America’s Public School Kindergarten Teachers’ Job Turnover and Associated Factors

This study examined the effects of teacher characteristics, perceived school climate and work conditions, and students’ characteristics on public school kindergarten teachers’ act of moving to another school, leaving the profession and staying in the same school. The data came from School and Staffing Survey (SASS) and the Teacher Follow-up Survey (TFS) collected in the United States. The findings showed that teachers’ demographic and professional characteristics were stronger predictors of mobility decisions than perceived school climate and working conditions, and characteristics of students. It underlined the importance of understanding the sources of turnover for subgroups of teachers and identifying movers and leavers when studying the turnover.