Increase Teacher Retention

Understand what leads to teacher turnover and learn strategies you can implement today to increase teacher retention.

• What is the average turnover rate for teachers?

• What percent of teachers leave in the first 5 years?

• What are the top reasons for teacher turnover?

• What is the cost of teacher turnover?

Automatically run the processes that retain your team

Teacher Retention: The Ultimate Guide

Teacher and staff retention has never been more important as teacher shortages are affecting schools and districts across the nation and beyond.

The staffing shortage isn't just for teachers through. Many districts are in desperate need of bus drivers, substitute teachers, and other classified staff.

It's getting so bad administrators must combine classrooms at times because there aren't enough substitute teachers to cover all classrooms, school days are changing their hours to accommodate bussing difficulties, and schools are even being forced to transition to virtual instruction because of a lack of staff.

In this teacher retention guide we will answer many major questions being asked about teacher retention and help you create and implement a strategy that makes a difference on your teacher and staff turnover numbers.

"Teacher turnover" and "teacher retention" will be used throughout, but the content and strategies shared can also be applied to classified staff and paraprofessionals.

What is teacher turnover?

Teacher (or staff) turnover is the number of team members who leave an organization in a certain time period, typically measured in a year. Turnover can be broken into subcategories like administrator turnover, teacher turnover, or classified staff turnover.

Teacher (Retention/Turnover) Rates

What is the average turnover rate for teachers?

Teacher turnover rates tend to vary from source to source, but according to the most recent RAND survey data, "as of January 2021, 23% of teachers reported that they were likely to leave their current teaching jobs by the end of the 2020–2021 school year." This is up from 16% just a few years ago.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), approximately 8% of teachers leave the profession each year. An additional 8% of teachers change schools or districts annually, resulting in about 16% teacher turnover on average.

Of the teachers that are hired, about 90% are replacing a teacher who left voluntarily.

Where does retirement fit into these numbers? More than 50% of teachers quit before they reach retirement.

It's even worse in Title I schools. Teacher turnover rates are nearly 50% higher in Title I schools than non-Title I schools.

Special education, English language development, math, and science teachers see higher teacher turnover rates than other areas, including elementary teachers.

According to recent research from Brookings, 5% less of teachers reported that they expected to teach until retirement. Additionally, the probability of teachers leaving the classroom within the next five years increased from 24% on average to 30% on average between March 2020 and March 2021. In fact, 42% of teachers have considered leaving or retiring during the past year.

What is the average turnover rate for classified staff?

Historically for most school groups, classified staff and paraprofessionals turnover rates are even higher than certified staff.

According to research, 38% of teacher aides stay in their job for less than 1 year. An additional 34% leave after 1 - 2 years.

For bus drivers, about 81% of districts report not being able to find enough bus drivers to transport students to and from school. And more than 50% of the districts surveyed by HopSkipDrive report this shortage as "severe" or "desperate". 78% of respondents claim the bus driver shortage is getting even worse.

Many districts are also reporting a substitute teacher shortage with a pool that is 35% less than their previous pool, meaning it's much harder to find a substitute teacher than in years past.

With increasing numbers of teachers being out because of COVID-19, and with substitute teachers being so difficult to find, many schools are forced to transition to online learning.

What were the teacher retention rates before COVID?

Prior to the pandemic, the national average of teacher turnover was 16% based on NCES data. Since the pandemic, that number has increased to nearly 25%.

What percent of teachers leave in the first 5 years?

New teachers have a higher rate of turnover than veteran teachers. Nearly 45% of new teachers leave the classroom within their first five years. Of these, 9.5% of teachers leave in their first year.

Is teacher turnover increasing?

In many areas, yes. However, not all states are reporting increased teacher turnover. ESSER funding has provided financial compensation to teachers above their typical salaries, and many teachers have rededicated themselves to helping others during COVID.

South Carolina has hit a five-year low of teacher turnover, and teacher turnover has decreased in Colorado, Washington state, and Michigan. Other districts throughout the United States and beyond have had less turnover than in previous years.

States with the highest teacher turnover include Arizona, New Mexico, Louisiana, and Texas.

What are the top reasons for teacher turnover?

As you can imagine, teachers leave the classroom for a variety of reasons. Some retire, some have spouses who get relocated because of work, and some are asked to not come back.

However, a large percentage of teachers leave voluntarily. It is this group we will focus on during this section.

What contributes to teacher turnover?

Each teacher has his or her own reason for leaving the classroom, but there are several common threads into the reasoning for unwanted teacher turnover.

LACK OF SUPPORT

One of the main reasons teachers leave the profession is because of a lack of administrative support. The saying "People don't leave their jobs; they leave their bosses" is fitting in education too. In fact, According to the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP), teachers describe a lack of administrative support as a major reason for leaving. This is especially true in high-poverty schools.

