Teacher Preparation and Employment Outcomes of Beginning Teachers in Rhode Island

Title:	Teacher Preparation and Employment Outcomes of Beginning Teachers in Rhode Island
Description:	Many states want to better understand the extent to which teachers move across schools or leave the state's public school system, as teacher turnover can have adverse effects on student achievement and local education budgets (Guin, 2004). Leaders at the Rhode Island Department of Education are specifically interested in understanding factors related to teacher mobility, retention, and attrition. This study examines these employment outcomes among 1,164 teachers in Rhode Island who completed a teacher preparation program in the state between 2012/13 and 2016/17, and went on to teach for at least one year in the state’s public school system by the 2017/18 academic year. Researchers compared teacher retention, mobility, and attrition rates across different types of preparation programs and used statistical models to examine relationships between the teacher preparation institution and the employment outcomes of interest. After three years, about one-third of beginning teachers were still teaching in their first school. Another third had changed schools, and a third were no longer teaching in Rhode Island public schools. These rates varied by teacher preparation area and field of certification. There was no relationship between the program in which a beginning teacher was prepared in Rhode Island and that teacher's mobility, retention, attrition, and out-of-field teaching status, except for teachers prepared in alternative programs, who were more likely than teachers prepared in other programs to stay in their school after one year and more likely to leave after three years. Stakeholders can use the information in this report to inform policies and supports for beginning teachers, especially those identified in fields with higher rates of attrition or prepared in alternative programs.
Online Availability:	Download, view and print the report as a pdf file. (980KB) Download, view and print the report brief as a pdf file. (632KB) Download, view and print the report snapshot as a pdf file. (178KB) Download, view and print the report infographic as a pdf file. (1.3MB) Download, view and print the report appendices as a pdf file. (566KB)
Cover Date:	September 2020
Web Release:	September 15, 2020
Publication #:	REL 2020029
Center/Program:	REL
Associated Centers:	NCEE
Authors:	Jessica Bailey, Noman Khanani, Natalie Lacireno Paquet, Karen Shakman, and Georgia Bock
Type of Product:	Descriptive Study
Keywords:	States Teachers • characteristics of
Questions:	For questions about the content of this Descriptive Study, please contact: Amy Johnson.