Educator Retention in Context: Understanding Patterns in Principal Turnover in Texas and Washington State During the COVID-19 Era

Abstract

School principals faced unprecedented pressure during the COVID-19 period and an increase in workload due to transitions to and from distance learning. Increased educator turnover has great consequence for students and schools and important implications for policymakers moving into the postpandemic era. In this brief, we describe principal turnover within the broader context by showing how recent increases compare to historical trends, how the nature of turnover has changed with the composition of the workforce, and whether particular student groups are disproportionately impacted. We offer recommendations for improving principal retention and equitable access to stable school leadership.

Keywords

economics of education leadership principals turnover labor markets Covid-19

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Baker

B. D.

Punswick

Belt

(2010). School leadership stability, principal moves, and departures: Evidence from Missouri. Educational Administration Quarterly, 46(4), 523–555.

Bartanen

Grissom

J. A.

Rogers

L. K.

(2019). The impacts of principal turnover. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 41(3), 350–374.

Bastian

K. C.

Fuller

S. C.

(2023). Educator attrition and hiring in North Carolina public schools during the COVID-19 pandemic. Education Policy Initiative at Carolina.

Béteille

Kalogrides

Loeb

(2012). Stepping stones: Principal career paths and school outcomes. Social Science Research, 41(4), 904–919.

Buckman

D. G.

(2021). The influence of principal retention and principal turnover on teacher turnover. Journal of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, 5, 1–26.

Camp

Zamarro

McGee

J. B.

(2022). Changes in teachers’ mobility and attrition in Arkansas during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. University of Arkansas.

Cieminski

A. B.

Asmus

(2023). Principal turnover is too high. Principal supervisors can help. The Learning Professional, 44(1), 34–38.

Collie

R. J.

(2021). COVID-19 and teachers’ somatic burden, stress, and emotional exhaustion: Examining the role of principal leadership and workplace buoyancy. AERA Open, 7, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1177/2332858420986187

Diliberti

M. K.

Schwartz

H. L.

(2021). The K–12 pandemic budget and staffing crises have not panned out—yet: Selected findings from the Third American School District Panel Survey. RAND Corporation.

10.

Di Pietro

. (2023). The impact of Covid-19 on student achievement: Evidence from a recent meta-analysis. Educational Research Review, 39, 100530.

11.

Goldhaber

Gratz

(2021). School district staffing challenges in a rapidly recovering economy. (CEDR Flash Brief No. 11082021-1). University of Washington.

12.

Goldhaber

Kane

T. J.

McEachin

Morton

(2022). A comprehensive picture of achievement across the COVID-19 pandemic years: Examining variation in test levels and growth across districts, schools, grades, and students (Working Paper No. 265-0522). National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research (CALDER). https://caldercenter.org/publications/comprehensive-picture-achievement-across-covid-19-pandemic-years-examining-variation

13.

Grissom

J. A.

Bartanen

Mitani

(2019). Principal sorting and the distribution of principal quality. AERA Open, 5(2), 2332858419850094.

14.

Grissom

J. A.

Kalogrides

Loeb

(2015). Using student test scores to measure principal performance. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 37(1), 3-28.

15.

Hayes

S. D.

Anderson

Carpenter

B. W.

(2022). Responsibility, stress and the well-being of school principals: How principals engaged in self-care during the COVID-19 crisis. Journal of Educational Administration, 60(4), 403–418.

16.

Hayes

S. D.

Mahfouz

(2020). Principalship and mentoring: A review of perspectives, evidence, and literature 1999–2019. Research in Educational Administration & Leadership, 5(3), 722–751. https://doi.org/10.30828/real/2020.3.4

17.

Hillis

S. D.

Unwin

H. J. T.

Chen

Cluver

Sherr

Goldman

P. S.

Ratmann

Donnelly

C. A.

Bhatt

Villaveces

Butchart

Bachman

Rawlings

Green

Nelson

C. A.

3rd Flaxman

(2021). Global minimum estimates of children affected by COVID-19-associated orphanhood and deaths of caregivers: A modelling study. The Lancet, 398(10298), 391–402. https://doi.org/10.1016/S01406736(21)01253-8

18.

