The Challenge of Teacher Retention in Urban Schools: Evidence of Variation from a Cross-Site Analysis

Abstract

High levels of teacher turnover pose a critical challenge to the goal of staffing public schools with effective teachers. To date, though, differences in the scope of the teacher retention challenge across states and districts have remained poorly defined. Using consistent data practices and analytical techniques, we examine administrative data from 16 urban school districts to quantify teacher retention rates across sites. We make several contributions. First, we illustrate that retention varies substantially across districts. For example, five-year retention rates for novice teachers range from 26 to 56 percent. Second, we examine how retention estimates are influenced by teachers taking temporary leaves of absence and by cross-district movement within states. Finally, we investigate how retention varies by teachers’ experience and effectiveness. Low rates of retention translate to substantial costs. In our sample, we estimate that the district with the lowest observed five-year novice retention rate could achieve yearly savings of approximately $4 million in hiring costs by improving novice teacher retention to be on par with the highest district rate among the districts we examine.