Teaching close to home: Exploring new teachers’ geographic employment patterns and retention outcomes

Abstract

In this quantitative study, we explored the demographic and educational backgrounds of hometown novice teachers, those employed geographically close to their high school alma mater. Drawing on a sample of over 80,000 teachers from the state of Texas in the U.S., we investigated whether hometown novice teachers had higher predicted retention rates, compared to other novices. Results suggest that hometown novices were more likely to remain in their current school in subsequent years. This study offers insights for diverse U.S. states like Texas but also lays the groundwork for similar research and policy efforts in other regions across the world.