Indicator: Educator retention
Definition
Teachers and school leaders return to the same school in consecutive years.
RECOMMENDED METRIC(S)
We recommend two measures for this indicator:
• Teacher retention: Percentage of teachers who return to teaching in the same school from year to year
• School leader tenure: Percentage of school leaders who have served in their current positions for less than two years, two to three years, and four or more years
Type(s) of Data Needed
Educator administrative dataWhy it matters
Research consistently shows that more experienced teachers make greater contributions to student achievement, especially compared to teachers who are early in their careers. After teachers gain about five years of experience, however, the difference between a more or less experienced teacher (that is, one with 10 versus 5 years of experience) is not significant. Students do not have equal access to experienced teachers; Black and Latino students, and those from low-income households, are more likely than their peers to be taught by teachers who are newest to the profession. In 2016, 9 percent of teachers in schools with a low share of students of color were in their first or second year of teaching, compared with 17 percent of teachers in schools with a high proportion of students of color.
What to know about measurement
Educator retention can be computed using administrative records from districts’ or states’ staff data management systems linking teachers and principals to schools from one year to the next. For school leaders, we recommend examining their tenure in the same school. In 2017, the national average tenure of principals at their current schools was four years, with 35 percent of principals staying at their school for less than two years. A recommended best practice is also to disaggregate retention by measures of educator effectiveness, such as those based on teacher performance ratings or value-added scores, to better assess the impact of staff turnover. Currently, 20 states publicly report data on teacher retention.
Source frameworks
This indicator appeared in two source frameworks reviewed for this report: the Urban Institute’s Robust and Equitable Measures to Identify Quality Schools (REMIQS) framework and National Education Association’s Great Public Schools Indicator Framework.
References
The framework's recommendations are based on syntheses of existing research. Please see the framework report for a list of works cited.