Who Leaves? Teacher Attrition and Student Achievement

40 Pages Posted: 28 May 2008 Last revised: 26 Oct 2022

See all articles by Donald Boyd

Donald Boyd

SUNY at Albany

Pamela Grossman

Stanford University - School of Education

Hamilton Lankford

SUNY at Albany - College of Arts and Sciences

Susanna Loeb

Stanford University; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

James H. Wyckoff

SUNY at Albany - College of Arts and Sciences

Date Written: May 2008

Abstract

Almost a quarter of entering public-school teachers leave teaching within their first three years. High attrition would be particularly problematic if those leaving were the more able teachers. The goal of this paper is estimate the extent to which there is differential attrition based on teachers' value-added to student achievement. Using data for New York City schools from 2000-2005, we find that first-year teachers whom we identify as less effective at improving student test scores have higher attrition rates than do more effective teachers in both low-achieving and high-achieving schools. The first-year differences are meaningful in size; however, the pattern is not consistent for teachers in their second and third years. For teachers leaving low-performing schools, the more effective transfers tend to move to higher achieving schools, while less effective transfers stay in lower-performing schools, likely exacerbating the differences across students in the opportunities they have to learn.

Suggested Citation

Boyd, Donald and Grossman, Pamela and Lankford, Hamilton and Loeb, Susanna and Wyckoff, James H., Who Leaves? Teacher Attrition and Student Achievement (May 2008). NBER Working Paper No. w14022, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1138191

Donald Boyd

SUNY at Albany ( email )

1400 Washington Avenue
Albany, NY 12222
United States

Pamela Grossman

Stanford University - School of Education ( email )

Stanford, CA 94305-3096
United States

Hamilton Lankford

SUNY at Albany - College of Arts and Sciences ( email )

1400 Washington Avenue
Albany, NY 12222
United States

Susanna Loeb (Contact Author)

Stanford University ( email )

School of Education 402P CERAS, 520 Galvez Mall
Stanford, CA 94305
United States
650-725-4262 (Phone)

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
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James H. Wyckoff

SUNY at Albany - College of Arts and Sciences ( email )

1400 Washington Avenue
Albany, NY 12222
United States