Covid-19

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We examine teacher turnover during the Covid-19 pandemic entering the 2020-21 and 2021-22 academic years. We observe a 2 percentage point (10%) increase entering the 2021-22 academic year. We additionally observe heterogeneous effects across regions and depending on the teacher and school characteristics. Our results raise concerns about increased strain in areas already experiencing teacher shortages and a potential reduction in the diversity of the Arkansas teacher labor force.

We use a nationally representative sample of teachers from the RAND American Teacher Panel to document that teachers’ stated consideration of leaving the profession increased during the pandemic. We find that approaching retirement age (being 55 or older), having to change instruction modes, health concerns, and high levels of job burnout all appear to be important predictors of the probability of considering leaving or retiring from teaching.

We use nationally representative survey data to identify factors which explain observed racial gaps in in-person schooling during the Covid-19 pandemic. We find that several factors, including parental political partisanship, availability of remote learning, percieved risk from the pandemic, and local outbreaks plausibly explain this in-person learning racial gap.