2017 Georgia K-12 teacher and leader workforce report

2017 Georgia K-12 Teacher and Leader Workforce Report
Rosaline Tio
January 2018

Executive Summary
Created at the request of the Alliance of Education Agency Heads (AEAH), the Georgia K-12 Teacher and Leader Workforce Report provides a snapshot of the current K-12 teacher and leader workforce. It incorporates data from the GAAWARDS data system and the Teachers Retirement System of Georgia (TRS).1 This report analyzes workforce, production, retention, and retirement patterns for K-12 teachers and leaders during the 2016-2017 school year. In January 2017, GOSA released a similar report analyzing the same patterns for the 2015-2016 school year. Unless otherwise noted, the patterns are similar for the two academic years. Key findings include:
Current Status of the Workforce
o During the 2016-2017 school year, Georgia's public education workforce consisted of 111,896 teachers and 8,774 leaders, an increase of 2% and 4% respectively from the previous year.2
o The majority (approximately 60%) of the teacher and leader workforce was white.
o The share of black leaders (34%) was larger than the share of black teachers (21%).
o The share of Hispanic leaders (5%) was lower than the share of Hispanic teachers (10%).
1 In addition to GA-AWARDS data, the Georgia Professional Standards Commission (GaPSC) provided GOSA with years of experience data for all public educators as of 1986. 2 Leaders included principals, PreK directors, alternative school directors, assistant principals, instructional supervisors, community school directors/coordinators, CTAE directors, and CTAE directors (extended year). If an employee served at least part of the day in a leadership role, he/she was counted as a leader.
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o Forty-four percent of teachers held a Master's degree as their highest earned degree, and 53% of leaders held an Education Specialist degree as their highest earned degree.
o Almost half of the teacher workforce had ten or fewer years of experience working in Georgia public education. 27% of teachers had five or fewer years of experience, while 23% of teachers had eleven to fifteen years of experience.
o The majority of leaders had ten or fewer years of experience working as a leader. The percentage of leaders with five or fewer years of experience (41%) was four percentage points lower than in 2015-2016, but the percentage of leaders with more than ten years of experience was greater (34% in 2016-2017 compared to 28% in 2015-2016).
o High poverty schools had significantly larger shares of black teachers and leaders and significantly smaller shares of white teachers and leaders compared to low poverty schools.3
o Low poverty schools had more leaders with Bachelor's and Master's degrees as their highest earned degree, whereas high poverty schools had more leaders with a PhD/EdD as their highest earned degree.
o Sixty-seven percent of all current certificate holders during the 2016-2017 school year were employed as a teacher or leader, and 7% of all current certificate holders were not employed in the Georgia public education workforce at all.
o 6,233 teachers (6% of all teachers) were new teachers in 2016-2017, and 2,473 teachers (2%) returned to teaching after a break in service.
o 1,175 leaders (13%) were new leaders in 2016-2017, and 28 leaders (0.3%) returned as a leader after a break in service.
3 High and low poverty schools are identified using the top and bottom quartile of schools using free lunch direct certification percentages. The bottom quartile cut off was 23% of students directly certified, and the top quartile cut off was 51% of students directly certified. For more information on the use of direct certification percentages, see GOSA's e-bulletin.
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o Hispanics comprised a larger share of new teachers and leaders when compared to the entire teacher and leader workforce.

Race/Ethnicity
American Indian Asian Black Hispanic Two or More White Unknown

Percentage of All Teachers
0.1 0.9 20.8 10.1 1.2 60.0 6.9

Percentage of New Teachers
0.2 1.4 22.1 16.9 1.7 52.6 5.1

Teacher and Leader Production

o During the 2016-2017 school year, 20,842 teacher and leader candidates were enrolled in Georgia preparation programs.

