Quality Educators Matter

Educator Attrition

Educator Supply

Cost of Losing Educators

Educator Attrition

Some educator attrition is inevitable. Educators transfer to other schools, they retire, they leave for personal reasons such as caring for family or children, and a small number are dismissed from jobs. Of concern are the growing number who leave the profession, especially those who leave after only a few years for reasons other than those just mentioned.

• Based on data from 1999-2000 it was estimated that 645 New Hampshire teachers left teaching for another profession and 903 NH teachers transferred to another school in a single year. (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2005)
  
  
• Nationally, the proportion of K-12 teachers who are 50 years of age and older has risen from 24% (one in four) in 1996 to 42 % in 2005. (National Center for Education Information, 2005)
  

• 2000-2001 NH Dept. of Education data indicated that nearly forty percent of New Hampshire’s educators were 50 years of age or older. (Mackin, 2003)
  
  
• In New Hampshire, since 2002 at least 350 teachers have retired every year. (Smith and Mackin, 2006)
  

• Nationally, 40% of current public school teachers expect not to be teaching in K-12 schools five years from now. (National Center for Education Information, 2005)
  

• Nationally nearly half of all new teachers who enter the field leave it within five years. (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2005)
  
  
• In NH, among the educators who were newly certified in 1999, 19% of them taught for three years or less. (Mackin, 2003)
  
  
• Teacher turnover (those who leave the field and those who change jobs) is 15.7%, 4.7% higher than non-teaching occupations (11%). (Emerick, 2006)
  

The Great Escape, The Christian Science Monitor

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