A Look at Returning Teachers

Abstract

Abstract:Research shows that one-quarter to one-third of teachers who leave the profession return, the majority after only a short absence. Though returning teachers can constitute a substantial share of newly hired teachers in schools each year, little is known about them, the factors associated with their decisions to return, or the schools to which they return. In this study, I use a 20-year longitudinal dataset to examine the characteristics of returning teachers as well as the personal, school, and district factors associated with their return both to the profession and to particular schools. In addition, I consider the extent to which returning teachers contribute to the systematic sorting of teachers across schools. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the loss of teachers to attrition from the profession is more likely to be permanent for smaller schools and districts outside of urban and suburban areas. In addition, both personal and job-related factors impact whether and where former teachers return, albeit differently by gender. Interestingly, personal and pecuniary factors in teaching appear to play a greater role than non-pecuniary factors on male leavers' decisions regarding whether and where to return, whereas personal, pecuniary, and non-pecuniary factors all influence female leavers' decisions. Finally, the study demonstrates that returning teachers on average reenter schools that are very similar in terms of student and teacher characteristics to those that they left. Keywords: returning teachers; teacher sorting; teacher supply Resumen: Las investigaciones muestran que entre una cuarta parte a un tercio de los docentes que dejan la profesión retornan, la mayoría después de una corta ausencia. Aunque los docentes que regresan pueden constituir una parte importante de los nuevos ingresos en las escuelas cada año, se sabe poco acerca de ellos, los factores asociados a sus decisiones de retorno, así como de las escuelas a las que regresan. En este estudio, utilizo una base de datos longitudinales de 20 años para examinar las características de los personales, y factores asociados a los distritos escolares, y la decisión de volver a trabajar en escuelas privadas. Además, considero en que medida los docentes que regresan contribuyen a generar sistemas de ordenamiento del personal docente en las escuelas. Contrario a las perspectivas más convencionales, la deserción profesional es más probable que sea permanente en las escuelas de menor tamaño y distritos alejados de las zonas urbanas y suburbanas. Además, factores personales y relacionadas con el trabajo impactan donde y como retornan los antiguos profesores, aunque de forma diferente según el género. Curiosamente, los factores personales y monetarios parecen jugar un papel más importante que los no-monetarios relativos a decisiones sobre si y dónde regresar para los hombres, mientras que los factores personales, monetarios, y no-monetarios influenciaron las decisiones de todas las mujeres. Por último, el estudio demuestra que la los docentes que retorn...

Former Teachers: Exits and Re-Entries

“…For instance, Murnane et al (1991) found that women over the age of thirty who exited teaching were more likely than younger women and men of any age to return to teaching. DeAngelis (2013) also found that women over 30 were more likely to return to teaching than younger women. Men, on the other hand, were more likely to return to teaching over the age of 40.…”

“…One of a few articles examining whether the types of schools that teachers leave affect their likelihood of return found that women, and not men, were affected by these school-level factors. Women who left schools with a higher percentage of non-white students were less likely to return to teaching but they were slightly more likely to return to teaching after leaving schools with more low income students (DeAngelis, 2013).…”

“…We are able to investigate whether both individual and school level factors, such as the size and racial composition of the school that a teacher left, influences the likelihood that teachers choose to return to teaching. Unlike some of the few recent studies in this area (DeAngelis 2013; Grissom & Reininger, 2012), we also have detailed reasons expressed by teachers for choosing to leave teaching. Thus, we are better able to determine how the rationale of a teacher’s exit from their school influences the likelihood that they will return to teaching than much other previous research.…”

Pathways to the Principalship

“…Our life table includes the period-specific survival and hazard functions, which are the rolling likelihood of remaining (“survival”) outside the principalship and the “hazard” of experiencing the event of becoming a principal, respectively. Person-period survival and hazard modeling controls for the conditional dependence inherent within a longitudinal data set, an issue encountered across many research domains in education (Baker et al, 2010; Bowers, 2010; Bowers & Chen, 2015; Bowers & Lee, 2013; DeAngelis, 2013). Although an individual’s risk of experiencing the hazard of the event under consideration is conditional on the previous year, hazard modeling by its very nature avoids violating assumptions of independence.…”

Has “Who Comes Back” Changed? Teacher Reentry 2000–2019

“…Reentry is a critical issue for teacher labor markets because reentering teachers expand teacher supply. Existing research on the topic uses data from the 1970s–1990s and finds that one-quarter to one-half of early-career teachers who exit the classroom eventually return (Beaudin, 1995; DeAngelis, 2013; Grissom & Reininger, 2012). Research on reentry is often based on theories that suggest teaching is a family-friendly profession because it allows women to leave and reenter the workforce with limited professional or financial penalties (Flyer & Rosen, 1997).…”