o Seventy-six percent of teacher and leader candidates were enrolled in public in-state programs, 14.5% were enrolled in private in-state programs, and 10% were enrolled in alternative preparation programs.
o During 2016-2017, 10% of candidates enrolled in traditional education preparation programs were employed as teachers while in the program.
o Seventy-two percent of completers in traditional educator preparation programs in 2015-2016 were employed as teachers as of October 2016. 88% of completers in alternative preparation programs in 2015-2016 were employed as of October 2016.
o Forty percent of completers in leader preparation programs in 20152016 were employed as leaders as of October 2016.
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Teacher and Leader Mobility
o Between 2015-2016 and 2016-2017, 5% of teachers and 2% of leaders changed school districts.
o Approximately 40% of teachers and leaders who changed school districts had five or fewer years of experience working as a teacher or leader, respectively.
o Between 2015-2016 and 2016-2017, 4% of teachers and 7% of leaders changed schools within a district.
o High poverty schools had more teachers and leaders changing schools from 2015-2016 to 2016-2017 than low poverty schools.
Teacher and Leader Retention
o 90.6% of teachers and leaders remained in their respective roles from 2015-2016 to 2016-2017.
o High poverty schools do not retain as many teachers and leaders as low poverty schools.
o The retention rate for teachers with five or fewer years of experience was three percentage points lower than the retention rate for all teachers.
o The retention rate for leaders with five or fewer years of experience was eleven percentage points lower than the retention rate for all leaders, and nine percentage points lower than the retention rate in 2015-2016.
Teacher and Leader Retirement
o As of 2016-2017, 80% of Teachers Retirement System (TRS) members classified as teachers, leaders, and staff were active members.4
o Ten percent of all active teacher/leader/staff TRS members were eligible for retirement or a reduced retirement benefit.
o Almost 50% of all active teacher/leader/staff TRS members had at least ten years of service credit, but the majority of these members were not yet eligible for retirement.
o Fifty-one percent of all active teacher/leader/staff TRS members had fewer than ten years of service credit.
4 Active members have made at least one contribution to TRS in the past four years.
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Table of Contents
Executive Summary .............................................................................................. ii
Table of Figures and Tables.............................................................................. viii
Table of Abbreviations ........................................................................................ ix
Introduction ..........................................................................................................10
Current Status of the Workforce........................................................................10
2016-2017 Teacher Workforce Characteristics..................................................11 Demographics .................................................................................................11 Certificate Analysis.........................................................................................12 Years of Experience ........................................................................................13 District and School Analysis...........................................................................14
2016-2017 Leader Workforce Characteristics ...................................................18 Demographics .................................................................................................18 Certificate Analysis.........................................................................................19 Years of Experience ........................................................................................20 District and School Analysis...........................................................................22
Comparison of Current Workforce to All Certificate Holders...........................23 Demographics .................................................................................................24 Certificate Analysis.........................................................................................25
2016-2017 Teacher New Hire Characteristics ...................................................27 Demographics .................................................................................................27 Certificate Analysis.........................................................................................28
2016-2017 New Leader Hire Characteristics .....................................................30 Demographics .................................................................................................30 Certificate Analysis.........................................................................................30 Years of Experience ........................................................................................32
2016-2017 Teacher Rehire Characteristics ........................................................33 Demographics .................................................................................................33 Certificate Analysis.........................................................................................34 Years of Experience ........................................................................................36
2016-2017 Leader Rehire Characteristics ..........................................................37 Demographics .................................................................................................37 Certificate Analysis.........................................................................................37 Years of Experience ........................................................................................38
Teacher and Leader Production.........................................................................39
Employment Patterns of Teacher and Leader Candidates and Completers .......39 2016-2017 Teacher and Leader Candidate Enrollment......................................42
Teacher and Leader Mobility .............................................................................43
Teacher Mobility ................................................................................................43 Inter-District Mobility ....................................................................................43 Intra-District Mobility ....................................................................................46 Teacher Mobility in High Poverty and Low Poverty Schools ........................49
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Leader Mobility..................................................................................................50 Inter-District Mobility ....................................................................................50 Intra-District Mobility ....................................................................................50 Leader Mobility in High Poverty and Low Poverty Schools ..........................51
