At an event several weeks ago, the Learning Policy Institute highlighted its recent report, “Teacher Turnover: Why It Matters and What We Can Do About It.” While it’s a worthy topic, and the institute accurately diagnoses some persistent challenges in retaining teachers in certain subject areas and in high-poverty schools, the report could potentially mislead people about the true causes of teacher turnover, the likelihood of significantly reducing those rates, and the potential policy solutions to do so.

Moreover, by focusing solely on teacher turnover, LPI may be sending a misleading signal about the gravity of the problem. Although teacher turnover rates may seem high on their face, and there are certainly good reasons to want more stability, in reality, teachers have lower mobility rates than almost every other profession in the U.S.

Moreover, turnover rates among private school teachers have increased even more rapidly than those of public school teachers. This throws an enormous wrench into any theory that attempts to explain teacher turnover trends based solely on policies affecting public schools.

Moreover, the “teacher turnover is rising!” mantra runs the risk of failing to recognize the real challenges faced in our nation’s schools. Instead of targeting resources at the schools, fields, and ages where teacher turnover is highest, too many efforts focus on generic efforts to boost teacher retention, like districtwide pay increases. Instead of designing solutions to fill teacher shortage areas, too many of our solutions on the supply side treat all teachers interchangeably.

Read the full article by Chad Aldeman about teacher turnover The 74