Most prior research measures teacher turnover as an annual event, but teachers actually leave their positions throughout the school year. We use data from North Carolina to measure teacher turnover monthly throughout the entire year and conduct an analysis of their persistence to examine the differences in early career teacher turnover. Annually, 6% of early career teachers turn over during the school year. Teachers trained in traditional, university-based programs are most likely to move schools, and alternate entry and out-of-state prepared teachers are more likely to leave teaching, both during and at the end of the school year. We discuss the implications within-year turnover has on creating disruptive learning environments, particularly in underserved schools.
AllisonP. D. (2014). Event history and survival analysis (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
3.
BastianK. B.HenryG. T. (2015). Teachers without borders: Consequences of teacher labor force mobility. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 37, 163–183.
4.
BormanG. D.DowlingN. M. (2008). Teacher attrition and retention: A meta-analytic and narrative review of the research. Review of Educational Research, 78, 367–409.
5.
BoydD.GrossmanP. L.IngM.LankfordR. H.LoebS.WyckoffJ. (2011). The influence of school administrators on teacher retention decisions. American Educational Research Journal, 48, 303–333.
6.
BoydD.GrossmanP.LankfordH.LoebS.WyckoffJ. (2008). Who leaves? Teacher attrition and student achievement (NBER Working Paper 14022). Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research. Retrieved from http://www.nber.org/papers/w14022.pdf
7.
BoydD.LankfordH.LoebS.WyckoffJ. (2005). The draw of home: How teachers’ preferences for proximity disadvantage urban schools. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 24, 113–132.
8.
BuckleyJ.SchneiderM.ShangY. (2005). Fix it and they might stay: School facility quality and teacher retention in Washington, D.C. Teachers College Record, 107, 1107–1123.
9.
Carver-ThomasD.Darling-HammondL. (2017). Teacher turnover: Why it matters and what we can do about it. Palo Alto, CA: Learning Policy Institute.
10.
ChingosM. M.WestM. R. (2012). Do more effective teachers earn more outside the classroom?Education Finance and Policy, 7, 8–43.
11.
ClotfelterC. T.LaddH. F.VigdorJ. L. (2005). Who teaches whom? Race and the distribution of novice teachers. Economics of Education Review, 24, 377–392.
12.
ClotfelterC. T.LaddH. F.VigdorJ. L. (2007). Teacher credentials and student achievement: Longitudinal analysis with student fixed effects. Economics of Education, 26, 673–682.
13.
CullenJ. B.KoedelC.ParsonsE. (2016). The compositional effect of rigorous teacher evaluation on workforce quality (NBER Working Paper No. 22805). Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research. Retrieved from http://www.nber.org/papers/w22805.pdf
14.
Darling-HammondL.ChungR.FrelowF. (2002). Variation in teacher preparation: How well do different pathways prepare teachers to teach?Journal of Teacher Education, 53, 286–302.
15.
GoldhaberD.CowanJ. (2014). Excavating the teacher pipeline: Teacher preparation programs and teacher attrition. Journal of Teacher Education, 65, 449–462.
16.
GoldhaberD.GrossB.PlayerD. (2011). Teacher career paths, teacher quality, and persistence in the classroom: Are schools keeping their best?Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 30, 57–87.
17.
GoldhaberD.GroutC.HoldenK. L.BrownN. (2015). Crossing the border? Exploring the cross-state mobility of the teacher workforce. Educational Researcher, 44, 421–431.
18.
GoldhaberD.QuinceV.TheobaldR. (2018). Has it always been this way? Tracing the evolution of teacher quality gaps in U.S. public schools. American Educational Research Journal, 55, 171–201.
19.
GoldhaberD.StrunkK. O.BrownN.KnightD. S. (2016). Lessons learned from the Great Recession: Layoffs and the RIF-induced teacher shuffle. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 38, 517–548.
20.
GoldringE.GrissomJ. A.RubinM.NeumerskiC. M.CannataM.DrakeT.SchuermannP. (2015). Make room value added: Principals’ human capital decisions and the emergence of teacher observation data. Educational Researcher, 44, 96–104.
21.
GrissomJ. A. (2011). Can good principals keep teachers in disadvantaged schools? Linking principal effectiveness to teacher satisfaction and turnover in hard-to-staff environments. Teachers College Record, 113, 2552–2585.
22.
GrissomJ. A.LoebS.MasterB. (2013). Effective instructional time use for school leaders: Longitudinal evidence from observations of principals. Educational Researcher, 42, 433–444.
23.
GrissomJ. A.ReiningerM. (2012). Who comes back? A longitudinal analysis of the reentry behavior of exiting teachers. Education Finance and Policy, 7, 425–454.
24.
GuarinoC. M.SantibañezL.DaleyG. A. (2006). Teacher recruitment and retention: A review of the recent empirical literature. Review of Educational Research, 76, 173–208.
25.
HanushekE. A.KainJ. F.RivkinS. G. (2004). Why public schools lose teachers. Journal of Human Resources, 39, 326–354.
26.
HanushekE. A.RivkinS. G.SchimanJ. C. (2016). Dynamic effects of teacher turnover on the quality of instruction. Economics of Education Review, 55, 132–148.
27.
HenryG. T.BastianK. C.FortnerC. K. (2011). Stayers and leavers: Early-career teacher effectiveness and attrition. Educational Researcher, 40, 271–280.
28.
HenryG. T.FortnerC. K.BastianK. C. (2012). The effects of experience and attrition for novice high-school science and mathematics teachers. Science, 335, 1118–1121.
