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The Role of Principals in Attracting Teachers: Findings from Teacher Transfer Requests

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Bibliographic Details
Title: The Role of Principals in Attracting Teachers: Findings from Teacher Transfer Requests
Language: English
Authors: Elc Estrera, Jonathan Enns, Christopher McCabe, Mark Savage, Lauren Sartain, Wake County Public School System (WCPSS), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, School of Education
Source: Wake County Public School System. 2025.
Availability: Wake County Public School System. 5625 Dillard Drive, Cary, NC 27518. Tel: 919-431-7215; Fax: 919-431-7193; e-mail: wcpss-data-accountability@wcpss.net; Web site: www.wcpss.net
Peer Reviewed: N
Page Count: 11
Publication Date: 2025
Document Type: Reports - Research
Descriptors: Principals, Administrator Role, Teacher Transfer, Labor Turnover, Teacher Selection, Teaching Conditions, Teacher Persistence, Predictor Variables, Administrator Characteristics, Teacher Attitudes, Preferences, Institutional Characteristics, Teacher Characteristics, Faculty Mobility
Geographic Terms: North Carolina
Abstract: Districts across the country are experiencing churn and uncertainty related to school staffing. In 2021, sixteen percent of teachers left their schools (National Center for Education Statistics 2022), and districts have struggled to fill the vacancies. In North Carolina, a survey of school districts identified over 11,000 vacancies that were unfilled at the start of the 2022-23 school year (Schlemmer & deBruyn 2022). Increases in educator turnover and hiring difficulties raise urgent questions about what district leaders and principals can do to make schools desirable places to work so they are fully staffed and so all students can learn. Previous research tells us that teachers generally seek out schools that are close to their homes (Boyd et al 2013; Cannata 2010; Engel, et al., 2014), as well as schools that serve more advantaged populations (Boyd et al. 2005; Boyd et al. 2011). In Wake County Public School System (WCPSS), we expand prior research by documenting the role principals can play in retaining teachers and attracting applicants to their schools. The authors use WCPSS data from AY2007-08 to AY2021-22, which includes more than 18,000 teachers, 7,000 transfer applicants, and 352 principals to answer the following questions: (1) How common are transfer requests in WCPSS? (2) What reasons do teachers give for seeking a transfer to another WCPSS? Are some reasons more predictive of their eventual transfer to another school? (3) What principal characteristics (e.g., years of experience, principal-teacher demographic congruence, teacher survey reports of leadership quality) are associated with a teacher's decision to complete a transfer application (i.e., to apply for a transfer away from their school)? (4) Conditional on completing a transfer application, do teachers show preferences for certain principal attributes over others? What is the relative importance of principal characteristics compared to school characteristics (e.g., distance between school and home)? and (5) What is the relationship between the percentage of teachers at a school who completed a transfer application and the school's actual turnover rate later that year? How do teacher mobility measures relate to demand for teaching at that school?
Abstractor: ERIC
Entry Date: 2025
Accession Number: ED672331
Database: ERIC
Description
Abstract:Districts across the country are experiencing churn and uncertainty related to school staffing. In 2021, sixteen percent of teachers left their schools (National Center for Education Statistics 2022), and districts have struggled to fill the vacancies. In North Carolina, a survey of school districts identified over 11,000 vacancies that were unfilled at the start of the 2022-23 school year (Schlemmer & deBruyn 2022). Increases in educator turnover and hiring difficulties raise urgent questions about what district leaders and principals can do to make schools desirable places to work so they are fully staffed and so all students can learn. Previous research tells us that teachers generally seek out schools that are close to their homes (Boyd et al 2013; Cannata 2010; Engel, et al., 2014), as well as schools that serve more advantaged populations (Boyd et al. 2005; Boyd et al. 2011). In Wake County Public School System (WCPSS), we expand prior research by documenting the role principals can play in retaining teachers and attracting applicants to their schools. The authors use WCPSS data from AY2007-08 to AY2021-22, which includes more than 18,000 teachers, 7,000 transfer applicants, and 352 principals to answer the following questions: (1) How common are transfer requests in WCPSS? (2) What reasons do teachers give for seeking a transfer to another WCPSS? Are some reasons more predictive of their eventual transfer to another school? (3) What principal characteristics (e.g., years of experience, principal-teacher demographic congruence, teacher survey reports of leadership quality) are associated with a teacher's decision to complete a transfer application (i.e., to apply for a transfer away from their school)? (4) Conditional on completing a transfer application, do teachers show preferences for certain principal attributes over others? What is the relative importance of principal characteristics compared to school characteristics (e.g., distance between school and home)? and (5) What is the relationship between the percentage of teachers at a school who completed a transfer application and the school's actual turnover rate later that year? How do teacher mobility measures relate to demand for teaching at that school?