Turnover of Public School Teachers in the United States

Turnover of public school teachers in the United States

Introduction

There is a consensus among the concerned stakeholders that the quality of teachers is the leading factor in determination of student performance. In the case of United States, the student performance can only be given an impetus by the efforts which the state can make, under all costs, to develop and retain high quality teachers. The measures undertaken determine the level of turnover of the school teachers. Lazear (2009) similarly argues the length of employment is a critical factor in averse risks of employment a trend contrary to teachers treatment. The turnover of public school teachers will refer to the rate at which the state, which is the teacher’s employer, gain or loses teachers. This is determined further by how long the teachers tend to stay in the teaching profession before moving to other professions or locations. This paper will attempt to evaluate the level of turnover of public school teachers in the United States.

Fundamentally, the first question one should seek an answer is; what factors would need to be studied in order to answer the question of whether teacher turnover is too high or too low? Many people would quickly hypothesize that retirement is the major cause for teacher attrition. However, a close scrutiny of the situation on the ground has it that this is not true. According to the analysis done by the US department of education, 2000 to 2001, teachers give other reasons rather than retirement when leaving and the most common include job dissatisfaction and search for other positions in other professions. For those teachers who transfer schools, 65 percent move because of lack of planning time, 60 percent move because of wo...

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...r Turnover’ the turnover cost in the US is very high and require to be contained.

References

National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future. “Policy Brief: The High Cost of Teacher Turnover,” prepared for the, undated, page 1, http://www.nctaf.org/resources/demonstration_projects/turnover/documents/NCTAFCostofTeacherTurnoverpolicybrief.pdf. October 5 2011.

U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Teacher Follow-up Survey, Washington, DC, 2001.

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U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Teacher Attrition and Mobility: Results From The 2008-2009 Teacher Follow up, http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2010/2010353.pdf. October 5 2011.

TitlePersonnel Economics in PracticeAuthorsEdward P. Lazear, Michael GibbsEdition2, illustratedPublisherJohn Wiley and Sons, 2009