Understanding and Reducing Teacher Turnover

Effective teachers are crucial to the success of students, yet there is often a high rate of attrition, particularly in poorer, lower-performing schools. What Keeps Good Teachers in the Classroom? Understanding and Reducing Teacher Turnover, by the Alliance for Excellent Education, explores the costs associated with teachers leaving the profession, the characteristics of those likely to leave, and what can be done to prevent unnecessary and costly turnover.

While the costs of teacher attrition can vary widely by districts, the estimated cumulative costs-to hire, recruit, and train the replacement of teachers-has been calculated to $7.34 billion a year. This does not include the added expense to the students and their academic achievement as effective teachers leave the profession. While retirement explains about 16 percent of turnover, working conditions play a much larger role, about 33 percent. Additionally, teachers are likely to leave if they perceive they have a poor relationship with principals, colleagues, and students, and/or don't have administrative support.

Not all teachers are likely to leave, however. Those with high academic qualifications-high college GPAs, high SAT/ACT scores, those who were enrolled in competitive teacher preparation programs-are more likely to transfer to more attractive schools or leave the profession all together. Those who have high educational credentials-National Board Certified, those who majored in education, etc.-are more likely to stay in the profession and in their district. What does this say about teacher effectiveness? Researchers are shifting from looking at teacher credentials to teacher effectiveness and have found that teachers at challenging schools are likely to stay if they see improvements in student performance. Ineffective teachers are more likely to leave. Yet,at the MOST-challenging schools, as teachers become more effective, they tend to transfer to wealthier districts.

A teacher's ability to raise students' academic performances is one key component to reducing turnover. Comprehensive induction--combining high quality mentoring with release time for new and mentor teachers, common planning time, networking with teachers outside of the school, and a cumulative evaluation is an important component to this process. Research has found that beginning teachers who received comprehensive induction are more likely to continue teaching and remain in their current schools. Additionally, these programs teach effective instructional practice that improves student learning. An inducted first-year teacher is likely to produce the same levels of student achievement as a noninducted fourth-year teacher. Finally, induction also increases the skills of veteran teachers who take on mentorship roles. These teacher-coaches often experience career growth and increased pay.

What Keeps Good Teachers in the Classroom? Understanding and Reducing Teacher Turnover can be found at http://www.all4ed.org/files/TeachTurn.pdf