Teacher Positional Instability in the Philadelphia Public School System and the
Potential Impact on Interventions to Improve Student Achievement
Project Overview
This project uses public data to accurately
capture the quantity and types of teacher
movement for the purposes of informing
educational leaders and improving personnel
policy to achieve greater teacher positional
stability. The project was initiated when during a
federally funded RCT intervention in
Philadelphia, we found that large numbers of
teachers left the program because of changes
to their positions (i.e., they were no longer
teaching middle school science), thereby,
reducing the potential impact of the intervention
and negatively impacting student achievement.
It supports Action Plan Strategy 5 by using
personnel data in innovative ways to better
understand the magnitude and nature of
teacher positional movement within and across
school years.
Contributors/Stakeholders
The project is a joint effort of 21PSTEM and
PennGSE. The project is funded by the
National Science Foundation (Award #DRL1337200). The primary stakeholders are
educational leaders, policymakers, and anyone
interested in the success of educational
interventions.
Implementation/Activities
Our analyses come from publicly available
teacher employment records. Our population of
interest is secondary science and
mathematics teachers in Philadelphia and
other teachers in Pennsylvania. Figure 1
displays two types of retention analyses for SDP
and the state. Figure 2 displays different levels
of teacher movement for SDP and the state.
Outcomes
SDP has a much higher percentage of
movement within schools and between schools
when compared to the state. In total, PA loses
close to 40% of teachers in four year period,
SDP loses close to 60%.
Our work can help facilitate strategic application
of human resource and leadership activities to
enhance the impact of all interventions on
student achievement by facilitating a more
stable workforce.
Figure 2: 2008-09 Cohort Retention
Philadelphia Public School Teachers
2012-13
2011-12
Still teaching same assignment
Different Assignment, same school
2010-11
Different School, same district
Different district, same state
Out of state
2009-10
2008-09
Figure 1: Retention by School
Year-to-Year
0%
100%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Pennsylvnia Public School Teachers
90%
2012-13
80%
70%
2011-12
60%
Still teaching same assignment
PA Public School Districts
50%
School District of Philadelphia
Different Assignment, same school
2010-11
Different School, same district
40%
Different district, same state
30%
Out of state
2009-10
20%
10%
2008-09
0%
08/09 to 09/10
09/10 - 10/11
10/11 - 11/12
11/12 - 12/13
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
2008-09 Cohort
100%
90%
Contact Information
80%
70%
20%
John Weathers, PhD, and John Baker, PhD
21st Century Partnership for STEM
Education (21PSTEM)
610-825-5644
10%
jweathers@21pstem.org, jbaker@21pstem.org
60%
PA Public School Districts
50%
School District of Philadelphia
40%
30%
0%
2008-09
2009-10
2010-11
2011-12
2012-13