According to recent research by the University of British Columbia's School of Population and Public Health, 92% of teachers reported fewer connections with colleagues and lack of support.

INCREASED EMERGENCY CERTIFICATION

Another reason for teacher turnover is actually tied to a drop in enrollment in university-based education programs. Nationwide enrollment in teacher education programs dropped approximately 35% between the years of 2010 - 2018, resulting in a smaller candidate pool for teacher openings. In fact, about 20% of states saw reductions of more than 50% in enrollment. Of those who do enroll, about 40% never become teachers and choose alternative career paths instead.

This has led states to create emergency teacher certification programs to help fill classrooms which is especially helpful in urban areas and for hard-to-fill positions like math and science. However these teachers typically are less prepared for the classroom and have less on-the-job supports, which actually contributes to this group of teacher having a higher turnover rate than university-based teacher programs. Data from the Learning Policy Institute suggests that teachers with little or no training leave at two to three times the rate of teachers with comprehensive preparation.

While emergency certification is a temporary fix (hence the name emergency), the data suggests it should not be considered a fix to the teacher shortage problem.

STRESS

Teaching was a stressful profession before the COVID-19 pandemic, and the stress levels have only gotten worse. Almost half of the public school teachers who voluntarily stopped teaching in public schools after March 2020 and before their scheduled retirement left because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Stress was the most common reason for teachers leaving public school teaching early —almost twice as common as insufficient pay. This is corroborated by the fact that a majority of those who left education went on to take jobs with either less or around equal pay, and 30% took a job with no health insurance or retirement benefits.

LACK OF RECOGNITION

According to Gallup research, 79% of employees who quit their jobs claim lack of appreciation as a major reason for leaving. Only 29% of teachers strongly agree with the statement "In the last seven days, I have received recognition or praise for doing good work."

This is troubling because teachers and staff are doing amazing work each and everyday in a job that is downright difficult. Between online and hybrid learning, closed doors for safety purposes, and the nature of teaching, teachers need to receive recognition more than ever. The environment makes it difficult to do so consistently.

SALARIES

Teachers typically enter the profession to make positive impacts on the lives of others, not to become wealthy. However, the starting salary of a teacher in the United States is $44,994 as of September 2021 with an average salary of $63,645. Approximately 52% of teachers have a post-baccalaureate degree.

According to data from the US Bureau of Labor and Statistics and Northeastern University, an average professional outside of education with a Master's Degree earns $77,844, for a difference of $14k+ per year. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) claims on average teachers are paid 30% less than other college graduates.

While salary may not be the reason people become teachers, the comparatively low salaries impact people's abilities to remain in education.

What is the Cost of Teacher Turnover?

Now that we know why teachers leave, let's explore the impact teacher turnover has on schools and students, including the financial cost, institutional knowledge impact, and effect on student achievement.

What are the financial costs of teacher turnover?

Estimated turnover costs vary from source to source, but The Learning Policy Institute estimates that turnover costs up to $20,000 or more for every teacher who leaves an urban district. Other researchers have estimated these costs to reach as high as 150 percent of the departing teacher’s salary.

Are there institutional knowledge gaps from teacher turnover?

Teacher turnover can also harm school operations by disrupting school stability, teams and collaboration, relationships among faculty, and results in a loss of vital institutional knowledge. The teacher or staff leaving the organization understands the operations of the school, the students within, and the community at large. It takes time for a new teacher to become acquainted with and engrained into the new school community.

How does teacher turnover affect student achievement?

Turnover rates are typically higher in schools that serve dis- and under-advantaged students, but the impact of teacher turnover doesn't stop with these students. All students are affected.

A study from the National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research shows that teacher attrition reduces student achievement, where high turnover resulted in lower student scores in both ELA and math. The effects were even stronger where there was a higher population of low-performing students and students of color.

Higher teacher turnover results in an increased staffing difficulties as well, including substitute teachers, emergency certificated staff (see above), increased challenges related to student behavior, and continuity of a child's learning experience, all of which impact student achievement negatively.

Are there additional teacher turnover costs?

ASCD outlines additional side effects from hiring less-experienced classroom teachers:

• Less time that teachers spend with their students as they try to support newer colleagues

• Professional development is often repeated to meet the newer teachers where they are, resulting is less growth for more experienced teachers.

• Burnout and drain on the energy of the staff that stay

Now that we know about turnover, let's move to what you can actually do about it.

How can teacher retention be improved?

Now that we have a basis for teacher turnover and its impact on the school and students, let's shift into what we can actually do about this.

Do teachers get paid enough?

