Teacher Retention

Why It Matters
Research has shown that qualified and experienced teachers have the most powerful impact on whether or not students learn. Yet, throughout the state and nation, school systems struggle to find and keep teachers—with particularly high rates of attrition for teachers during the first three years of their careers. High rates of teacher turnover are costly in their detrimental impact on students—most often poor students and those of color who are already at-risk —and to districts that must spend on average a minimum of $11,000 to replace a teacher who leaves.

Research has shown that leadership matters—for example, a statewide survey of North Carolina teachers showed that a collegial environment led by a principal with a strong focus on instruction mattered most in teachers’ decisions about whether or not to stay in the school in which they work. The premise of a distributed leadership model is that leadership need not be vested in a single individual or small group. Rather, leadership is distributed more broadly among members of the organization, in ways that improve the quality and performance of the entire organization. Implementation of this model will more fully tap the rich resource of accomplished, expert teachers in mentoring novices and re-define the organization of schools for greater collaboration and enhanced teacher and student learning.

What We’re Doing

The Center for Teaching Quality (CTQ) is addressing one of the most challenging teaching quality issues our public schools face — reducing teacher turnover — by developing teacher leadership for transforming schools and improving student achievement. Through the Achieving School Success through Empowering Teachers (ASSET) partnership, we will develop an innovative distributed leadership model that fully taps the expertise of principals and teachers to transform their schools and improve student learning.

In fall 2005, the ASSET partnership began working with a selected set of middle schools in Wake and Orange Counties in North Carolina. Targeted schools face a range of challenges, such as relatively inexperienced administrators, high rates of teacher turnover and novice teachers, low student performance, and high poverty.

In year three of the partnership, teachers and administrators from the selected schools will begin sharing best practices and resources with each other in a virtual learning community. CTQ will continue to document the value of these leadership models on teacher retention through surveys, focus group interviews, documentation of on-line support activities, student achievement data, and observations of leadership training. CTQ will then help districts use the data to inform policy decisions on teacher development, teacher retention, and student achievement.