Teacher and Leader Retention ...........................................................................52 Retention of Teachers.........................................................................................53 Demographics .................................................................................................53 District and School Analysis...........................................................................53 Retention of Recently Hired Teachers ...............................................................55 Demographics .................................................................................................55 Certificate Analysis.........................................................................................56 District Analysis .............................................................................................56 Retention of Leaders ..........................................................................................57 Demographics .................................................................................................57 Certificate Analysis.........................................................................................57 District Analysis .............................................................................................58 Retention of Recently Hired Leaders .................................................................58 Demographics .................................................................................................58 Certificate Analysis.........................................................................................59 District Analysis .............................................................................................59
Teacher and Leader Retirement.........................................................................60 Summary of Findings ..........................................................................................62 Acknowledgements ..............................................................................................65
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Table of Figures and Tables
Table 1: Distribution of Teacher Certificate Fields ........................................................................ 12 Table 2: Distribution of Leader Certificate Fields.......................................................................... 19 Table 3: Percentage of Certificate Holders Employed as Teacher or Leader ................................. 24 Table 4: Distribution of Employed Certificate Holders' Races/Ethnicities.................................... 25 Table 5: Percentage of Certificate Holders Employed by Certificate Field ................................... 25 Table 6: Distribution of New Teachers' Races/Ethnicities ............................................................ 27 Table 7: Distribution of New Teachers' Certificate Fields............................................................. 28 Table 8: Distribution of New Leaders' Races/Ethnicities .............................................................. 30 Table 9: Distribution of New Leaders' Certificate Fields .............................................................. 31 Table 10: Distribution of Teacher Rehires' Races/Ethnicities ....................................................... 33 Table 11: Distribution of Teacher Rehires' Certificate Fields ....................................................... 34 Table 12: Traditional Preparation Program Teacher Employment ................................................. 39 Table 13: Alternative Preparation Program Teacher Employment................................................. 40 Table 14: Educator Preparation Program Leader Employment ...................................................... 40 Table 15: Leader Preparation Program Employment Distributions ............................................... 41 Table 16: Teacher and Leader Retention........................................................................................ 52 Table 17: Teacher and Leader Retention Over Last Two Years .................................................... 52 Table 18: Retained Teachers' Races/Ethnicities and Certificate Fields ......................................... 53 Table 19: Distribution of Retained Recently Hired Teachers' Races/Ethnicities........................... 55 Table 20: Distribution of Retained Recently Hired Teachers' Certificate Fields........................... 56 Table 21: Distribution of Retained Leaders' Races/Ethnicities...................................................... 57 Table 22: Distribution of Retained Leaders' Certificate Fields...................................................... 57 Table 23: Distribution of Retained Recently Hired Leaders' Races/Ethnicities ............................ 58 Table 24: Distribution of Retained Recently Hired Leaders' Certificate Fields............................. 59 Table 25: Distribution of All Teacher/Leader/Staff TRS Members ............................................... 60 Table 26: Distribution of Active Teacher/Leader/Staff TRS Members.......................................... 61
Figure 1: Distribution of Teachers and Leaders ............................................................................. 10 Figure 2: Distribution of Teacher Races/Ethnicities ...................................................................... 11 Figure 3: Distribution of Teacher Certificate Levels...................................................................... 13 Figure 4: Years of Experience for Teachers ................................................................................... 14 Figure 5: Race/Ethnicity of Teachers in Low and High Poverty Schools ...................................... 15 Figure 6: Certificate Fields of Teachers in Low and High Poverty Schools .................................. 16 Figure 7: Certificate Levels of Teachers in Low and High Poverty Schools ................................. 16 Figure 8: Years of Experience of Teachers in Low and High Poverty Schools ............................. 17 Figure 9: Distribution of Leader Races/Ethnicities ........................................................................ 18 Figure 10: Distribution of Leader Certificate Levels ..................................................................... 20 Figure 11: Total Years of Experience for Leaders ......................................................................... 21 Figure 12: Years of Experience as a Leader ................................................................................... 21 Figure 13: Race/Ethnicity of Leaders in Low and High Poverty Schools ...................................... 22 Figure 14: Certificate Levels of Leaders in Low and High Poverty Schools ................................. 23 Figure 15: Percentage of Certificate Holders Employed as Teacher/Leader by Certificate Level . 26 Figure 16: Distribution of New Teachers' Certificate Levels ........................................................ 29 Figure 17: Distribution of New Leaders' Certificate Levels .......................................................... 31 Figure 18: Years of Experience for New Leaders .......................................................................... 32 Figure 19: Distribution of Teacher Rehires' Certificate Levels ..................................................... 35 Figure 20: Years of Experience for Teacher Rehires ..................................................................... 36 Figure 21: Teacher/Leader Candidate Enrollment by Program Area ............................................. 42 Figure 22: Years of Experience for Teachers Changing Districts .................................................. 43 Figure 23: Teacher Inter-District Mobility Rate Map .................................................................... 45 Figure 24: Years of Experience for Teachers Changing Schools ................................................... 46
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Figure 25: Teacher Intra-District Mobility Rate Map .................................................................... 48 Figure 26: Years of Leader Experience for Leaders Changing Schools ......................................... 50 Figure 27: Teacher District Retention Rate Map............................................................................ 54

