Teacher retention in Appalachian schools: Evidence from Kentucky

► Teacher attrition in Appalachia is studied over a twenty-year panel. ► The panel includes time before and after major statewide education reform. ► Appalachian teachers are less likely to transfer districts and more likely to exit public schools. ► Statewide reform had a mixed impact on teacher at...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Economics of education review 2012-08, Vol.31 (4), p.431-441
Main Authors: Cowen, Joshua M., Butler, J.S., Fowles, Jacob, Streams, Megan E., Toma, Eugenia F.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Appalachia
Education reform
Elementary Secondary Education
Faculty Mobility
Kentucky
Public School Teachers
Rural education
Rural Schools
School Districts
Teacher Effectiveness
Teacher labor markets
Teacher Persistence
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Summary:► Teacher attrition in Appalachia is studied over a twenty-year panel. ► The panel includes time before and after major statewide education reform. ► Appalachian teachers are less likely to transfer districts and more likely to exit public schools. ► Statewide reform had a mixed impact on teacher attrition. In this paper we analyze teacher attrition from Appalachian school districts over nearly twenty years of data. We employ a unique panel of public K-12 teachers active in Kentucky between 1986 and 2005, and discern several patterns of interest to scholars and policymakers. Inter-district mobility is rare in Kentucky, and rarer still among Appalachian teachers. Few teachers transfer between regions, but teachers are considerably more likely to leave Appalachia than to transfer to it. Our results also indicate that Appalachian teachers are more likely to exit the profession. One implication of this evidence is that improvements to teacher quality in such isolated areas would require a focus on the home labor pool.
ISSN:0272-7757
1873-7382
DOI:10.1016/j.econedurev.2011.12.005