequences? March 2005, Donald Boyd, Hamilton Lankford, Susanna Loeb, and James Wyckoff.
This paper examines the response of teachers to the implementation of state-mandated testing and uses data on every teacher in NYS public elementary schools from the 1994-95 school year through the 2001-02 school year. Specifically, the paper addresses the effect of testing on fourth grade teaching, including whether there is increased turnover among fourth grade teachers; whether teachers with certain characteristics react differently to the testing; and whether the characteristics of teachers entering the fourth grade have changed with the introduction of testing. The analysis finds that the turnover rate did not increase as expected, and that teachers entering fourth grade are less likely to be inexperienced relative to other teachers. Research Paper, Policy Brief (forthcoming)
Teacher Sorting and the Plight of Urban Schools: A Descriptive Analysis. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Spring 2002, Vol. 24, No. 1, 37-62. Hamilton Lankford, Susanna Loeb, and James Wyckoff.
This paper examines how average attributes of teachers vary exist across schools, identifies schools that have the least-qualified teachers and examines the distribution of these teachers over time; and explores how the distribution of teachers is affected by attrition, transfers and job-matching between teachers and schools at the start of their careers. Journal Article, Policy Brief (forthcoming)