TACKLING TEACHER ATTRITION: PEER ASSISTANCE AND REVIEW IN TOLEDO AND ROCHESTER

Abstract

High levels of teacher attrition in public schools threaten, above all else, low-­‐ income students’ educational outcomes and future prospects. This study provides a quantitative analysis of the impact of peer assistance and review (PAR), a peer mentoring and evaluation program, on teacher retention rates in low-­‐income urban schools. The literature on PAR is relatively limited in scope, focusing on PAR’s impacts on organizational culture as well implementation issues. While many studies assume that PAR improves teacher retention rates, no quantitative analysis of PAR’s impact on teacher retention rates has been attempted until now. The quantitative analysis presented here attempts to determine whether PAR does in fact improve teacher retention rates. It also compares PAR’s impact on retention rates in low-­‐income urban schools to that of comprehensive induction programs. These comprehensive programs contain components identified by the literature on mentoring and induction as effective in improving retention. This study examines Toledo and Rochester (two PAR districts), comparing their retention rates to those of districts with which they share key characteristics. The analysis done here shows that PAR is a promising, but not proven, program for improving teacher retention in low-­‐income urban schools. It also shows that PAR has a greater positive impact on teacher retention rates than do the comprehensive induction programs in the comparison group.