so says a recently released study titled How teacher turnover harms student achievement, about which Steven Sawchuk writes in this Education Week piece.
The authors of the study are the University of Michigan's Matthew Ronfeldt, Stanford University's Susanna Loeb, and the University of Virginia's Jim Wyckoff.
Quoting from Sawchuk's summary:
Among their findings:
• For each analysis, students taught by teachers in the same grade-level team in the same school did worse in years where turnover rates were higher, compared with years in which there was less teacher turnover.
• An increase in teacher turnover by 1 standard deviation corresponded with a decrease in math achievement of 2 percent of a standard deviation; students in grade levels with 100 percent turnover were especially affected, with lower test scores by anywhere from 6 percent to 10 percent of a standard deviation based on the content area.
• The effects were seen in both large and small schools, new and old ones.
• The negative effect of turnover on student achievement was larger in schools with more low-achieving and black students.
Now remember, those who come to schools through Teach for America commit to only two years, and rarely stay beyond 4. That means using TFAers is committing to constant turnover.
Then please note as well:
"Turnover must have an impact beyond simply whether incoming teachers are better than those they replaced—even the teachers outside of this redistribution are somehow harmed by it," the authors conclude. "Though there may be cases where turnover is actually helpful to student achievement, on average, it is harmful."
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One has to wonder how TFA will push back against this.
One also wonders if those pushing to get rid of senior teachers really understand the impact upon learning.
Perhaps when many of us more senior teachers leave, as seems increasingly likely, we will find it.