Welcome Back, Teacher: A Quantitative Exploration of Teacher Labor Movement Out of and Returning to the Classroom and the Impact of Time Away on Teacher Quality Measures

Abstract

As concern grows about teacher attrition and the resulting teacher shortages, one underexplored solution is the return of teachers who previously left. These papers provide an updated descriptive and comparative look at these teachers in the specific context of the state of Tennessee. In addition to observable characteristics, this research is the first to offer a descriptive analysis of how teachers performed prior to leaving, both in terms of test-based value-added measures (VAM) and in Principal rating scores. Teachers that returned are more likely to be younger, return within 5 years, and fully licensed. Measures of a teacher’s quality prior to exit are not as salient, but they do operate as a sorting mechanism within gender to predict returns. I also explore the relationships of returning teachers to their principals through a descriptive analysis of whether teachers return to the same school or district that they left from. Further, this study also provides a first attempt to quantify the impact of their absence on the VAM score and Principal ratings of a returning teacher compared to teachers with uninterrupted careers. Using a difference-in-differences and matching methodology, I find no statistically significant difference between returning teachers and matched teachers, though the sample of returning teachers outperforms on VAM scores six years after returning, and the sample of returning teachers receive higher principal ratings compared with teachers with equivalent experience at the time of return. Returning teachers could represent an untapped source of teacher talent that is underappreciated given their relative cost due to salary schedules.