E.D. Tabs, National Center for Education Statistics
August 2004
In August, the National Center for Education Statistics released results from its 2000-1 "Teacher Follow-up Survey." Among the findings are some interesting if unsurprising information about how many public and private school teachers leave their schools, why they do, and where they go. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the study found that fully 85 percent of all public school teachers remained at the same school between 1999 and 2000, 8 percent moved to a different school, and just 7 percent left teaching entirely. Of course, the fact that 53 percent of the public school "movers" switched to a school in a different district suggests that many may be fleeing hard-to-staff schools (or maybe they would just rather live in the sun than the snow). It is also interesting to note that those leaving a private school were more than twice as likely as their public school counterparts to exit education entirely (30 percent versus 12 percent), and that public school leavers are more likely to retire (27 percent versus 9 percent) or to work in a school in some capacity other than teaching (20 percent versus 13 percent of private school leavers). While it's not possible to draw definitive conclusions from these data, they do suggest that private schools are more likely than public schools to attract professionals who would like to devote a few years to teaching at some point in their careers - an important distinction, given how many of today's talented young people are "career switchers" with much to offer students if only the system can find a way to welcome them into its classrooms. You can find it here.
