TEACHER RETENTION IN DUVAL
COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Anna McDaniel-Wyatt
ABSTRACT
Teacher effectiveness is directly connected to the academic growth of students;
previous research suggests that effectiveness increases as teachers gain experience.
Teacher retention is a measure of the number of teachers who continue their
employment in their current school district in a given school year. Retaining teachers
is important not only because of the money invested in training these
professionals, but also because of its effects on student-level academic outcomes.
This study examines historical retention data in Duval County Public Schools
(DCPS) in order to answer the following research question: Do school-level factors
influence teacher turnover? The findings suggest that school-level factors do effect
turnover rates. To address these challenges, the researcher proposes 5 policy
recommendations: implementing Florida model school legislation, amending
Florida principal leadership standards, adjusting DCPS hiring practices,
implementing a critical teacher shortage student loan forgiveness program, and
developing and implementing predictive risk modeling.
The author of this publication was employed as a teacher within Duval County Public Schools from 2015-
2017 and is an employee of Teach For America. No financial support for this research was received from
Duval County Public Schools or Teach For America.
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