29.
HenryG. T.PurtellK. M.BastianK. C.FortnerC. K.ThompsonC. L.CampbellS. L.PattersonK. M. (2014). The effects of teacher entry portals on student achievement. Journal of Teacher Education, 65, 7–23.
30.
HenryG. T.ReddingC. (2018). The consequences of leaving school early: The effects of within-year and end-of-year teacher turnover. Manuscript submitted for publication.
31.
HorngE. L.KlasikD.LoebS. (2010). Principal’s time use and school effectiveness. American Journal of Education, 116, 491–523.
32.
IngersollR. M. (2001). Teacher turnover and teacher shortages: An organizational analysis. American Education Research Journal, 38, 499–534.
33.
IngersollR. M.MerrillL.StuckeyD. (2014). Seven trends: The transformation of the teaching force (CPRE Research Report # RR-80). Philadelphia, PA: Consortium for Policy Research in Education.
34.
JohnsonS. M.BirkelandS. E. (2003). Pursuing a “sense of success”: New teachers explain their career decisions. American Educational Research Journal, 40, 581–617.
35.
JohnsonS. M.KraftM.PapayJ. P. (2012). How context matters in high-need schools: The effects of teachers’ working conditions on their professional satisfaction and their students’ achievement. Teachers College Record, 114(10), 1–39.
36.
KalogridesD.LoebS. (2013). Different teachers, different peers: The magnitude of student sorting within schools. Educational Researcher, 42, 304-316.
37.
KaneT. J.RockoffJ. E.StaigerD. O. (2008). What does certification tell us about teacher effectiveness? Evidence from New York City. Economics of Education Review, 27, 615–631.
38.
KardosS. M.JohnsonS. M. (2007). On their own and presumed expert: New teachers’ experience with their colleagues. Teachers College Record, 109, 2083–2106.
39.
KeeA. N. (2012). Feelings of preparedness among alternatively certified teachers: What is the role of program features?Journal of Teacher Education, 63, 23–38. doi:10.1177/0022487111421933
40.
KoskiW. S.HorngE. L. (2007). Facilitating the teacher quality gap? Collective bargaining agreements, teacher hiring and transfer rules, and teacher assignments among schools in California. Education Finance and Policy, 2, 262–300.
41.
KraftM. A. (2015). Teacher layoffs, teacher quality and student achievement: Evidence from a discretionary layoff policy. Education Finance and Policy, 11, 467–507.
42.
LaddH. F. (2011). Teachers’ perceptions of their working conditions: How predictive of planned and actual teacher movement?Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 33, 235–261.
43.
LankfordH.LoebS.WyckoffJ. (2002). Teacher sorting and the plight of urban schools: A descriptive analysis. Education Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 24, 37–62.
44.
PapayJ. P.Bacher-HicksA.PageL. C.MarinellW. H. (2017). The challenge of teacher retention in urban schools: Evidence of variation from a cross-site analysis. Educational Researcher, 46, 434–448.
45.
PapayJ. P.KraftM. A. (2016). The productivity costs of inefficient hiring practices: Evidence from late teacher hiring. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 35, 791–817.
46.
PeskeH. G.LiuE.JohnsonS. M.KauffmanD.KardosS. M. (2001). The next generation of teachers: Changing conceptions of a career in teaching. Phi Delta Kappan, 83, 302–311.
47.
PodgurskyM.MonroeR.WatsonD. (2004). The academic quality of public school teachers: An analysis of entry and exit behavior. Economics of Education Review, 23, 507–518.
48.
ReddingC.HenryG. T. (2018). New evidence on the frequency of teacher turnover: Accounting for within-year turnover. Manuscript submitted for publication.
49.
ReddingC.SmithT. M. (2016). Easy in, easy out: Are alternatively certified teachers turning over at increased rates?American Educational Research Journal, 53, 1086–1125.
50.
ReddingC.SmithT. M. (in press). Supporting early career alternatively certified teachers: evidence from the beginning teacher longitudinal survey. Teachers College Record.
51.
ReiningerM. (2012). Hometown disadvantage? It depends on where you’re from teachers’ location preferences and the implications for staffing schools. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 34, 127–145.
52.
RonfeldtM.LoebS.WyckoffJ. (2013). How teacher turnover harms student achievement. American Educational Research Journal, 50, 4–36.
RonfeldtM.ReiningerM.KwokA. (2013). Recruitment or preparation? Investigating the effects of teacher characteristics and student teaching. Journal of Teacher Education, 64, 319–337.
55.
SchweigJ. (2014). Cross-level measurement invariance in school and classroom environment surveys implications for policy and practice. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 36, 259–280.
56.
SimonN. S.JohnsonS. M. (2015). Teacher turnover in high-poverty schools: What I know and can do. Teachers College Record, 117(3), 1–36.
57.
SingerJ. D.WillettJ. B. (1991). Modeling the days of our lives: Using survival analysis when designing and analyzing longitudinal studies of duration and the timing of events. Psychological Bulletin, 110, 268–290.
58.
SmithT. M.IngersollR. M. (2004). What are the effects of induction and mentoring on beginning teacher turnover?American Educational Research Journal, 41, 681–714.
59.
U.S. Department of Education. (2016). Preparing and credentialing the nation’s teachers: The secretary’s 10th report on teaching quality. Retrieved from https://title2.ed.gov/Public/TitleIIReport16.pdf
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
