Dynamic effects of teacher turnover on the quality of instruction

• Published in: Economics of education review 2016-12, Vol.55, p.132-148
• Main Authors: Hanushek, Eric A., Rivkin, Steven G., Schiman, Jeffrey C.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Estimation of teacher effects; Teacher quality; Teacher turnover
• ISSN: 0272-7757; 1873-7382
• DOI: 10.1016/j.econedurev.2016.08.004

•Teacher turnover negatively affects achievement despite adverse selection of leavers.•Experience loss and grade reassignment account for the negative turnover effects.•Negative turnover effects are concentrated in lower-achievement schools.•First-year teachers who move to other schools are not adversely selected on average. It is widely believed that teacher turnover adversely affects the quality of instruction in urban schools serving predominantly disadvantaged children, and a growing body of research investigates various components of turnover effects. The evidence at first seems contradictory, as the quality of instruction appears to decline following turnover despite the fact that most work shows higher attrition for less effective teachers. This raises concerns that confounding factors bias estimates of transition differences in teacher effectiveness, the adverse effects of turnover or both. After taking more extensive steps to account for nonrandom sorting of students into classrooms and endogenous teacher exits and grade-switching, we replicate existing findings of adverse selection out of schools and negative effects of turnover in lower-achievement schools. But we find that these turnover effects can be fully accounted for by the resulting loss in experience and productivity loss following the reallocation of some incumbent teachers to different grades.