Leaving to Fit In: School Leadership, Peer Teacher Relationships, and Turnover Among Teachers of Color

• In Event: Reimagining the Educator Pipeline: Strengths-Based Approaches to Studying Teacher Preparation, Recruitment, Diversity, and Retention

Abstract

Teachers of color serve as an imperative resource to an increasingly diversifying student population — a resource indisputably worth safeguarding and reinforcing. Numerous national studies document higher turnover rates among teachers of color compared to White teachers (e.g., Achinstein et al., 2010; Ingersoll et al., 2019). Moreover, turnover gaps for teachers of color have widened in the last decade (Ingersoll et al., 2019), highlighting the complexity of retaining a promising human resource capable of allaying educational gaps for historically underserved students. In light of these trends, various education stakeholders express a growing desire to understand the determinants of the disproportionate turnover patterns endemic among teachers of color as they seek solutions to better augment a more diverse educator pipeline.

This study investigates the demographic drivers that contribute to disparate turnover among teachers of color. Using New York City as an empirical case, the study relies on longitudinal survey and administrative data over a seven-year period to explore how the relationship between the racial/ethnic composition of school leaders and peer teachers, measures of school leadership and teacher relationships, and transfer and attrition patterns differs for teachers of color. More specifically, we ask: (1) Does the racial/ethnic demographic makeup of school leadership and peer teacher colleagues within a school influence teacher turnover patterns differentially for teachers of color? (2) And, does school leadership style and peer teacher relationships differentially affect turnover among teachers of color?

Preliminary findings suggest teachers are less likely to transfer schools and exit the teaching profession when paired with a principal of the same racial/ethnic background as well as when located in schools where a larger share of teachers are of the same racial/ethnic background. While about 16 percent of teachers leave their school when their principal is of a different racial/ethnic background, on average, the rate of turnover is approximately 4 percentage points lower for teachers in schools led by a principal of a similar race or ethnicity. Moreover, the differences in the likelihood of transferring are especially prominent among Black teachers. Additional analyses indicate that, while school leadership style and the quality of teacher relationships within a school are predictive of teacher turnover patterns, these factors do not explain disparities in turnover for teachers of color.

Taken altogether, these results illustrate how the demographics of a school’s leadership and teaching staff are but one of the many school-related factors that contribute to teacher turnover decisions and do so in nuanced ways that are not fully captured by survey-based measures of teachers’ perceptions of school leadership and teacher relationships. This study supports the notion that a promising start to building and sustaining a racial and ethnically diverse teaching workforce would be to specifically bolster initiatives to diversify the principal pipeline. Additionally, deliberate and transparent hiring and communication strategies may prove crucial to the retention of minoritized staff as they provide reassurance of a school’s hiring goals and whether they are concretely moving toward an inclusive and diverse group of personnel.

Authors

• Luis Alberto Rodriguez, New York University

• Julie Pham, New York University