Teacher Mobility
Teacher Turnover in Minnesota
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Population of Minnesota Teachers | Analysis of Teachers Moving From, Staying In, and Leaving Minnesota | Minnesota Teacher Survey Results | Policy Recommendations for the Midwest Region | References
Analysis of Teachers Moving From, Staying In, and Leaving Minnesota
Teaching is a field that loses many of its newly trained practitioners very early in their careers. Figure 2 illustrates, by selected personal characteristics, the percentage of 1994-95 teachers who moved from, stayed in, and left Minnesota during their first five years of teaching. These results emphasize the importance of clearly specifying how "teacher turnover" is to be defined. If one considers the traditional definition of "teacher turnover" (i.e., the number of teachers who leave the profession altogether), no group of teachers in Minnesota is statistically more likely to leave teaching. However, when both "movers" and "leavers" are considered, the results are more revealing. As shown in Figure 2, there was nuanced behavior between teachers who transferred to another school district or districts within Minnesota ("movers") and those who left Minnesota public school teaching and did not return ("leavers"). Teachers who were older than age 30 when they entered teaching were no more likely to leave teaching than were younger teachers. Teachers who were older than age 30 were much less likely than younger teachers to transfer among school districts, however.
Overall, there is evidence that attrition rates for Minnesota teachers beginning their teaching careers in the 1994-95 school year were lower than the other three Midwest states included in the study. The cumulative losses of beginning teachers from the Minnesota school district that hired them was less than 40 percent, consisting of 17 percent who moved to different districts and 21 percent who left teaching altogether. The percentage of teachers leaving teaching in Minnesota, as well as moving among the state's school districts, also was lower than previous national findings (Ingersoll, 1995).
Minnesota teachers beginning their teaching careers in the 1994-95 school year were examined further by selected professional characteristics. As shown in Figure 3, secondary teachers--and more specifically, vocational, science, and foreign language teachers and secondary teachers in low-wage districts--were most likely to leave teaching. However, these results also emphasize the importance of looking at teachers who transfer among districts in addition to those who leave the state. As also shown in Figure 3, although special education teachers were no more likely to leave the profession than other types of teachers, they were much more likely to transfer among school districts.
Minnesota is very unlike Illinois in that teachers are less likely to move out of urban districts and instead are much more likely to leave low-enrollment, nonurban districts. Although overall attrition in Minnesota is quite low, turnover among teachers in smaller school districts is well over 50 percent, with the turnover particularly high among secondary teachers in these smaller districts. Of these secondary teachers, vocational, science, and foreign language teachers in low-wage districts are more likely to leave teaching.
Population of Minnesota Teachers | Analysis of Teachers Moving From, Staying In, and Leaving Minnesota | Minnesota Teacher Survey Results | Policy Recommendations for the Midwest Region | References
