Are White Teachers More Likely to Leave Their School If They Have a Black Principal?

• In Event: 435 - Section on Sociology of Education Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 09. The Role and Influence of Teachers

Abstract

Recent evidence indicates the teacher turnover rate is increasing, especially for teachers of color. Minority teachers are chronically underrepresented compared to the minority student population, and the increasing minority teacher turnover rate along with the growing minority student population could make the balance even worse. Organizational demography theory predicts that the race of supervisors and their subordinates influences worker attitudes and consequently turnover. Racial prejudice and similarity attraction theories provide the mechanisms for how race of teachers and their principals could lead to differential attrition rates. Based on these theories, the authors investigate if teachers are more likely to leave their school based on their own race and their principal’s race. Using data collected in three separate school years of the nationally-representative Schools and Staffing Survey, the authors find the probability of a teacher leaving their school differs based on teacher and principal race. White teachers have a higher probability of leaving their schools if they have a non-white principal than if they have a white principal. As well, the probability of turning over was equivalent for black and white teachers about 15 years ago, but over time the probability of turning over decreased for white teachers but not black teachers. When models are estimated using school-year fixed effects, white teachers are more likely than their Hispanic colleagues to leave schools with Hispanic principals, but white teachers are not more likely to leave schools with non-white principals than their non-white colleagues.

Authors

• Samantha Viano, Vanderbilt University

• Seth Hunter, Vanderbilt University