Teacher Turnover in the United States: Who Moves, Who Leaves, and Why

Teacher turnover remains a persistent challenge in the United States, straining schools; disrupting student learning; and undermining efforts to build a strong, stable, and diverse teacher workforce. Every school year, about 1 in 7 public school teachers moves schools or leaves the profession—a higher turnover rate than in the 1990s and in leading international education systems. When high turnover is paired with dwindling numbers of teachers entering the profession, schools face staffing challenges and unfilled teaching positions. Some schools then resort to hiring teachers who are not fully certified or increasing class sizes.

Research shows that these staffing challenges can leave remaining teachers overworked, with reduced time for planning, and are a source of job-related stress. These staffing challenges, more frequent in schools with larger shares of students of color and students from low-income backgrounds, diminish the overall quality of the education students receive and can also make it harder to retain teachers, fueling a cycle that is difficult to break. Teacher turnover is also costly, as replacing a teacher can cost approximately $25,000 in a large district on average (in 2024 dollars), diverting resources away from investments that could benefit students and teachers.

This report describes the state of teacher turnover in the United States and examines individual- and school-level factors associated with turnover. It uses the most recent national-level data of public school teachers from the National Center for Education Statistics’ National Teacher and Principal Survey (2020–21) and Teacher Follow-Up Survey (2021–22) to provide estimates of turnover across all teachers and by key teacher subgroups. The findings complement prior state-level research on COVID-19 pandemic–induced challenges, highlighting that the challenges teachers faced prior to the pandemic still mattered during this period. The report concludes with policy considerations to reduce turnover and suggestions for future research.

Key Findings

Teacher turnover remains high nationally. Between 2020–21 and 2021–22, 15.1% of U.S. teachers moved schools or left the profession: 8.0% moved schools, and 7.1% left teaching. Turnover rates have been largely stable over the past 2 decades but are now about 27% higher than in the early 1990s—an increase driven primarily because the rates of teachers leaving the profession increased by more than 50%.

Most teacher turnover was voluntary and preretirement. Nearly 3 in 4 teachers (74%) who moved or left did so voluntarily for reasons other than retirement. This percentage is higher than it was 10 years ago, when 67% of teachers left their schools voluntarily and preretirement.

Nearly half of teachers who moved schools stayed within the same district, and almost 40% of those who left teaching remained in the education sector. Among movers, 36.5% of teachers moved to a different district in the same state, while 17.3% moved to a different state. Of those who left teaching, 31.2% retired, whereas 13.1% took jobs in other sectors.

Teacher turnover rates vary across groups of teachers. This confirmed well-established evidence. Turnover rates varied by:

• Certification. Teacher turnover rates were higher among teachers with temporary, waiver, or emergency permits, or with no certification, as compared to teachers with regular or probationary teaching certificates. Overall, 20.1% of those not fully certified left their schools, compared to 14.7% of those who were fully certified. The difference was even larger among teachers with 1–3 years of experience: The share of teachers who left their schools was about 40% higher among those not fully certified than among fully certified teachers (24% vs. 17%).
   
• Subject Taught. Teacher turnover rates were higher than average for teachers of English as a Second Language or bilingual education (19.0%), foreign languages (18.3%), career or technical education (17.5%), and special education (16.4%). These fields often require specialized expertise and, in many cases, additional certifications, targeted professional development, or other supports.
   
• Type of School. Turnover rates were higher in primary and middle schools (15.9% and 15.7%, respectively) than in high schools or schools that combine grade levels (14.1% and 12.6%, respectively). Teachers in city schools experienced higher turnover rates (17.7%) than teachers in rural (14.5%), suburban (13.9%), or town (13.7%) schools. Turnover rates were also higher in charter schools (17.8%) than in traditional public schools (14.9%).
   
• School Composition. Turnover rates were higher in schools serving larger concentrations of students of color and those from low-income backgrounds. Turnover rates were 35%–37% higher in schools with the largest concentrations of these students than in schools with the smallest concentrations of these students. These patterns are consistent with long-standing research on inequitable access to educational opportunities.
   
• Race and Ethnicity. Teachers of color had higher turnover rates than White teachers (16.6% vs. 14.7%). Teacher turnover was especially high among Black teachers, whose turnover rate was more than 20% higher than that of White teachers (18.1% vs. 14.7%). Teachers of color are more likely to work in schools with higher proportions of students of color and students from low-income backgrounds—schools that are the most underresourced, where working conditions are more challenging, and where vacancies are harder to fill.

Teacher compensation, school leadership, and job and workplace satisfaction are associated with teacher turnover. After accounting for teacher and school characteristics, teacher turnover was significantly associated with salaries, the degree to which teachers experienced effective and supportive school leadership, and teachers’ job and workplace satisfaction.

• Teachers with higher salaries are less likely to leave their schools. For every $1,000 increase in salaries (adjusted for cost of living), the probability of turnover decreased by about 0.34 percentage points, on average. For example, the probability of turnover decreased by nearly 40%—from 17.6% to 10.9%—when salaries increased from $50,000 to around $70,000. Furthermore, teachers working multiple jobs and holding student loans had higher turnover rates than others. These financial stress indicators were key drivers of preretirement teacher turnover.
   
