FILE - World literature teacher Ann Marie Willoughby speaks with students at Penn Wood High School in Lansdowne, Pa., Wednesday, May 3, 2023. Teachers are leaving their jobs at an accelerating rate in Pennsylvania, according to a new analysis by Penn State's Center for Education Evaluation and Policy Analysis that shows that teacher attrition in Pennsylvania doubled in the 2022-23 school year. HARRISBURG, Pa.
Ed Fuller, the Penn State education professor who conducted the analysis, said he has seen data from 12 states with similar increases in this school year. Fuller’s analysis shows that Pennsylvania saw a 1.5 percentage point increase in teacher attrition this year, the largest increase in the past decade.
Fuller’s analysis found a number of long-term trends that he said are similar across states: teachers showing the highest rate of leaving the profession are Black and Hispanic.Attrition rates were also higher at charter and cyber-charter schools and poorer public schools. Those schools tend to suffer higher turnover, pay less and hire newer teachers, including many teachers of color.
In addition to the time and effort required to find a replacement, research has shown that teacher turnover has a negative effect on student outcomes, school climate and teacher quality, Fuller said.At the moment, state lawmakers and Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro are looking at ways to address the teacher shortage, including stipends for student teachers and tax credits for newly certified teachers.
“I don’t go into a meeting where we don’t talk about educator workforce and what we’re facing,” she said.