Dear Commons Community,

One of the more persistent problems in the public schools has been the large turnover rate of new teachers.  Richard Ingersoll, one of the leading researchers on teacher retention, has consistently estimated that beginning-teacher retention rates are between 50 percent and 60 percent over the first five years of a teaching career.  However, a new analysis by the Center for American Progress concludes that approximately 70 percent of beginning teachers are staying with the profession for at least five years.  Furthermore, according to the researchers Robert Hanna and Kaitlin Pennington,  the increased retention is occurring in both high-poverty and low-poverty schools.

Hanna and Pennington used data from the U.S. Department of Education’s the Schools and Staffing Survey from 2007 and 2008, and a follow-up survey called the Beginning Teacher Longitudinal Study, as well as the Schools and Staffing Survey from 2011 and 2012 and its recent follow-up. The researchers replicated the statistical method used by Richard Ingersoll.

This is good news for the teaching profession and more importantly for public education.  It remains to be seen if these percentages hold as the economy continues to improve.

Tony