03-04-2025
NC teacher turnover down compared to last year, but still higher than recent years, new report shows
RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — New numbers from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction provide insight into teacher turnover in the state. It shows almost 1 in 10 teachers left their job between March 2023 and March 2024.
NCDPI presented its State of the Teaching Profession report, which looks at attrition rates, at Wednesday's State Board of Education meeting.
The report shows a teacher turnover rate of 9.9% for 2023-24, for a total of 8,886 teachers leaving. That's an improved compared to the year before where more than 10,300 teachers left, for a turnover rate of 11.5%.
While the turnover rate is down year of year, the 2023-24 rate is still higher than each of the five years before that. Those turnover rates ranged from 7.5% – 8.2%.
Erin Thomas Horne is the Assistant Dean for Professional Education and Accreditation at NC State University's College of Education.
She said it's especially crucial to support young teachers. NC DPI data shows they leave at a higher rate. With an attrition rate between 11.7% and 17.5% for teachers with 0-5 years of experience.
'We have four years with our students, but the role of teaching is so complex, and so it's important that they have kind of that real time support to understand the nuances and the complexities of their particular school and the class that they're working with that year,' Thomas Horne said.
She points to programs like the North Carolina New Teacher Support Program. NC State is one of the universities that partners with local school districts to provide instructional coaches to teachers in their first three years on the job.
The college has several programs to help more people enter the career.
'Our most successful programs are when we provide financial support for students to earn their teaching credential,' Thomas Horne said.
She said other successful programs at NC State involve getting high school students interested in teaching, like the Leadership Institute for Future Teachers (LIFT), which is a 6-day long program for rising high school seniors eyeing a career in teaching.
In their presentation Wednesday, NC DPI leaders said the state is hiring more teachers than the number that left.
The highest attrition rate was for teachers with more than 28 years of experience.
'While the report shows improvement in the percentage of teachers staying compared to prior years, there are still far too many teachers leaving the profession,' said North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction Maurice Green. 'We need to do a much better job of keeping them in the classroom once they are hired. That starts with revering these professionals for the amazing job they do and providing them with great salaries and opportunities for growth within our public schools.'
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