INTRODUCTION
Education is an essential part of American society. School and classroom settings provide the space for
young people to explore interpersonal concepts such as fairness, sharing, collaboration, grit, and resilience.
These social skills are crucial; they help individuals form the connections that are the basis for interacting in
workplaces and in social settings. Teachers also develop foundational academic skills upon which an
individual can build throughout their lifetime; teachers are responsible for providing enriching lessons in
content areas as varied as arts education and vocational and technical skills. The teaching profession and
requirements around teacher education have evolved dramatically, particularly over the past 50 years.
While states retain significant control over these processes, there are three signature federal programs
that have shaped the education reform landscape. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), the
landmark federal legislation that defined the role of the federal government in education, became law in 1965.
No Child Left Behind (NCLB), first authorized in 2002, and the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), first
authorized in 2015, transformed the teaching profession, setting new standards for teacher
professionalization as well as evaluation of both students and educators (National Parent Teacher Association,
n.d.). As the teaching profession has changed, so too has research about both teachers and schools.
The National Center for Education Statistics collects and maintains data on many facets of public
education, including national statistics on teacher retention. The Condition of Education, an annual report
on education, includes data on teachers and the teaching profession approximately every 10 years (Gray and
Taie, 2015). The rate of teachers leaving the profession over the past several decades has increased. In the mid
1980s, annual turnover rates hovered around 6% across the nation, but by the mid 2010s, teacher turnover
had increased to nearly 8% across the nation (Kena et. al, 2016). Employee retention is one measure by which
the health and sustainability of companies or professions can be determined. Not only has the number of
teachers leaving the teaching profession increased over the past several decades; but the increasing rates of
turnover, combined with the expected process of experienced educators retiring, creates a void of qualified
educators in public schools across the country (NCTAF).
Teacher retention is a measure of the number of teachers who continue their employment in their
current school district in a given school year. While the Department of Education analyzes annual turnover
rates, only a handful of studies have specifically sought to understand the employment and movement pat-
terns of teachers over multiple years at a national level. In 2003, using data from two national surveys of
teachers, Richard Ingersoll determined that “after just five years, between 40 and 50% of all beginning
teachers have left teaching altogether” (Ingersoll, 2003, p.13; United States Department of Education, 2012).
This research suggested that a “revolving door” of teachers is to blame for chronic staffing problems in
public schools; that is, working conditions and other school-level factors could be linked directly to patterns
in teacher retention. Ingersoll demonstrated that student socioeconomic status has a strong negative correla-
tion with teacher retention and that average years of teaching experience has a moderate positive correlation
with teacher retention. It is important to note much of the previous research in this field positions teacher
retention as the critical issue in education reform, eschewing the language of teacher shortage that is often
present in news media and public conversations around the teaching profession (NCTAF).
This study will examine the historical retention data in Duval County Public Schools (DCPS) in order
to answer the following research question; Do school-level factors, such as the percent of out-of-field
teachers, influence teacher turnover? This project seeks to link data about teacher movement to previous
research about positive factors for teacher retention and propose potential policy solutions to the problem of
teacher attrition in Duval County. Florida is a unique environment in which to study teacher retention.
Unlike many states, local education agencies in Florida are organized at the county level, with the exception
of 6 special districts. These 6 districts include two statewide schools, The Florida School for the Deaf and
Blind, and Florida Virtual School, as well as four lab schools housed at Florida Atlantic University, Florida
State University, Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, and the University of Florida (FLDOE,
Membership, 2018). In many states, these local education agencies are organized at the township or city level.
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