A Study of District Hiring Practices and Teacher Preparation Background and the Impact on Teacher Retention

Nationally, teachers leave the profession at rates of up to and beyond 50% after five years of service. Archival data from 2000 and 2005 was analyzed for a major suburban school district in Texas that hired 1,310 first year teachers from three routes to certification including 46% who completed a traditional route and already held a standard teaching certificate, 36% who were participating in the district’s in-house Alternative/Accelerated Teacher Certification Program (ATCP), and 18% who were participating in external Alternative/Accelerated certification route programs. Although retention rates varied for each certification route after one to five years of service, teachers who were participating in the district ATCP had the highest overall retention rate at the five year mark with 60% of teachers remaining employed in the district. Teachers certified through the traditional route had a 54% retention rate at five years and teachers from external route programs stayed in the district at a 51% retention rate.