Table of Abbreviations

AEAH Alliance of Education Agency Heads

CTAE

Career, Technical, and Agricultural Education

EPP

Educator Preparation

Program

GaDOE Georgia Department of Education

GOSA

Governor's Office of Student Achievement

RESA

Regional Education Service Agency

SWSS

Strategic Waivers School Systems

CPI

Certified Personnel

Information

ELA

English Language Arts

ESOL GaPSC PhD/EdD STEM TRS

English to Speakers of Other Languages Georgia Professional Standards Commission Doctor of Philosophy or Education Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Teachers Retirement System of Georgia

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2017 Georgia K-12 Teacher and Leader Workforce Status Report
Introduction
The Georgia K-12 Teacher and Leader Workforce Report provides a snapshot of the current K-12 teacher and leader workforce, production, retention, and retirement patterns. Created at the request of the Alliance of Education Agency Heads (AEAH), the report utilizes data from the GA-AWARDS data system and the Teachers Retirement System of Georgia (TRS).5 This report analyzes K-12 teacher and leader workforce, production, retention, and retirement patterns during the 2016-2017 school year. In January 2017, a similar report was released analyzing the same patterns for the 2015-2016 school year. Unless otherwise noted, the patterns are similar for the two academic years. Current Status of the Workforce
Figure 1: Distribution of Teachers and Leaders
During the 2016-2017 school year, Georgia's public education workforce consisted of 111,896 teachers and 8,774 leaders employed in public schools.6 Compared to
5 GA-AWARDS is the state's Pre-K through workforce longitudinal data system housing education and workforce data. In addition to GA-AWARDS data, the Georgia Professional Standards Commission (GaPSC) provided GOSA with years of experience data for all public educators as of 1986. 6 The Governor's Office of Student Achievement (GOSA) used Georgia Department of Education (GaDOE) Fall Certified Personnel Information (CPI) data to classify educators as teachers or leaders according to job code definitions provided by the AEAH working group for this report. Teachers excluded literacy coaches, preschool teachers, and adult education teachers. Leaders included principals, PreK directors, alternative school directors, assistant principals, instructional supervisors, community school directors/coordinators, CTAE directors, and CTAE directors (extended year). If an employee served at least part of the day in a leadership role, he/she was counted as a leader. Teachers were any employees serving at least part of the day as a teacher but not serving part of the day as a leader.
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2017 Georgia K-12 Teacher and Leader Workforce Status Report
the previous school year, there were approximately 1,800 more teachers (2% more) and 300 more leaders (4% more) in 2016-2017. 2016-2017 Teacher Workforce Characteristics
DEMOGRAPHICS7 During the 2016-2017 school year, 79% of the teacher workforce was female. The majority of teachers (60.0%) were white. Black teachers comprised the second largest share of teachers (20.8%). 10.1% of teachers were Hispanic, and 2.2% of teachers were of other races/ethnicities.8 Additionally, 26.3% of teachers were prepared out of state.9
Figure 2: Distribution of Teacher Races/Ethnicities
7 GOSA used GaPSC self-reported demographic data for this analysis. 8 Other races/ethnicities include American Indian, Asian, Pacific Islander, and those reporting two or more races. GOSA combined these races/ethnicities due to their small sample sizes. 9 GaPSC provided GOSA with an indicator for individuals with some form of documentation that suggests that the educator was prepared outside of Georgia, but GOSA did not have data on the specific states of origin.
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2017 Georgia K-12 Teacher and Leader Workforce Status Report

