Student Achievement and Teacher Retention in Urban Schools: The Role of Working Conditions and Professional Development

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Principal Investigator: 
James Wyckoff
Co-Investigator: 
Hamilton Lankford
Susanna Loeb
Pamela Grossman
Project Overview
Background & Purpose: 

Teacher retention is a major issue affecting student achievement in many urban school districts. Little is know in a systematic fashion about the factors that influence retention, especially among new teachers. This research explores the effect of working conditions on teacher retention.

Setting: 

The research employs extensive data from New York City public schools, and target teachers new to the profession.

Research Design: 

This is a cross-sectional project designed to generate associative or correlational evidence through the use of quasi-experiments and causal evidence using statistical modeling. The project makes use of extensive administrative data, including state and NYC department of education administrative records on teachers. Standard statistical methods are employed to evaluate the retention of teachers using, for example, conditional logit.

Findings: 

A final report is anticipated during the summer of 2010.