Interactive Tool

What's the Cost of Teacher Turnover?

Published

September 13, 2017

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High teacher turnover—or churn—undermines student achievement and consumes valuable staff time and resources. It also contributes to teacher shortages throughout the country, as roughly 6 of 10 new teachers hired each year are replacing colleagues who left the classroom before retirement. Research shows that urban districts can, on average, spend more than $20,000 on each new hire, including school and district expenses related to separation, recruitment, hiring, and training. These investments don’t pay their full dividend when teachers leave within 1 or 2 years after being hired.

Turnover rates vary by school and district, with those in rural and urban settings or that serve high percentages of student in poverty experiencing the highest rates. Use this tool to estimate the cost of teacher turnover in your school or district and to inform a local conversation about how to attract, support, and retain a high-quality teacher workforce. High-leverage strategies are highlighted below.

3. How Can We Reduce Teacher Turnover?
Local, state, and federal education leaders and policymakers all have an important role to play in addressing high teacher turnover and perennial staffing difficulties. The research points to the strategies below as key to building a strong and stable teacher workforce. (Safari users: Enable plug-ins to view links)

	Strengthen Preparation Beginning teachers with little preparation are 2½ times more likely to leave the classroom after 1 year, compared to their well-prepared peers.
	What policymakers can do: Partner with local teacher preparation programs to identify and develop talented candidates. Develop residency programs to recruit candidates into high-need teaching fields. Residents work as paid apprentices to expert teachers. Create "Grow Your Own” programs, which recruit individuals from the community and provide financial support as they prepare to become teachers.
	Improve Hiring and Management Practices Schools and districts that adopt effective hiring practices generally are more likely to attract, hire, and retain effective teachers.
	What policymakers can do: Make hiring decisions early to recruit strong candidates and adequately vet applicants. Offer incentives for early notification of retirements and resignations to enable earlier hiring. Reduce cumbersome bureaucratic procedures for candidate applications. Reduce barriers for recruiting veteran teachers, such as by removing caps on allowable years of experience. Conduct exit interviews to better understand and address causes of turnover. Include local educators in efforts to recruit teachers in high-need areas, and to recruit more teachers of color.
	Expand and Strengthen Support for New Teachers New teachers who do not receive mentoring and other supports leave at more than twice the rate of those who are supported.
	What policymakers can do: Invest in quality mentoring and induction programs and provide them free to all new teachers. Offer a reduced teaching load and collaborative planning time to new teachers. Train mentors and support them by providing an ongoing learning community.
	Improve Working Conditions Teachers often cite lack of support from their principals as the top reason for leaving. They also cite limited decision-making input and limited opportunities to collaborate with colleagues as reasons to leave.
	What policymakers can do: Invest in the development of high-quality principals by providing them with professional learning opportunities that support their ability to create the productive, collaborative work settings that are important to retaining teachers. Survey teachers to inform and guide improvements to the teaching and learning environment. Foster greater collaboration by changing the school schedule to allow time for common planning and shared learning opportunities, including the development of professional learning communities.
	Increase Compensation After adjusting for the differential work year, beginning teachers earn about 20% less than individuals with college degrees in other fields—a wage gap that can widen to 30% for mid-career educators. This low pay contributes to turnover.
	What policymakers can do: Increase salaries to be competitive with other occupations and across districts. Retain expert veterans by offering additional compensation to teachers who assume leadership roles. Equalize students’ access to expert teachers by providing stipends to teachers who teach in high-need fields and schools. Consider other creative compensation structures, such as housing incentives and flexible work arrangements.