Teacher churning likely harms student achievement. However, the phenomenon of within-school grade-level teacher reassignments is understudied. The current study provides descriptive evidence on the frequency and predictors of within-school teacher grade switching using both longitudinal administrative data from Michigan and nationally…

There are at least four ways teachers may enter a new school: directly after receiving a new degree, exiting a different career, transferring from another school or type of position in a school, or after a break from teaching. The data used in this report span 25 years, from 1987 to 2012, providing an overview of these four key sources of newly…

Involuntary teacher transfer occurs whenever the reassignment of a teacher is initiated by a school or district rather than the teacher. These transitions are more likely to occur among special education teachers than among general education teachers. Although this type of transfer is not a new phenomenon, there has been surprisingly little…

Substantial teacher turnover poses a challenge to staffing public schools with effective teachers. The scope of the teacher retention challenge across school districts, however, remains poorly defined. Applying consistent data practices and analytical techniques to administrative data sets from 16 urban districts, we document substantial…

This study is the fourth in a series investigating the retention and turnover of music teachers using nationally representative data from the National Center for Educational Statistics. I identified records for music teachers in the Teacher Follow-Up Survey and determined how they viewed their careers one year after moving to a different school or…

The media suggest that accountability pressure increases teacher stress and drives teachers away from teaching, resulting in teachers leaving disadvantaged schools that serve larger proportions of poor and minority students. However, no prior work has systematically examined the changes in the national trends of teacher turnover in response to No…

The objective of this study is to use nationally representative data to examine the rates, destinations and sources of math and science teacher turnover. There are four sets of research questions the authors address concerning the departure of mathematics and science teachers from their schools: (1) At what rates do mathematics/science teachers…

Although there are considerable large-scale data on teacher attrition, few researchers have culled information specifically related to English teachers' risk for attrition. This study examines the effects of teacher characteristics, teaching conditions, student variables, self-efficacy, external support, and salary on secondary English language…

The Teacher Follow-up Survey (TFS) is sponsored by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) on behalf of the U.S. Department of Education and is conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. TFS is a follow-up survey of selected elementary and secondary school teachers who participated in the Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS). SASS is the…

Investigates the possibility that the organizational characteristics and conditions of schools are driving teacher turnover. Analysis of data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) indicates that the amount of turnover accounted for by retirement is relatively minor when compared with that associated with other factors such as…

This study used existing databases to analyze, from a national perspective, the specific components of retention, transfer, and attrition of special education teachers (SETs) in comparison with general education teachers (GETs). The study used data from the 1990-1991 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) and the 1992 Teacher Followup Survey (TFS).…

A continuing concern in a number of teaching fields is the shortage of fully qualified teachers. The decisions of fully qualified teachers to continue in their teaching assignments (retention), to transfer to another assignment (transfer), or to leave the profession for some other activity (exit attrition) are the major determinants of the degree…

This study used existing databases to analyze, from a national perspective, the turnover of special education teachers (SETs) at the district level due to district migration, teaching field transfer, and exit attrition. The study also investigated district retention of SETs as a function of district location and teacher experience. The study used…

This issue brief uses data from the 1987-88 and 1990-91 Schools and Staffing Survey to examine the various sources on which schools depend to meet the increasing demand for new hires to teaching. There are four sources of newly hired teachers: new college graduates, college graduates who pursued other activities before entering teaching (delayed…