Alternative certification programs are now commonplace in the credentialing of new teachers. We complement the growing evidence base for these teachers by exploring their turnover patterns in four waves of the nationally representative Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS). We report on descriptive evidence of growing differences in the…

There is widespread agreement among researchers and educators that teachers contribute to student learning (Darling-Hammond, 2002; Darling-Hammond; 2005; Ferguson, 1998; Goldhaber, 2003; Palardy and Rumberger, 2008; Rivkin, Hanushek, and Kain, 2005; Wright, Horn, and Sanders, 1997). In the face of teacher shortages and turnover, especially in hard…

In many countries, novice teachers, or those with fewer than four years of experience, have a higher turnover rate than do more experienced teachers. Using teacher employment data, we examine whether schools in an American whole-school reform model are better able to retain novice teachers. Using survey data, we investigate whether novice teachers…

A teacher shortage is a recognized problem in research on public schools. Schools across the United States must hire and retain highly qualified teachers, but the literature indicates teachers with fewer than 3 years of experience are often leaving teaching, creating a possible teacher shortage of 4.2 million teachers by the year of 2016.…

The problem of beginning teacher attrition is costly to school districts and to the teaching profession in many ways. Teacher preparation programs, such as the elementary education program at Worcester State University (WSU), can potentially contribute to lessening the number of beginning teachers who leave the profession. Therefore, the purpose…

This brief considers whether the concentration of beginning teachers in a district is associated with the district's poverty rate, racial composition, or urbanicity. Authors Douglas Gagnon and Marybeth Mattingly report that poor communities have moderately higher percentages of beginning teachers than communities with lower poverty rates and that…

We examined the role of social support in turnover intention among new teachers. First, we tested and found evidence for a direct negative relationship between social support and turnover intention. Second, we tested the social support buffer hypothesis, and found that teachers with higher social support had lower turnover intention in the face of…

Considerable research has been conducted into teacher retention and attrition (Huberman, 1989; Dinham, 1995; Ewing & Smith, 2002). Little is known, though, of the circumstances of ex-teachers, in terms of factors such as salary, workload, working conditions and "job prestige". For this paper, telephone interviews were conducted with 22…

In 2004, the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences contracted with Mathematica Policy Research to conduct a large-scale evaluation of comprehensive teacher induction. The purpose of the study was to determine whether augmenting the set of services districts usually provide to support beginning teachers with a more…

This comparative study explores the relationship between teacher attrition and the preservice training programs in which the teachers were enrolled. A comparison is made between campus-based traditional teacher certification programs and field-based certification programs delivered through a professional development school (PDS) model. The results…