Teacher quality and attrition in a US school district
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/09578230910981062 |
| Published date | 14 August 2009 |
| Date | 14 August 2009 |
| Pages | 557-585 |
| Author | William Kyle Ingle |
| Subject Matter | Education |
Teacher quality and attrition
in a US school district
William Kyle Ingle
Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio, USA
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to determine whether teachers with high value-added scores
(as a measure of teacher quality) stay or left test grades and subjects in a medium-sized school district.
Design/methodology/approach – Panel data for this paper encompass teachers providing math
and reading instruction and link to individual students in grades 3-10 from a single Florida school
district (2000-2001 to 2004-2005). Value-added modeling is used to estimate a measure of teacher
quality, which is entered into binomial logistic regression models.
Findings – This paper finds a negative relationship between reading teachers’ value-added scores
and attrition ( p,0.05) – a finding consistent with the few that have examined the relationship
between value added and teacher attrition. A significant relationship is not found between math value
added and attrition. There is also no significant relationship between value added and transferring.
Secondary and alternatively certified teachers are more likely to exit tested grades/subjects. Classroom
percentages of students enrolled in the free/reduced lunch program (a proxy for poverty) are
associated with leaving among math and reading teachers.
Practical implications – Not all turnover is negative. Evidence from this paper suggests that
schools are not losing the best teachers from tested subjects and grades – those in which schools and
school leaders are held accountable. While there are costs associated with turnover, it can serve as an
important matching function between workers and employers.
Originality/value – Only, a few published studies have utilized value-added scores as the measure
of teacher quality and tested their relationship with teacher attrition.
Keywords Teachers, Quality,Value added, Modeling, UnitedStates of America
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Given that teacher turnover is widely accepted by researchers and practitioner s
internationally as a problem in schools (Macdonald, 1999), understanding its nature
and causes can guide policies aimed at improving teacher quality and mitigating the
waste of school/district resources. In the context of the USA, there is evidence that
suggests there are adequate numbers of individuals with teaching credentials being
produced, but teacher turnover – “the revolving door” – is the problem. Thes e
individuals are often choosing other occupations or leaving the profession in large
numbers – especially in the early years of their teaching career (Ingersoll, 2003).
Teacher retirements and growing student enrollments exacerbate the situation. There
is also evidence that teachers are systematically sorted in such a way that schools
serving nonwhite, poor, and low-performing students are more likely to be taught by
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0957-8234.htm
The author wishes to acknowledge Dr Douglas N. Harris and Dr Patrice Iatarola for their
contributions and guidance in the production of his dissertation entitled “The relationship
between teacher quality and teacher attrition,” on which this paper was based.
Teacher quality
and attrition
557
Received October 2008
Revised November 2008
Accepted November 2008
Journal of Educational
Administration
Vol. 47 No. 5, 2009
pp. 557-585
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0957-8234
DOI 10.1108/09578230910981062
less qualified teachers (Clotfelter et al., 2005). Furthermore, teachers in these
environments have been found more likely to leave teaching or to migrate between
schools and districts (Guarino et al., 2006; Johnson et al., 2005).
Teacher quality has been identified as one of the most important school
determinants of student achievement gains (Rivkin et al., 2005; Sanders and Horn,
1994). However, surprisingly few studies examine the relationship between teac her
quality and teacher attrition (Guarino et al., 2006). Common sense would dictate
wanting the most effective classroom teachers to remain in the classroom, especially
those in which schools and school leaders are held accountable via standards,
assessments and accountability systems. Indeed, retention of teachers without
consideration of teacher quality is a poor expenditure of tax revenue and runs counter
to the current educational climate in the USA characterized by increased
accountability. This study sought to determine whether the most effective teachers,
as measured by their value-added scores, were staying or leaving tested subjects and
grades in a medium sized, urban school district in the state of Florida.
Background
Any discussion of education reform efforts in the USA, culminating in the bi-partisan
passage of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, will hearken back to the publication of
A Nation at Risk (National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983). The report
led to unprecedented debate in the USA as to what should be done to improve the
education of its youth and an increased interest in performance indicators. This
emphasis on performance indicators was by no means limited to the USA. Riley and
Nutall (1994, p. 6) noted that politicians in the UK, the USA, and elsewhere demanded
“information that is simple, comparable, timely, and which can be translated into the
public arena.” Standard curricula and assessments were seen as an answer for this
demand. Further, advocates of school choice (then and now) argue that pupil
achievement, expressed in the form of examinations, could be aggregated into
statistical reports of use to parents for school choice decision-making.
A Nation at Risk also called into question the quality of the teaching workforce, the
quality of teacher preparation, the quality of teacher pay, and highlighted critical teacher
shortages in math and science in the USA (National Commission on Excellence in
Education, 1983, pp. 22-3). Since then, report after report has called attention to the
critical convergence of future increases in student enrollments (evincing the need for
more teachers) and predictions of teacher shortages due to retirements from the teaching
workforce (National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, 1997, 2003).
Recent reviews of teacher attrition research in the USA have produced largely
consistent findings about the characteristics of individuals that are more likely to leave
the profession – non-minorities, females, and teachers in the science an d mathematics
fields (Borman and Dowling, 2008; Guarino et al., 2006; Johnson et al., 2005). These
literature reviews have also elucidated in which schools attrition is more likely to be
problematic – inner cities, extreme rural areas, secondary schools, and schools serving
higher percentages of minorities and students living in poverty. Research has shown a
“U-shaped” pattern of turnover for teachers, such that it is higher in the challenging
first years of teaching. Turnover then drops with experience and picks up again
dramatically as the teachers reach retirement age (Boe et al., 1997; Harris and Adams,
2007; Kirby and Grissmer, 1993; Luekens et al., 2004; Murnane et al., 1989).
JEA
47,5
558
To continue reading
Request your trial