The Changing Demography of Public School Teachers: Some Implications for Faculty Turnover in Urban Areas

Abstract

Using a sample of 3,549 public school teachers in a major Southwestern metropolis, the paper assesses changes in the class origin of three racial groups of teachers and, in turn, the variables associated with a desire to quit teaching. Younger black and white teachers significantly more often comefrom higher professional and white collarfamilies than do their older cohorts, while younger Mexican-American teachers more often come from lower blue collar and-farm backgrounds than their older counterparts. In general, teachers who plan to quit are white, under 35 years of age, come from higher class origins, and are assigned to schools with student racial distributions they define as undesirable. However, when class origin is introduced as a control, the race of teacher ceases to differentiate between those who plan to leave education and those who do not. The findings suggest that federalfaculty desegregation mandates, which consider only the teacher's race, force school districts to replace teachers who resign from urban districts with individuals who are equally likely to quit teaching.