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What Factors are Associated with Teacher Mobility within New Orleans?

A Research Snapshot by Olivia Carr examines which teacher and school characteristics are associated with teachers switching schools in New Orleans.

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What Factors are Associated with Teacher Mobility within New Orleans?

Published
by Olivia Carr

This descrip­tive study from Tulane Uni­ver­si­ty’s Olivia Carr exam­ines what teacher and school char­ac­ter­is­tics are asso­ci­at­ed with teacher mobil­i­ty with­in New Orleans pub­licly fund­ed schools from 2016 to 2019. One teacher char­ac­ter­is­tic pre­dict­ed teacher mobil­i­ty, and sev­er­al school char­ac­ter­is­tics did: — New­er teach­ers are more like­ly to switch schools than more expe­ri­enced teach­ers. — Teach­ers are more like­ly to switch schools if their prin­ci­pal is also leav­ing. — Teach­ers at schools with low­er School Per­for­mance Scores (SPS) are more like­ly to switch schools than those at high­er SPS schools. — Teach­ers at schools locat­ed in low­er income neigh­bor­hoods are more like­ly to switch schools than those at schools in high­er income neigh­bor­hoods. — Teach­ers do not appear to switch schools due to low salaries or low per pupil spend­ing. This study’s find­ings gen­er­al­ly align with exist­ing research in oth­er dis­tricts, with one excep­tion. The racial make­up of a school’s stu­dent body does not appear to affect teach­ers’ like­li­hood of mov­ing schools in New Orleans, while stud­ies in oth­er loca­tions have found that teach­ers in schools with a high­er pro­por­tion of stu­dents of col­or are more like­ly to switch schools. While it can be use­ful for indi­vid­ual teach­ers to move and find school envi­ron­ments that fit their skills and needs, high rates of teacher mobil­i­ty can have neg­a­tive effects on teacher col­lab­o­ra­tion, school cul­ture, and stu­dent out­comes. These results can be used to tar­get inter­ven­tions designed to improve teacher reten­tion with­in schools.

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