Leaky Pipes and Labor Pools: Predicting Teacher Turnover Using Preparation Pathway and Initial School Type

• In Event: 67.067 - MTCC Roundtable Session 31
  In Roundtable Session: 67.067-3 - Can We Keep the Best? Research on Principal and Teacher Turnover

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the rates of persistence among teachers certified in traditional and alternative pathways in Texas. Using preparation pathway and initial school placement type as predictors, we conducted a series of regression models to estimate the likelihood of a new teacher persisting five years in the profession. Analysis of the data reveal the probability that a traditionally trained teacher initially placed into a traditional public school remains at that school is .31. In hard-to-staff school settings, falls to .29 for a traditionally prepared teacher but falls to .26 for an alternatively prepared teacher. Finally, probability that a teacher from the emergent pathways is still teaching in the same school after five years is .24.

Authors

• Sarah Guthery, Texas A&M Commerce

• Lauren P. Bailes, University of Delaware