• Teachers who have more effective school leaders are less likely to leave their schools. The predicted probability of turnover was reduced by half—from 18.7% to 9.0%—when comparing teachers who reported low versus high levels of leadership effectiveness and supports. Effective leaders are supportive of teachers, communicate a clear vision, and are effective at encouraging collaboration and promoting professional development. On average, teachers who had higher levels of leadership effectiveness and supports indicated they had greater influence over school policy, fewer barriers to teaching and learning, higher levels of satisfaction, or greater access to the materials they needed.
   
• Teachers with greater job and workplace satisfaction are less likely to leave their schools. The predicted probability of turnover for teachers with high job and workplace satisfaction was less than half that of teachers with low job and workplace satisfaction (8.0% vs. 22.0%). High job and workplace satisfaction was measured based on teachers’ reported experiences of positive school environments, lack of stress and burnout, and willingness to stay in teaching. On average, teachers who had higher levels of job satisfaction indicated they had greater support from their students’ parents, greater classroom autonomy, and more effective and supportive school leadership. Conversely, teachers who reported lower levels of satisfaction had more paperwork and administrative duties, longer work hours, larger class sizes, or test-related job insecurity.

Policy Considerations

Turnover is a complex issue with no single cause. A multifaceted and mutually reinforcing policy approach—at the federal, state, and local levels—is necessary to create the conditions that encourage teachers to stay in the workforce. There are multiple avenues policymakers can pursue to reduce teacher turnover, including those that improve compensation, school leadership, and job satisfaction as well as those that can particularly benefit high-turnover groups of teachers.

Salaries and Compensation

• Ensure that teacher salaries and total compensation are competitive with other professions requiring similar levels of education. Teacher salaries are largely determined at the local and state levels. Many states—including Iowa, New Mexico, South Dakota, and Texas—have recently passed legislation to raise and equalize teacher pay. Federal policy can complement and incentivize these efforts by offering non-salary benefits, such as refundable tax credits or housing subsidies, for educators.
   
• Expand access to loan forgiveness and service scholarship programs. Expanding and improving federal and state loan forgiveness and service scholarship programs can lessen the amount of student loans teacher candidates take on, increasing the likelihood of individuals choosing to enter and stay in the profession by reducing their financial burden.
   
• Provide compensation increases for teachers in high-need fields and locations, as well as for teacher expertise and leadership. Policies can provide additional financial incentives and opportunities that complement teachers’ salaries, such as when teachers earn advanced credentials (e.g., National Board certification), teach in high-need subjects or schools (e.g., special education, rural schools, high-poverty schools), work as mentors, or take on other roles within the school system. These policies also align with prior literature showing that career growth and advancement can enhance teacher satisfaction and may reduce turnover.

School Leadership

• Ensure that school leaders are well prepared to support teachers and have access to high-quality professional learning. Policies can support access to principal preparation programs that develop strong instructional leadership skills. States can leverage licensure requirements and program approval standards to ensure that preparation programs incorporate research-based practices for effective leader development. Leadership practices that support teachers’ opportunities to collaborate and involvement in decision-making are associated with higher teacher retention. To enhance strong leadership, once school leaders are in their roles, federal, state, and district policies can provide them with access to high-quality coaching and mentoring that reinforce the foundations built during preparation.

Job and Workplace Satisfaction

• Provide access to ongoing professional learning and supports for teachers. Our study found that job and workplace satisfaction increased when school leadership or classroom autonomy improved. Conversely, job and workplace satisfaction decreased when teachers had additional jobs outside of the school system. School leaders and district policies can ensure that teachers are well supported and more satisfied by creating opportunities to continuously grow their professional capacities in the school.
   
• Redesign schools to support collaboration and shared decision-making. Policies can provide dedicated time during the school day for teachers to collaborate, such as conducting reciprocal peer observations, implementing lesson studies, and engaging in teacher action research. Simultaneously, policies to increase teachers’ influence in the classroom and in decision-making can increase their job satisfaction and improve retention.

Additional Policies to Address Turnover Among High-Turnover Groups

• Strengthen preparation and early-career supports for new teachers. Investments that make strong preservice preparation more accessible and affordable for a wider range of teacher candidates are key to minimizing early-career turnover. Access to high-quality preservice preparation, such as teacher residencies, better equips teachers to meet classroom challenges and realities. In addition, broadly available, high-quality mentoring and induction opportunities can help mitigate early-career turnover.
   
• Incentivize and underwrite the costs of earning high-need, advanced credentials. Underwriting the costs of earning credentials in high-need subjects, for which shortages are the most acute, such as special education, improves access to these credentials.
   
• Ensure equitable and adequate school funding and resources. There is a need to address higher turnover rates in schools that are the most underresourced and that serve students who are furthest from opportunity. This requires revising state funding formulas to provide added resources for students with greater needs. Some of these resources can support targeted workforce preparation, recruitment, and retention investments to help create more equitable staffing conditions across schools.

Teacher Turnover in the United States: Who Moves, Who Leaves, and Why by Tiffany Tan, Wesley Wei, Desiree Carver-Thomas, and Emma García is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Core operating support for LPI is provided by the Heising-Simons Foundation, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Raikes Foundation, Sandler Foundation, Skyline Foundation, and MacKenzie Scott. We are grateful to them for their generous support. The ideas voiced here are those of the authors and not those of our funders.