Hills

Unwin

Cluver

Sherr

Villaveces

Flaxman

Ratman

Butchart

Bachman

Nelson

III Steyn

Msemburi

Ntwali N’konzi

J-P.

Desmond

Goldman

Green

Rawlings

Ibrahim

(2022). Children: The hidden pandemic. September 2022, Orphanhood and Caregiver Loss Based on Excess COVID-19 Death Estimates. https://www.spi.ox.ac.uk/files/hidden_pandemic_report_september_2022_update_pdf, prepared by the Global Reference Group on Children Affected by COVID19: Joint Estimates and Action.

19.

Husain

A. N.

Miller

L. C.

Player

D. W.

(2021). Principal turnover: Using teacher-assessments of principal quality to understand who leaves the principalship. Educational Administration Quarterly, 57(5), 683–715.

20.

Jackson

(2023). Backtalk: What principals need to know to respond to a crisis. Phi Delta Kappan, 104(5), 66–67.

21.

Jackson

Osworth

Knight

Smith

C. S.

(2024). Conceptualizing district COVID-19 response as a portal for increasing equitable access. Leadership and Policy in Schools, 24(1), 1–18.

22.

Kaufman

J. H.

Diliberti

M. K.

Hamilton

L. S.

(2022). How principals’ perceived resource needs and job demands are related to their dissatisfaction and intention to leave their schools during the COVID-19 pandemic. AERA Open, 8, 23328584221081234.

23.

Khalifa

(2020). Culturally responsive school leadership. Harvard Education Press.

24.

Knight

D. S.

(2020). Accounting for teacher labor markets and student segregation in analyses of teacher quality gaps. Educational Researcher, 49(6), 454–458. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X20925805

25.

Knight

D. S.

Hassairi

Candelaria

Sun

Plecki

(2022). Prioritizing school finance equity during an economic downturn: Recommendations for state policymakers. Education Finance and Policy, 17(1), 188–199. https://doi.org/10.1162/edfp_a_00356

26.

Liebowitz

D. D.

Porter

(2019). The effect of principal behaviors on student, teacher, and school outcomes: A systematic review and meta-analysis of the empirical literature. Review of Educational Research, 89(5), 785–827.

27.

Leithwood

Jantzi

Steinbach

(2021). Leadership and other conditions which foster organizational learning in schools. In Leithwood

Seashore Louis

(Eds.), Organizational Learning in Schools (pp. 67–90). Taylor & Francis. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003077459

28.

Sun

Rorrer

(2015). Principal turnover: Upheaval and uncertainty in charter schools? Educational Administration Quarterly, 51(3), 409–437.

29.

Reid

D. B.

(2022). Suppressing and sharing: How school principals manage stress and anxiety during COVID-19. School Leadership & Management, 42(1), 62–78.

30.

Rigby

J. G.

(2014). Three logics of instructional leadership. Educational Administration Quarterly, 50(4), 610–644.

31.

Skrla

Scheurich

J. L.

Garcia

Nolly

(2004). Equity audits: A practical leadership tool for developing equitable and excellent schools. Educational Administration Quarterly, 40(1), 133–161.

32.

Stanford

(2022). Political tensions in schools are “pervasive,” principals say. Education Week. https://www.edweek.org/leadership/political-tensions-in-schools-are-pervasive-say-principals/2022/11

33.

Sun

Candelaria

C. A.

Knight

D. S.

LeClair

Kabourek

S. E.

Chang

(2024). The effects and local implementation of school finance reforms on teacher salary, hiring, and turnover. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 47(2), 380–412. https://doi.org/10.3102/01623737231213880.

34.

Sun

(2016). Work environments and labor markets: Explaining principal turnover gap between charter schools and traditional public schools. Educational Administration Quarterly, 52(1), 144–183.

35.

Turner

(2022). School principals say culture wars made last year “rough as hell.” National Public Radio. https://www.npr.org/2022/12/01/1139685828/schools-democracy-misinformation-purple-state

36.

Upadyaya

Toyama

Salmela-Aro

(2021). School principals’ stress profiles during COVID-19, demands, and resources. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 731929.

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.42 MB

0.00 MB