It goes without saying that we need to address the elephant in the room. Teachers do amazing work, but most agree they are not compensated for their true worth. Almost one in five teachers who leave the profession cites financial reasons as very important or extremely important, yet research shows 60% of people say they are more motivated by recognition than money.

While increased compensation will certainly help, there are additional actions school leaders can take today to create an environment where teachers and staff choose to stay.

Strategy #1: Recognition and appreciation

65% of Americans that claimed they weren’t recognized one time last year. School leaders should implement a cadence where their team is able to recognize each other for their contributions at least monthly. Additionally try to create a system where all staff members (maintenance, nutrition, bus drivers, subs, teachers, counselors, administrators, etc) are able to recognize others and receive recognition.

When providing recognition, try to create different categories of recognition that run throughout the school year. For example, iAspire typically runs recognition categories of:

• Above and beyond

• Culture champion (incorporate your core values, vision, mission)

• High Five

• Behind the scenes

For your cadence of recognition to actually work and have your people participate, the process to recognize and receive the recognition must be extremely simple to run and maintain. We use text and email delivery that is as simple as your team clicking on a link that is sent to them, choosing a person to recognize, and then sharing a story about why they are recognizing this person. Once the recognition is submitted, the recipient receives an email or text message with the recognition included.

When possible, share the recognitions internally through newsletters and in staff meetings. You can also share the recognitions to the world via social media and your website!

Strategy #2: Pulse and engagement surveys

In the business world, many organizations complete periodic pulse and engagement surveys to gain a better sense of how their people are doing. The leaders in these organizations prefer to collect data about how they can improve as opposed to waiting until somebody leaves and completing an exit survey after the person has decided to leave.

Research shows that in the United States, only about 33% of employees are engaged at work. Part of the reason so few employees are engaged is that they don't feel like the organization cares about them as people or about their opinions of how things can be better. These non-engaged employees have opinions and ideas about how make the work environment or their jobs better, but they are not solicited for their thoughts.

While an annual employee engagement survey can be helpful to collect engagement and sentiment data, 77% of employees want to provide feedback more than once per year. The dynamics of the school environment change, and people feel differently throughout the school year. Collecting employee engagement survey data multiple times throughout the year allows district and school leadership to implement changes along the way and much quicker than a single annual survey allows.

Think of it like standardized testing. Imaging a teacher only making classroom-based decisions based on the annual standardized test. The teacher would do the same thing all year in hopes that it would change the students' results for the next big exam. That would be absurd (and WOULD result in teacher turnover...but because that teacher would be terminated!) Rather, a teacher checks in with students consistently and makes pivots to instruction, resources, and supports along the way.

While schools should not check in with teachers as consistently as a teacher checks in with her students, they should survey their team more frequently than once per year.

Additionally engagement surveys should be anonymous. The anonymity allows teachers and staff to be honest with their feedback without concern about repercussions from their responses.

At iAspire, we think through employee engagement through the lens of our 4 Principles of Connection™ model, which you can read about here. In a nutshell, employees are looking for four types of connection in the workplace:

• Connection to self - This principle is the extent to which a person feels their organization supports them in better understanding their personal values, purpose, dreams, and how to develop into the best version of themselves.

• Connection to others - This principle is the extent to which a person feels like they're part of a cohesive team and that the organization supports them in creating and sustaining healthy interpersonal relationships at work.

• Connection to role - This principle is the extent to which a person believes their organization supports them in discovering and fulfilling the ideal role for their unique talents and strengths and realizing its impact.

• Connection to organization - This principle is the extent to which a person believes their organization supports them in being part of something bigger than themselves that makes the world, and their community, a better place.

Each of the questions in the iAspire employee engagement survey fit within one of the four connection types, and an overall summative rating is provided for each Principle of Connection to make it easy to identify their biggest strengths and areas for growth.

Additionally an Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) should be provided as part of the engagement survey. The eNPS is a score from -100 to 100 and is calculated by taking the percentage of promoters within an organization and subtracting the percentage of detractors.

iAspire can run your district or school's pulse and engagement surveys and help you find your Employee Net Promoter Score. Click here to schedule a demo if you're interested in learning more.

Strategy #3: Stay surveys and interviews 

Stay surveys and interviews are another important and actionable data source for district and school leaders to help them increase teacher retention.

Stay surveys are similar to pulse and engagement surveys in that they can be provided to all members of the team. A big difference is that stay surveys are attributed, meaning employee names are collected and shared.

We recommend stay survey results are shared with the HR department of the organization, NOT the employee's direct supervisor. Similar to engagement surveys, the employee should be able and willing to be honest without retribution from his/her direct supervisor. Some employees would not be comfortable sharing their true perspective with a principal or direct supervisor in fear that their performance reviews could be impacted.

