The Relationship Between Teacher Turnover and Instructional Change: Lessons From a Statewide Literacy Reform (Poster 7)

• In Event: AERA Promising Scholarship in Education Research: Dissertation Fellows and Their Research
  In Invited Poster Session: AERA Promising Scholarship in Education Research: Dissertation Fellows and Their Research Poster Session

Abstract

Research has shown that teacher turnover is affected by working conditions at school sites, including administrative leadership and school culture. Large-scale shifts in curriculum and instructional philosophy are an understudied element of a teacher’s working conditions. Instructional shifts often require teachers to work additional hours aligning their practice to a new curricular direction, potentially increasing teacher turnover. However, instructional shifts also potentially empower teachers to be more effective in the classroom by providing more professional development and support, potentially reducing teacher turnover. Through its quasi-experimental examination of a credibly exogenous literacy overhaul in California’s lowest-performing elementary schools, this project sheds light on the broader relationship between instructional change and teacher turnover.

Author

• Sarah Novicoff, Stanford University