Race, Climate, and Turnover: An Examination of the Teacher Labor Market in Rural Georgia

Abstract

Teacher turnover across the country presents a persistent and growing challenge for schools and districts, with the highest rates of turnover geographically concentrated in the American South. Research on teacher staffing and turnover problems consistently highlight two subsets of schools as struggling to attract and retain well-credentialed, effective educators—predominantly Black schools and rural schools. However, research has rarely explicitly examined the schools that meet both these criteria. We use administrative records and unique climate survey data from Georgia to examine how the intersecting roles of race, money, and school climate shape evolving teacher turnover patterns in rural schools. Findings suggest that while teacher mobility is generally less common in rural schools, considerable inequities exist within the rural space, with majority Black rural schools bearing far more of the brunt of rural teacher turnover. Among rural teachers, Black teachers have higher mobility rates—more likely to make interdistrict moves and to exit rural settings for teaching opportunities in urban and suburban contexts. However, in majority-Black rural schools, higher salaries and school climate factors, such as relational climate and parental involvement, were strong predictors of retention, even after controlling for a rich set of covariates.

Introduction to Special Topic: Rural Education Finance and Policy

“…Looking at a decade of Georgia administrative data on teachers, Williams et al (2021) find that teachers’ perceptions of school climate are better in rural schools than in urban schools and, supporting the national survey findings of Nguyen (2020), that teacher retention rates are higher in rural schools than in urban and suburban schools. 6 Of significance, however, is that this rural advantage is not uniform.…”

“…Williams et al (2021) continues the focus on teacher turnover in rural schools by looking at the state of Georgia. This article is an important contribution to the rural literature because of its focus on a racially diverse rural area.…”

“…These differences within and across these states matter. In the highly diverse state of Georgia, Williams et al (2021) finds that racial diversity has important implications for teacher recruitment and retention. Looking at all states, Nguyen (2020) finds that the degree of rurality of a state overall affects staffing, and not just the location of the school or district.…”

School choice, teachers’ work, and professional identity

“…Scarcity, or the availability of jobs, may also force teachers to compromise key job preferences related to their professional identity (Cannata, 2010;Jabbar et al, 2019). At the same time, shortages may draw teachers to contexts they previously undervalued or did not consider (Williams et al, 2021). Therefore, labor market conditions and national policy discourses complicate teachers' perceptions of their employability and how they present their professional identity when navigating the job search.…”

Exploring Perceptions Related to Teacher Retention Issues in Rural Western United States

“…Rural schools have faced their own pandemics for a good many years-adequate human and fiscal capital-that has led to disproportionate shortages of teachers in rural areas (Tate, 2020;Williams et al, 2021). Educational leaders and policymakers have been concerned about recruiting and retaining high-quality teachers into high-needs schools and certain subject areas, but these concerns have increased in recent years as the labour market for all workers has intensified and the job opportunities available to prospective teachers have increased.…”