North Carolina saw a spike in teacher turnover last year, with more than 10,000 educators across the state exiting the profession, according to a report to the state Board of Education this month.
The annual State of the Teaching Profession Report showed attrition was 11.5% for the 2022-23 school year, compared with 7.8% in 2021-22. The report, required by the General Assembly, recorded teacher attrition and vacancies from March 2022 to March 2022.
According to a news release from the Department of Public Instruction, North Carolina’s increase in attrition mirrors national trends.
Schools in eastern North Carolina showed a similar pattern. Pitt County Schools’ teacher attrition rate was 14.8%, compared with 9% the previous year. Greene County Schools also saw an increase, with an attrition rate of 15.6%, up from 11.1%.
Attrition in local school districts occurs when teachers take jobs in another district, outside the state, or leave the profession altogether. Although attrition rates vary from district to district, the average is 16.78%. The state attrition rate is lower than district rates because it does not include teachers moving from district to district within the state.
North Carolina’s teacher vacancy rate — the number of positions not filled by a fully licensed, permanent employee — also increased from 5.9% in 2021-22 to 6.4% in 2022-23. About 6,000 teacher vacancies were reported across the state.
Pitt County Schools reported a vacancy rate of 13.1% in 2022-23, with 200 of 1,532 positions reported to be vacant. Greene County Schools’ vacancy rate was 3.4%.
In his presentation to the state board, Tom Tomberlin, senior director of educator preparation, licensure and performance at the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, said the increase in vacancies over the last two years is a result of a broader definition that includes positions filled by provisionally licensed teachers and retirees returning to work.
“It’s important to note that a vacancy does not equal a classroom with no teacher,” Tomberlin said in a statement released by DPI. “More than half of these positions are filled by fully licensed educators who, based on the legislative definition, we must count as a vacancy.”
Across the state, beginning teachers, those in their first three years, had a higher attrition rate than teacher with more experience, at 15.1%, a statistic that state education officials said indicates a need for additional beginning teacher support.
The April 3 report also showed that more North Carolina educators are coming into the profession through alternative licensure, rather than traditional educator preparation programs. The number of new teachers entering classrooms under alternative licensure routes has increased by 23.3% since the 2017-18 school year and now makes up nearly half of all new educators in the state.
“These trends highlight the importance of providing enhanced support for early-career educators, including those who enter the profession through the residency license pipeline,” State Superintendent Catherine Truitt said in a statement. “With nearly half of new teachers coming to us through alternative teacher preparation programs, we need to take a close look at how to better differentiate supports for those educators.”
Among North Carolina teachers leaving the profession, the number of retirees increased, from 1,114 in 2021-22 to 1,354 in 2022-23. However, fewer educators reported they were leaving North Carolina to teach in another state, 480 compared with 507 the previous year.
Nearly half of teachers leaving the profession cited personal reasons. For 2022-23, 1,783 teachers said they were making a career change, compared with 784 the previous year. Dissatisfaction with the profession was cited in the departure of 292 teachers in 2022-23, more than three times the number for the previous year.
According to a national survey released last week by Pew Research Center, teachers are less satisfied with their jobs than American workers overall. The survey indicated that 77% of teachers said their job is frequently stressful, and 68% said it is overwhelming. About 70% said their school is understaffed and 52% said they would not advise a young person starting out today to become a teacher.
These findings are based on a survey of 2,531 U.S. public K-12 teachers conducted Oct. 17-Nov. 14, 2023, using the RAND American Teacher Panel.
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