Exploring Teacher Attrition in Urban China through Interplay of Wages and Well-being

Abstract

Teacher attrition is a chronic challenge facing many education systems, and has been shown to negatively impact education quality and equity. Common explanations rooted in occupational choice theory identify pecuniary and non-pecuniary rewards as critical factors in motivating and retaining teachers. Using China Household Income Project (CHIP) urban dataset, which contains detailed information on teacher career decisions, this study examines these theoretical stipulations by simultaneously modeling teacher career decisions, wage compensation, and on-the-job well-being. Probit panel regression results demonstrate that a 10% increase in teacher wage and well-being gaps, relative to comparable professionals, predicts a 7.9% and 32% lower probability of retention respectively, with effects mostly operating through teacher well-being.

Invisible Shifts in and Out of the Classroom: Dynamics of Teacher Salary and Teacher Supply in Urban China

“…On the one hand, it has been shown to be useful to aggregate lifetime career value (Bradley et al, 2017), and fiscally feasible policy options may include improving job security, extending retirement age limits, and raising pension payouts. On the other hand, evidence is also showing that raising nonpecuniary compensation for teachers can have a sizable impact on career attractiveness (Liu, 2020), such as through better working conditions, active support systems, and more societal recognition. Whichever the case, it is vital to acknowledge that recruiting and retaining good teachers is crucial for education and national development, but if policy lags in labor pricing are left unaddressed, depreciating career attractiveness will inevitably jeopardize vast efforts already invested in schools.…”

“…Scholars have argued that swift labor market changes within a relatively short time frame may exacerbate adverse effects of occupational selection (Wen, 2015). In this context, studies have cast particular concern on urban teachers, who face fluid career mobility and vast out-ofeducation work opportunities (Liu, 2020). Yet, despite consequential changes, few studies have examined the relationship between teacher salary and teacher supply in China.…”

Cognitive Returns to Having Better Educated Teachers: Evidence from the China Education Panel Survey

“…In this regard, policies targeting teacher education improvements may represent a useful welfare enhancing reform tool to promote social justice by building more quality and inclusive educational institutions, particularly when broader societal uncertainties are reshaping the future of how students access learning opportunities (Liu 2021b). Additionally, school personnel management practices may consider a stronger emphasis on retaining qualified and effective teachers, because when they do leave, the void of unrealized student cognitive development can be considerable (Liu 2021a).…”

“…In theoretical terms, holding a higher level of educational attainment can imply either a better state of a teacher's own level of human capital development, or can act as a positive signal of adept innate ability, academic motivation, and cognitive skills development compared to those teachers without such credentials. To that end, a teacher's better state of their own human capital development may reflect more effective instructional craft, higher efficiency in classroom management, and greater creativity to bolster learning (Liu 2021a).…”

Evaluating Educational Credentials of Teachers as Predictor of Effective Teaching: A Pupil Fixed-Effect Modeling Approach

“…More critically, the weight of the influence of teachers on learning outcomes has been shown to be more deterministic in developing countries, where availability of home educational resources and learning opportunities are scarce (Bau and Das, 2017 ; Liu and Steiner-Khamsi, 2020 ). Consequently, policymakers have become interested in evaluating how the educational credentials of teachers can serve as promising predictors of effective teaching and in understanding how such observable indicators of teacher quality affect the learning of children (Liu, 2021 ).…”