CERTIFICATE ANALYSIS

Table 1: Distribution of Teacher Certificate Fields10

Certificate Field
CTAE Early Childhood ESOL Foreign Language Gifted Middle PK-12 Fields12 Secondary English Language Arts Secondary Math Secondary Science Secondary Social Studies Special Education STEM

Count11
6,275 51,725 12,089 2,995 25,900 33,357 23,718 7,184 5,960 9,235 6,832 26,540 44,195

Percentage of Teachers Certified in Field
5.6 46.2 10.8 2.7 23.1 29.8 21.2 6.4 5.3 8.3 6.1 23.7 39.5

Table 1 above examines the certificate fields held by teachers during the 2016-2017 school year.13 46.2% of teachers were certified in elementary fields (grades PK-5). 29.8% of teachers were certified in middle grade fields (grades 4-8). 21.7% of teachers were certified in some secondary field (grades 6-12). Among the secondary fields, 8.3% of teachers were certified in a secondary science field, which was at least 2 percentage points greater than other secondary subjects. 23.7% of teachers were certified in special education fields, and 23.1% of teachers were certified in gifted fields. Additionally, about 40% of teachers were certified in a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) field.

Certificate levels are determined by the highest degree one has earned. During the 2016-2017 school year, 43.7% of teachers held a Master's degree as their highest degree, and 32.8% of teachers held a Bachelor's degree as their highest degree.

10 GOSA determined certificate field categories according to the teaching certificate categories listed on GaPSC's website. 11 Teachers were double counted if they were certified in multiple fields, so counts will not add up to the total number of teachers and percentages will not add up to 100. 12 PK-12 fields include subjects such as physical education, health, the fine arts, etc. 13 GOSA used GaPSC certificate data to identify all valid certificates during the 2016-2017 school year, which was defined using GaPSC's fiscal year dates--July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2017. Educators in a charter system or Strategic Waivers School System (SWSS) may or may not be required to be certified depending on the terms of the charter or SWSS agreement.
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2017 Georgia K-12 Teacher and Leader Workforce Status Report
Figure 3 shows the distribution of certificate levels for the 2016-2017 teacher workforce.14
Figure 3: Distribution of Teacher Certificate Levels
YEARS OF EXPERIENCE The report defines years of experience as the number of years one has been working in the Georgia public education workforce.15 More than a quarter (26.6%) of the 2016-2017 teacher workforce, which is the largest share of teachers, had five or fewer years of experience working in Georgia public education. 19.9% of teachers had 6 to 10 years of experience, and 22.7% of teachers had 11 to 15 years of experience. The percentage of teachers with 6 to 10 years of experience was three percentage points lower in 2016-2017 than 2015-2016. The median number of years of experience for the 2016-2017 teacher workforce was 11 years. Figure 4 on the following page shows the distribution of years of experience for all teachers in 2015-2016 and 2016-2017.
14 Teachers with no certificate level information were identified as "unknown." Some of these teachers may not be required to hold a certificate if the school system has a waiver in its charter system or SWSS contract with the State Board of Education. 15 Specifically, GaPSC provided GOSA with data on years of experience as defined by the number of years a person has been present in CPI since 1986, which is the earliest GaPSC can account for with CPI data.
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2017 Georgia K-12 Teacher and Leader Workforce Status Report
Figure 4: Years of Experience for Teachers
DISTRICT AND SCHOOL ANALYSIS
A breakdown of teacher workforce characteristics, including demographics, certificates, and years of experience, by district is available here. Additionally, click here for a breakdown of teacher workforce characteristics by school.16 The following analysis uses the breakdown of teacher workforce characteristics by school to compare workforce patterns between high poverty and low poverty schools.17 The report summed the teacher counts for all schools in each category to determine overall teacher counts and percentages for high poverty schools and low poverty schools. Then, a t-test of proportions was used to determine if the differences between high poverty and low poverty schools were statistically significant.18 In terms of demographics, the share of male teachers in low poverty schools (21.9%) was statistically significantly greater than the share of male teachers in high poverty schools (16.1%). However, this may be due to the fact that a larger share of high poverty schools were elementary schools--roughly 67% of high poverty schools were elementary schools compared to 50% of low poverty
16 The files have been redacted to exclude n-sizes that are less than 10. 17 High and low poverty schools were identified using the top and bottom quartile of schools using free lunch direct certification percentages. These percentages do not include data on foster children. The bottom quartile cut off was 20.8% of students directly certified, and the top quartile cut off was 48.2% of students directly certified. For more information on the use of direct certification percentages, see GOSA's e-bulletin. 18 GOSA defined statistically significant as p < 0.05.
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2017 Georgia K-12 Teacher and Leader Workforce Status Report
schools.19 The difference in the shares of black and white teachers between low and high poverty schools was also statistically significant. 43.3% of teachers in high poverty schools were black compared to only 7.7% of teachers in low poverty schools; in addition, only 37.4% of teachers in high poverty schools were white compared to 73.2% of teachers in low poverty schools.
Figure 5: Race/Ethnicity of Teachers in Low and High Poverty Schools
When analyzing certificate fields held by teachers, a larger share of teachers in high poverty schools were certified in elementary grades, whereas a larger share of teachers in low poverty schools were certified in secondary subjects; however, this is also likely due to differences in the distributions of elementary, middle, and high schools between low poverty and high poverty schools. The proportion of teachers with gifted certification in low poverty schools (30.9%) was more than double the share of gifted certified teachers in high poverty schools (14.4%). Additionally, the share of teachers certified in STEM subjects was eight percentage points higher in low poverty schools (41.7%) than in high poverty schools (33.7%). The share of teachers certified in special education was also somewhat higher in low poverty schools (23.5%) than in high poverty schools (21.5%). Figure 6 on the following page compares the percentage of teachers certified in each field category in high poverty and low poverty schools.
19 The report uses the GaDOE's 2017 College and Career Ready Performance Index scoring by component file, available on GaDOE's website, to identify grade clusters.
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2017 Georgia K-12 Teacher and Leader Workforce Status Report
Figure 6: Certificate Fields of Teachers in Low and High Poverty Schools20
Figure 7: Certificate Levels of Teachers in Low and High Poverty Schools21
In terms of certificate level, high poverty schools had a statistically significantly smaller share of teachers with Master's degrees as their highest earned degree (42.9% compared to 45.2% in low poverty schools). Additionally, high poverty schools had a statistically significantly larger share of teachers with Bachelor's
20 An asterisk denotes a statistically significant difference in percentages using a t-test of proportions (p < 0.05). 21 An asterisk denotes a statistically significant difference in percentages using a t-test of proportions (p < 0.05).
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2017 Georgia K-12 Teacher and Leader Workforce Status Report
degrees as their highest earned degree (35.4% compared to 31.4% in low poverty schools). Thus, more teachers in low poverty schools had higher certificate levels compared to teachers in high poverty schools. When analyzing years of experience, the share of teachers with five or fewer years of experience was about seven percentage points larger in high poverty schools than low poverty schools. Additionally, the share of teachers with 11 to 20 years of experience was slightly lower in high poverty schools than low poverty schools. However, though the share of teachers with 26 or more years of experience was small, this proportion of teachers was slightly larger in high poverty schools.
Figure 8: Years of Experience of Teachers in Low and High Poverty Schools22
Finally, a statistically significantly larger share of teachers in low poverty schools were prepared out of state--29.6% compared to 24.0% in high poverty schools.
22 An asterisk denotes a statistically significant difference in percentages using a t-test of proportions (p < 0.05).
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2017 Georgia K-12 Teacher and Leader Workforce Status Report
2016-2017 Leader Workforce Characteristics The report defines leaders as principals, PreK directors, alternative school directors, assistant principals, instructional supervisors, community school directors/coordinators, CTAE directors, and CTAE directors (extended year). If an employee served at least part of the day in a leadership role, he/she was counted as a leader.
DEMOGRAPHICS 69% of the leader workforce were female, which was ten percentage points lower than the teacher workforce. The percentage of leaders who were male (31.0%) was much higher than the percentage of teachers who were male (20.3%). The majority of the leader workforce was also white (56.3%). However, the share of leaders who were black was larger than the share of black teachers; 34.1% of leaders were black compared to 20.8% of teachers. On the other hand, the percentage of Hispanic leaders (5.1%) was lower than the percentage of Hispanic teachers (10.1%).
Figure 9: Distribution of Leader Races/Ethnicities23
Additionally, 31.7% of leaders were prepared out of state, which is larger than the share of teachers who were prepared out of state (26.3%).
23 Pacific Islanders were excluded because n < 10.
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2017 Georgia K-12 Teacher and Leader Workforce Status Report

