The National Center for Education Statistics has issued an analysis of the first three years of data from its longitudinal study of beginning teachers. The study tracks more than 2,000 teachers who began teaching in 2007-2008 and is scheduled to run for at least five years.
Preliminary findings include:
- The first-year attrition rate for the new teachers was almost 10%.
- Nearly 13% of the teachers aged 30 or older left after the first year compared to 8.7% of younger teachers.
- The first-year attrition rate for teachers who work in high-poverty schools is more than double that of those who work in lower-poverty schools (7% compared to 3.1%).
- There is no difference in first-year attrition rates of teachers certified through alternative routes to certification and those trained in traditional teacher preparation programs.
- Of the beginning teachers who left teaching in 2008-2009, 31% did so because their contracts were not renewed. Of those who left in 2009-2010, the percentage of non-renewals was 35%.
