How Does Teacher Retention Affect Student Achievement?

Abstract

This paper attempts to analyze the impact that teacher retention has on student achieving. This study estimates the effects of teacher retention on 324 10th grade high school ELA and Math MCAS scores in Massachusetts as a whole while also including economically disadvantaged and English as a Second Language selected-student populations. The results indicate that teacher retention specifically does not have much of an effect on their scores. The effects appeared to be slightly greater with the ELA MCAS scores in schools that are low-performing where the retention rates are lower due to the economically disadvantaged populations.