ERIC Number: ED612299
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2021
Pages: 5
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Teacher Attrition and Mobility over Time. CALDER "Flash" Brief No. 23-0421
Goldhaber, Dan; Theobald, Roddy
National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research (CALDER)
Numerous stories raise concerns that as the pandemic ends, there might be a rash of public school teachers that opt to leave teaching. Will a recovering economy combined with an extremely challenging school year lead to very high levels of teacher attrition just when school recovery efforts are kicking into high gear? Of course, it is too soon to know, but a look at the history can help gauge the magnitude of what might be expected in terms of teacher attrition. The authors do this using more than three decades of administrative data on the entire teaching workforce in Washington state. In this report, the authors plot several different measures of teacher attrition and mobility over time in Washington and see how these vary with the annual unemployment rate in the state. In particular, the authors examine data from the 1984-85 school year to the 2020-21 school year and calculate the proportion of teachers who, in the following year: (1) leave their schools and the state's public school workforce entirely; (2) leave their current teaching position for a non-teaching position within the state's public school systems; and (3) leave their school for another public school teaching position in the state. There are of course unique elements to transition from a pandemic, but 35 years of history would suggest it is unlikely to see increases of attrition of more than a percentage point or two. Is this a concern? For sure! But it also might be an exaggeration to think of this as a mass exodus.
National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research. American Institutes for Research, 1000 Thomas Jefferson Street NW, Washington, DC 20007. Tel: 202-403-5796; Fax: 202-403-6783; e-mail: info@caldercenter.org; Web site: https://caldercenter.org
Publication Type: Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research (CALDER) at American Institutes for Research
Identifiers - Location: Washington
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A