Teacher Retention in Michigan: How the TeachMichigan Fellowship Program Seeks to Keep Top Educators in Title I Schools

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Wednesday 4:20 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  In Roundtable Session: Teacher Retention Across Contexts (Table 13)

Abstract

The TeachMichigan fellowship program, which has received $38M in state appropriations over the past three years, seeks to improve retention and education in high-poverty communities by compensating, supporting and developing “high-impact” educators in Title I schools, thereby enticing them to remain in the teaching profession and in their current positions as opposed to selecting into more affluent school districts. This paper compares TeachMichigan to prior efforts to improve teacher retention and situates this program in the broader literature. It also employs state administrative data and interviews with 7 district leaders, 8 TeachMichigan staff members, and 43 TeachMichigan fellows to investigate whether TeachMichigan is meeting its goals for teacher retention in the first year.

Authors

• Madeline Mavrogordato, Michigan State University

• Jason Burns, Education Policy Innovation Collaborative

• Shane Turnage, Michigan State University