CERTIFICATE ANALYSIS

Table 2 examines the certificate fields held by leaders.24 79.7% of leaders held leadership certificates during the 2016-2017 school year. Many leaders also held certificates in multiple other teaching fields. When analyzing the teaching certificates held by leaders, 37.5% of leaders held a certificate in a STEM subject. 19.7% of leaders were gifted certified, and 15.0% of leaders held a certificate in special education.

Table 2: Distribution of Leader Certificate Fields

Certificate Field
CTAE Early Childhood ESOL Foreign Language Gifted Leadership Middle PK-12 Fields Secondary English Language Arts Secondary Math Secondary Science Secondary Social Studies Special Education STEM

Count25
450 3,461 620 147 1,726 6,989 3,252 1,696 622 437 1,092 749 1,312 3,289

Percentage of Leaders Certified in Field
5.1 39.4 7.1 1.7 19.7 79.7 37.1 19.3 7.1 5.0 12.4 8.5 15.0 37.5

24 The leadership certificates include educational leadership tiers I and II certificates and other certificates associated with the CPI job titles for leaders such as instructional supervision and director of CTAE or special education. The remaining certificate fields are the same types of certificates held by teachers. Educators in a charter system or Strategic Waivers School System (SWSS) may or may not be required to be certified depending on the terms of the charter or SWSS agreement. 25 Leaders were double counted if they were certified in multiple fields, so counts will not add up to the total number of leaders and percentages will not add up to 100.
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2017 Georgia K-12 Teacher and Leader Workforce Status Report
Figure 10: Distribution of Leader Certificate Levels
Over half of all leaders (52.7%) held an Education Specialist degree as their highest earned degree. Additionally, 17.8% of leaders held a PhD/EdD as their highest earned degree, and 24.4% of leaders held a Master's degree as their highest earned degree. All leaders had a certificate level above an Associate's degree. Figure 10 displays the distribution of certificate levels for all leaders.26
YEARS OF EXPERIENCE Figure 11 on the following page displays the years of experience in Georgia public education for leaders. In general, leaders had more total years of experience in the Georgia public education workforce than teachers. The largest share of leaders had between 16 to 20 years of experience (25.6%), and only 5.4% of leaders had less than 5 years of experience. The median total number of years of experience for leaders was eighteen years.
26 Leaders with no certificate level information were identified as "unknown." Some of these leaders may not be required to hold a certificate if the school system has a waiver in its charter system or SWSS contract with the State Board of Education.
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2017 Georgia K-12 Teacher and Leader Workforce Status Report
Figure 11: Total Years of Experience for Leaders
Figure 12: Years of Experience as a Leader
However, when analyzing years of experience as a leader specifically, the patterns are quite different.27 About 41% of leaders had five or fewer years of experience, compared to about 27% of teachers with five or fewer years of experience. One quarter of leaders (25.6%) had between 6 to 10 years of experience. Leaders had a median of six years teaching and seven years serving as a leader. Although leaders have more experience working in Georgia public education in any role, the majority of leaders have fewer than ten years of experience serving as a leader. Compared to 2015-2016, the percentage of leaders with five or fewer years of experience was four percentage points lower, and the percentages of leaders with more than ten years of experience were slightly greater.
27 GOSA used data provided by GaPSC on the total number of years an employee served as a leader as defined by CPI job code to analyze years of experience as a leader.
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2017 Georgia K-12 Teacher and Leader Workforce Status Report
DISTRICT AND SCHOOL ANALYSIS A breakdown of leader workforce characteristics, including demographics, certificates, and years of experience, by district is available here.
Figure 13: Race/Ethnicity of Leaders in Low and High Poverty Schools28
The percentage of female leaders was greater in high poverty schools (70.6%) than in low poverty schools (68.8%), but the differences were not statistically significant. Similar to the teacher workforce, there were statistically significant differences in the percentages of black and white leaders in high and low poverty schools. 65.0% of leaders in high poverty schools were black compared to only 14.2% of leaders in low poverty schools. Furthermore, only 25.6% of leaders in high poverty schools were white compared to 74.5% of teachers in low poverty schools. The comparison of certificate levels for leaders in high poverty and low poverty schools revealed different patterns than the teacher workforce comparison. Low poverty schools tend to have more leaders with Bachelor's and Master's degrees as the highest earned degree, whereas high poverty schools tend to have more leaders with a PhD/EdD as their highest earned degree. 21.6% of leaders in high poverty schools held PhD/EdDs as their highest degree, which was statistically significantly greater than the share in low poverty schools (14.4%).
28 Excluded races/ethnicities had n-sizes too small to report.
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2017 Georgia K-12 Teacher and Leader Workforce Status Report
Figure 14: Certificate Levels of Leaders in Low and High Poverty Schools29
No statistically significant differences exist between low and high poverty schools in the levels of years of experience working in Georgia public education or serving as a leader. However, similar to the teacher workforce, a statistically significantly larger share of leaders in low poverty schools were prepared out of state (35.5%) compared to leaders in high poverty schools (30.0%). Comparison of Current Workforce to All Certificate Holders The report compares the current teacher and leader workforce to all current certificate holders in order to analyze the percentage of all certificate holders that were actually employed as teachers or leaders during the 2016-2017 school year. GOSA defined all current certificate holders for the 2016-2017 school year as anyone with a valid certificate between July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2017.30 As such, there were 180,340 valid certificate holders during the 2016-2017 school year.31
29 An asterisk denotes a statistically significant difference in percentages using a t-test of proportions (p < 0.05). 30 GOSA chose these dates because they align with GaPSC's fiscal year. 31 The total number of valid certificate holders includes those with certificates in fields that do not necessarily correspond specifically to a teacher or leader job code definition (e.g. service personnel).
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2017 Georgia K-12 Teacher and Leader Workforce Status Report

Table 3: Percentage of Certificate Holders Employed as Teacher or Leader32

Year
Employed as Teacher Employed as Leader Employed as Teacher or Leader Total Certificate Holders

Count of All Certificate Holders

2015-201633 2016-2017

109,861 8,433

111,715 8,758

Percentage of All Certificate Holders

2015-2016 2016-2017

61.9% 4.8%

61.9% 4.9%

118,294

120,473 66.7%

66.8%

177,424

180,340

--

--

Table 3 shows the percentages of all certificate holders employed as either a teacher or leader. 66.8% of all current certificate holders were employed as either a teacher or a leader during the 2016-2017 school year, which was about the same as the percentage employed in 2015-2016. 25.9% of certificate holders were employed in public education, but not as a teacher or leader. Additionally, 7.3% of all current certificate holders were not employed in the Georgia public education workforce at all during the 2016-2017 school year, compared to 7.5% in 2015-2016.34

DEMOGRAPHICS

Males have a higher percentage of certificate holders who are employed as teachers or leaders than females. 77.0% of male certificate holders were employed as a teacher or leader compared to 65.4% of female certificate holders. However, there were more than four times as many female certificate holders as male certificate holders.
White certificate holders had slightly higher shares of certificate holders who were employed as a teacher or leader when compared to other races/ethnicities. 70.5% of white certificate holders were employed as a teacher or leader. Among all other races, over 60% of certificate holders were employed as a teacher or leader during the 2016-2017 school year.

