What Are the Effects of Teacher Education and Preparation on Beginning Teacher Attrition?

Education Systems: Policy, Governance and Practice

06 Jan 2023

What Are the Effects of Teacher Education and Preparation on Beginning Teacher Attrition?

This study addresses the question: Do the kinds and amounts of pre-service education 
and preparation that beginning teachers receive before they start teaching have any 
impact on whether they leave teaching? We examine a wide range of measures of 
teachers’ subject-matter education and pedagogical preparation. We also compare 
different fields of teaching, with a particular focus on mathematics and science. Our 
data source is the National Center for Education Statistics’ nationally representative 
2003-04 Schools and Staffing Survey and its supplement, the 2004-05 Teacher 
Follow-up Survey. Our analyses show that beginning teachers widely varied in 
the pre-service education and preparation they received.

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