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The damaging effects of losing a teacher midyear
Teacher turnover has long been correlated with decreased student achievement, but new research on the topic concludes that midyear turnover has the most negative impact on student learning.
According to the journal Education Finance and Policy, students who lose their teacher during the school year have “significantly lower” test score gains than students who have the same teacher for a full academic year. Researchers concluded that midyear teacher turnover depresses student achievement by an average of 7.5 percent of a standard deviation, and that the effect is even worse when teachers leave between December and April.
The researchers found that while the effects of turnover can be seen across the board, it was was most acutely felt in math, where the drops were significant. The researchers used data from North Carolina, and they concluded that end-of-the-year turnover had little effect on student scores.
This is the third paper on teacher turnover that the authors have published this year. The earlier papers found:
- The midyear departure rate of novice teachers was approximately 30 percent higher than teachers as a whole
- Turnover was highest among teachers who were deemed to be less effective, and was lowest among elementary school teachers
- Turnover was lower when principals were rated as more effective by teachers
- Roughly a quarter of all teacher turnover in North Carolina occurred in the middle of the school year
Residency programs address many of the issues underlying mid-year departures. More and better clinical preparation means teachers enter the classroom ready to teach and are better equipped to handle the ups and downs that all new teachers face. Also, the commitment residents have to the schools in which they trained contributes to three-year retention rates among graduates that top 80 percent.
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