32 A small number of teachers and leaders identified using CPI data did not match to the certificate data provided by GaPSC, likely due to reporting errors or educators not being certified under conditions of a district's charter system or SWSS contract. Thus, GOSA used the total number of teachers or leaders identified in CPI data who matched to GaPSC certificate data to calculate these percentages. 33 Due to timing, the previously published 2015-2016 report did not capture the complete cohort of 2015-2016 public educators. The 2015-2016 certificate holder numbers in Table 3 were derived using data later provided by GaPSC for the complete set of 2015-2016 educators. As such, these numbers differ from the published 2015-2016 report. 34 GOSA determined this percentage by calculating the number of current certificate holders who were not present in the Fall 2017 CPI data.

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Table 4: Distribution of Employed Certificate Holders' Races/Ethnicities

Race/Ethnicity
American Indian Asian Black Hispanic Pacific Islander Two or More White

Percentage of Certificate Holders Employed as Teacher/Leader 62.9 64.2 63.3 64.4 67.0 65.7 70.5

CERTIFICATE ANALYSIS

Table 5: Percentage of Certificate Holders Employed by Certificate Field

Certificate Field
CTAE Early Childhood ESOL Foreign Language Gifted Leadership Middle Other Fields35 PK-12 Fields Secondary English Language Arts Secondary Math Secondary Science Secondary Social Studies Special Education STEM

Percentage Employed as
Teacher
82.6 80.8 85.1 86.4 88.0 40.2 80.4 63.1 83.1 80.3 84.5 81.0 80.6 81.4 82.0

Percentage Employed as Leader
5.9 5.4 4.4 4.2 5.9 36.7 7.8 5.4 5.9 7.0 6.2 9.6 8.8 4.0 6.1

Percentage Employed as Teacher or Leader
88.6 86.2 89.4 90.6 93.9 76.9 88.2 68.5 89.0 87.2 90.7 90.6 89.5 85.4 88.1

The certificate field with the highest percentage of certificate holders serving as a teacher or leader was gifted certification; about 94% of all gifted certificate holders were teachers or leaders. On the other hand, 85.4% of special education certificate holders were employed as a teacher or leader. Approximately 89% of ESOL certificate holders were identified as a teacher or leader. Additionally, 88.1% of

35 Other fields include service fields that do not align with the job code definitions used for identifying teachers and leaders (see footnote 1).

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2017 Georgia K-12 Teacher and Leader Workforce Status Report
those holding certificates in a STEM subject were employed as teachers or leaders. Among the secondary fields, about 90% of secondary math, science, and social studies certificate holders were teachers or leaders, which was slightly higher than the percentage of secondary English language arts certificate holders who were teachers or leaders (87.2%). Only 76.9% of leadership certificate holders were employed as a teacher or leader, with 36.7% of leadership certificate holders employed as a leader and 40.2% employed as a teacher.
Figure 15: Percentage of Certificate Holders Employed as Teacher/Leader by Certificate Level
Figure 15 shows the percentage of certificate holders employed as a teacher or leader by certificate level.36 Certificate holders with a Bachelor's or Master's degree as their highest earned degree had the largest shares of certificate holders employed as a teacher or leader (83%). Only 71.2% of certificate holders with PhD/EdDs as the highest degree earned were employed as a teacher or leader; of these certificate holders, 46.7% were employed as teachers and 24.5% were employed as leaders. Under GaPSC's certification system, educators can hold different types of certificates, each with their own conditions. Certificates are classified into two main categories--renewable and non-renewable. Non-renewable certificates are valid for only one to five years depending on the certificate type.37 83.8% of renewable certificate holders were employed as teachers or leaders during the 2016-2017 school year, and 62.2% of non-renewable certificate holders were employed as
36 Certificate holders with a high school diploma or Associate's degree comprised less than one percent of all certificate holders, so they were excluded from the analysis. 37 For more information on the different types of certificates and GaPSC's tiered certification system, visit GaPSC's website. GOSA classified certificate types into renewable and non-renewable according to GaPSC's classification rules.
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2017 Georgia K-12 Teacher and Leader Workforce Status Report

teachers or leaders. Waiver certificates are included under the non-renewable category. Waiver certificates are unique in that they are issued at the request of an employer to educators who have not satisfied all certification requirements and are thus only valid for one year. 72.8% of all waiver certificate holders were employed as a teacher or leader during the 2016-2017 school year.
2016-2017 Teacher New Hire Characteristics
During the 2016-2017 school year, 6,233 teachers were new hires to the teacher workforce, which represented 5.6% of the entire teacher workforce.38

DEMOGRAPHICS

The gender breakdown of new teachers was similar to the gender distribution of the overall teacher workforce. 72.0% of new teachers were female.

Hispanic teachers comprised a larger share of new teachers than the entire teacher workforce during the 2016-2017 school year; 16.9% of new teachers were Hispanic compared to only 10.1% of the entire teacher workforce. In contrast, white teachers comprised a smaller share of new teachers than the entire teacher workforce, as 52.6% of new teachers were white compared to 60.0% of the entire teacher workforce. The percentage of new teachers who were black was similar to the overall share of black teachers in the workforce.

Table 6: Distribution of New Teachers' Races/Ethnicities39

Race/Ethnicity
American Indian Asian Black Hispanic Two or More White Unknown

Percentage of All Teachers
0.1 0.9 20.8 10.1 1.2 60.0 6.9

Percentage of New Teachers
0.2 1.4 22.1 16.9 1.7 52.6 5.1

Furthermore, 30.4% of new teachers were prepared out of state, which is four percentage points higher than the share of all teachers who were prepared outside of Georgia.