Sharing the employees' names and ratings with HR gives a non-supervisor the opportunity to schedule a stay interview with the employee to learn more. This stay interview is a chance for HR and the employee to discuss any outstanding issues, concerns, or problems that could result in the employee leaving the organization.

General information collected across stay interviews can be shared with building level administrators to help that administrator ask clarifying questions and be aware of any patterns of concerns raised.

Strategy #4: New teacher/staff induction

Many districts place a heavy focus on teacher recruiting and acquisition, and rightfully so. Teaching positions are extremely difficult to fill right now, and it seems to be getting worse year after year. However, it's important to remember nearly 50% of new teachers leave within their first five years. Focusing in improving the onboarding process can have a tremendous impact on the 50% who leave during their first five years.

New hires are more likely to stay at an organization if they have a great onboarding experience. We recommend district and schools think of onboarding as an all-year (or multiple year) process. The key is to be able to provide a consistent, repeatable process that supports the new teacher or staff member, administrator of the new hire, and team.

Many districts plan for a couple of days with district personnel as the beginning of their new-hire orientation. The new teachers get their requisite technology, passwords, and access. Time is provided for organizational vision, mission, values work, and general information is provided. Then the new-hires are sent to their buildings to meet with their team and administration.

Finally everybody crosses their fingers and hopes for a good school year so the new hire will return next year (or even make it through the year).

There is so much more we should be doing to support our new hires.

At iAspire, we recommend a new-teacher induction process that includes ongoing check-ins (think very quick pulse surveys) with the new hire with a series of evolving questions throughout the school year and beyond. The answers to these questions are delivered automatically to the building administration and even a new-teacher induction leader at the district level if that exists.

We also recommend an ongoing cadence of administrator and new-hire 1:1s, mentorships, continued core values reinforcement, and opportunities for ongoing recognition both from the new hire and to the new hire.

The key is to create and run a sustained process that includes a myriad of the supports new-hires need to be successful, and to be able to run this process with fidelity....each and every time a new hire onboards.

Strategy #5: Continuous Leadership Development

The saying “People don’t leave their jobs; they leave their managers” is true in education as well.

75%+ of teachers report frequent job-related stress, which is twice the levels of the general population. Why is this? Because teaching is hard, and teachers need to feel valued and supported.

Intentionally providing leadership development is critical to decreasing burnout and turnover as teachers need a leader whom they can trust. The principal and leadership team set the tone throughout the building, and teachers will either respond favorably or look for a different leader that will better support them.

To improve leadership, and therefore reduce burnout and turnover, provide continuous development to your leaders on topics such as:

• Effective communication

• Emotional intelligence

• Psychological safety

• Crucial conversations

• Setting clear expectations

• Empathy

• Recognition

You’ll notice none of the topics listed above are instructional, and this is intentional. Teachers want to work for great leaders. While being a great instructional leader is also important, don’t lean so heavily on instruction that you forget to create an amazing culture where your people feel valued and supported.

At iAspire we think through leadership development in micro-learning experiences. Our coaching lasts 2-5 weeks typically and consists of small, bite-sized activities delivered via email and/or text messages including self-reflections, challenges, and of course solid content. Application and transfer is the key, and all of the iAspire leadership development coaching experiences include actions and activities to apply the learning.

Why teacher retention is crucial for your organization

Recruiting and hiring teachers are staff are critical in your mission to help your students flourish. But don’t stop there. Instead, remember to maintain a focus on creating an environment where your teachers choose to stay and contribute to your school and district.

Teacher retention requires a consistent commitment to the activities that impact the reasons teachers quit. If you need help implementing a cadence of recognition, collecting your team's input through pulse surveys, or continuously engaging your team, we can help.

Sources:

• https://www.scilearn.com/teacher-turnover/#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20National%20Center,out%20of%20every%2020%20teachers.

• https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/sites/default/files/product-files/Teacher_Turnover_BRIEF.pdf

• https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2019/04/29/teacher-turnover-and-the-disruption-of-teacher-staffing/

• https://thehustle.co/why-america-has-a-school-bus-driver-shortage/

• https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2021/09/08/how-the-pandemic-has-changed-teachers-commitment-to-remaining-in-the-classroom/

• https://www.nassp.org/publication/principal-leadership/volume-20/principal-leadership-january-2020/making-teachers-stick-january-2020/

• https://news.vanderbilt.edu/2016/09/26/study-alternatively-certified-teachers-more-likely-to-leave/

• https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/24/1-in-4-teachers-are-considering-quitting-after-this-past-year.html#:~:text=Respondents%20cited%20pandemic%2Drelated%20stress,stressful%20occupation%20before%20the%20pandemic.%E2%80%9D

• https://news.gallup.com/opinion/gallup/210041/why-appreciating-teachers-important-think.aspx

• https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3102/0002831212463813

• https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA1121-2.html