About Teacher Turnover Calculations
Understanding the Cost of Replacing a Teacher
Replacing a teacher requires significant resources and personnel time. Although the costs within a district or school can vary substantially, the most significant costs are those associated with separation, recruiting and hiring new teachers, and training replacements. Below is a list of activities that are often associated with replacing a teacher, all of which have related financial and personnel costs.
* Denotes a high-leverage recruitment and retention strategy.
SEPARATION COSTS |
Standard practice
|
RECRUITMENT AND HIRING COSTS |
Standard practice
Additional activities
|
TRAINING COSTS |
Standard practice
Additional activities
|
A note about our district estimates
To derive our estimates, we averaged individual estimates from several studies[i] by district type and adjusted each estimate for inflation. These averages by district type provide an approximate plausible value to help districts and their stakeholders begin to understand their own costs.
[i] Barnes, G., Crowe, E., & Schaefer, B. (2007). The cost of teacher turnover in five school districts: A pilot study. National Commission on Teaching and America's Future; Milanowski, A., & Odden, A. (2007). A new approach to the cost of teacher turnover. Seattle, WA: School Finance Redesign Project, Center on Reinventing Public Education; Shockley, R., Guglielmino, P., & Watlington, E. J. (2006). A national crisis in teacher education: What are the costs? Pearson Education.