Hire Today, Gone Tomorrow: New Teacher Classroom Assignments and Teacher Mobility

This study examined whether new teachers are, in fact, assigned to the toughest classrooms, and, if so, what effect that has on new teacher turnover. Using administrative data from Florida and the National Schools and Staffing Teacher Follow-Up Survey, the author found that inexperienced teachers usually taught in schools with low-performing, minority, or limited-English-proficient students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Within schools, novice teachers were more likely to teach in classrooms with a larger share of students who were low performing and/or unruly and students from disadvantaged backgrounds. New teacher turnover was significantly correlated with student misbehavior and underperformance. This finding implies that assigning more experienced teachers to more challenging students can help stem new teacher attrition and thus improve access to great teachers and leaders..