In recent years, there has been a significant increase in teacher turnover, which poses a notable challenge to improving the quality of education. Individual characteristics such as teacher motivation, self-efficacy, and job satisfaction have been linked to the tendency for turnover. However, the exact connections between these attributes remain…

The teaching profession is constantly evolving, making the retention of educators increasingly competitive and challenging. As districts create innovative incentives and strategies to attract both new and experienced talent, the role of the principal has become more demanding, particularly in the search for qualified educators to meet the needs of…

There are many things new teachers must learn during their first year in order to effectively teach their students. The struggle during this first year causes many new teachers to become frustrated by a seemingly unmanageable workload, feelings that they are not getting the support they need, and feelings of failure that might cause them to…

We study the effects of counterfactual teacher-to-classroom assignments on average student achievement in elementary and middle schools in the US. We use the Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) experiment to semiparametrically identify the average reallocation effects (AREs) of such assignments. Our findings suggest that changes in…

This report focuses on teacher turnover in Maryland's Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) among two groups: (1) Teachers who left MCPS due to resignation or termination ("teacher attrition"), and (2) elementary teachers who transferred or moved to other schools within MCPS ("elementary teacher mobility"). The ultimate goal…

One in five schools loses its principal each year. Despite the prevalence of principal turnover, little empirical research has examined its effects on school outcomes. Because principal turnover may occur in response to or contemporaneous with a downturn in student achievement, the effect of a turnover is confounded with unobserved school-level…

This study investigates an understudied but crucial issue in education in rural China: teacher mobility. Using school- and teacher-level data from primary and middle schools in Gansu province in western China, this study examines how school and teacher characteristics relate to teacher mobility. The school-level analysis shows that school location…

A growing body of empirical research on teacher victimization indicates that it is widespread and yields negative consequences. However, limited research has investigated the relationship between teacher victimization and turnover. In this study, using longitudinal data from approximately 1,300 teachers in a metropolitan area in Texas, USA, we…

After being involuntarily transferred from a suburban middle school near his home to an urban school facing many challenges, this case describes a series of events that led to a veteran teacher's termination. Upon claiming he was wrongfully terminated, the case narrative ends just prior to the teacher's hearing before the board of education, where…

The federal Race to the Top initiative signified a shift in American education policy whereby accountability efforts moved from the school to the teacher level. Using administrative data from Tennessee, we explore whether evaluation reforms differentially influenced mobility patterns for teachers of varying effectiveness. We find that the rollout…

Student peer effects are well documented; however, we know far less about peer effects among teachers. We hypothesize that a relatively effective teacher can positively affect the performance of his or her peers, whereas a relatively ineffective teacher may negatively affect the performance of other teachers with whom he or she works closely.…

Teachers are the most important influence in schools on student achievement, which makes attracting and retaining excellent teachers a high priority for all school districts. But public schools in large cities like Philadelphia are especially challenged to provide every student with a highly-effective teacher. Teacher mobility--that is,…

Many districts and states have begun implementing incentives to attract high-performing teachers to low-performing schools. Previous research has found that these incentives are effective. However, effects on the schools and students these teachers leave behind has not been examined. This study focuses on the general equilibrium effects of…

For the 2013 study, "Transfer Incentives for High-Performing Teachers: Final Results from a Multisite Randomized Experiment," researchers examined the impact of the Talent Transfer Initiative (TTI) on students' reading and mathematics achievement in 10 school districts. The TTI enabled principals of low-performing schools to provide…

"Transfer Incentives for High-Performing Teachers: Final Results from a Multisite Experiment," examined the impact of the Talent Transfer Initiative (TTI) on both student achievement and teacher retention in 10 school districts across seven states. The initiative gave bonuses to high-performing teachers for them to transfer to and stay…