38 New teacher hires were defined as teachers whose initial year present in CPI data was 2017. 39 Pacific Islander was excluded because the n-size for new teachers was too small to report.
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2017 Georgia K-12 Teacher and Leader Workforce Status Report

CERTIFICATE ANALYSIS

Table 7: Distribution of New Teachers' Certificate Fields

Certificate Field
CTAE Early Childhood ESOL Foreign Language Gifted Middle PK-12 Fields Secondary English Language Arts Secondary Math Secondary Science Secondary Social Studies Special Education STEM

Percentage of All Teachers
Certified
5.6 46.2 10.8 2.7 23.1 29.8 21.2 6.4 5.3 8.3 6.1 23.7 39.5

Percentage of New Teachers
Certified
5.1 35.7 8.5 2.8 2.6 15.3 16.5 7.0 4.9 6.9 6.0 19.2 28.1

The percentages of new teachers with gifted, special education, or ESOL certification were lower than the percentages for all teachers.40 Only 2.6% of new teachers held gifted certification. Nevertheless, 19.2% of new teachers were certified in special education, and 8.5% of new teachers were certified in ESOL. Although the percentage of new teachers certified in elementary or middle grades was lower than the percentage of all teachers, the percentage of new teachers certified in secondary fields was similar to the percentage of all teachers. Additionally, 28.1% of new teachers were certified in a STEM subject.

40 The lower percentages for new teachers are likely because teachers can earn more certificates as they become more experienced.
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2017 Georgia K-12 Teacher and Leader Workforce Status Report
Figure 16: Distribution of New Teachers' Certificate Levels41
Unlike the overall teacher workforce, the majority of new teachers in 2016-2017 held a Bachelor's degree as their highest degree earned (63.4%), which is almost double the proportion of all teachers with a Bachelor's degree as their highest degree earned (32.8%). Additionally, 28.5% of new teachers held a Master's degree as their highest degree earned, compared to 43.7% of all teachers with a Master's degree as their highest earned degree.42 The sample sizes for the breakdown of new teacher workforce characteristics disaggregated by school and district were too small to report.
41 Teachers with no certificate level information were identified as "unknown." Some of these teachers may not be required to hold a certificate if the school system has a waiver in its charter system or SWSS contract with the State Board of Education. 42 Many new teachers are likely Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) completers, whereas many of the 43.7% of all teachers with a Master's degree are likely veteran teachers with a Master of Education (M. Ed.) degree.
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2017 Georgia K-12 Teacher and Leader Workforce Status Report

2016-2017 New Leader Hire Characteristics
During the 2016-2017 school year, 1,175 leaders were new leader hires, or educators serving as leaders for the first time, representing 13.4% of the entire leader workforce.43

DEMOGRAPHICS

Females comprised a larger share of new leaders than the entire leader workforce. 76.9% of new leaders were female compared to 68.8% of all leaders.

Additionally, compared to the entire leader workforce, new leaders had a slightly larger share of Hispanic leaders. 9.4% of new leaders were Hispanic compared to 5.1% of all leaders. The white and black shares of new leaders were lower than the shares of all leaders; 50.3% of new leaders were white compared to 56.3% of all leaders, and 30.5% of new leaders were black compared to 34.1% of all leaders.

Table 8: Distribution of New Leaders' Races/Ethnicities44

Race/Ethnicity
Asian Black Hispanic Two or More White Unknown

Percentage of All Leaders
0.5 34.1 5.1 1.2 56.3 2.6

Percentage of New Leaders
0.9 30.5 9.4 1.6 50.3 7.3

Similar to new teachers, a larger share of new leaders also were prepared out of state (36.5%) when compared to the entire leader workforce (31.7%).

CERTIFICATE ANALYSIS

Slightly less than half (44.1%) of new leaders held a leadership certificate, which is much lower than the percentage for all leaders. However, the shares of new leaders with gifted, special education, and ESOL certification were greater than the shares of all leaders. 26.2% of new leaders were gifted certified compared to 19.7% of all leaders. 19.1% of new leaders were certified in special education compared to 15.0% of all leaders. 10.7% of new leaders held ESOL certification compared to
43 New leader hires were defined as leaders whose initial year in CPI data as a leader, which was identified by GaPSC using job codes, was 2017. 44 American Indian and Pacific Islander were not reported because n < 10.

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2017 Georgia K-12 Teacher and Leader Workforce Status Report

7.1% of all leaders. Finally, the percentage of new leaders certified in early childhood education (48.0%) was almost ten percentage points greater than the percentage of all leaders (39.4%).

Table 9: Distribution of New Leaders' Certificate Fields

Certificate Field
CTAE Early Childhood ESOL Foreign Language Gifted Leadership Middle PK-12 Fields Secondary English Language Arts Secondary Math Secondary Science Secondary Social Studies Special Education STEM

Percentage of All Leaders
Certified
5.1 39.4 7.1 1.7 19.7 79.7 37.1 19.3 7.1 5.0 12.4 8.5 15.0 37.5

Percentage of New Leaders
Certified
4.1 48.0 10.7 1.7 26.2 44.1 35.1 22.1 7.3 4.5 11.5 8.4 19.1 37.6

Figure 17: Distribution of New Leaders' Certificate Levels

When compared to the overall leader workforce, the majority of new leaders held either a Bachelor's or Master's degree as their highest earned degree (57.9%), whereas the majority (52.7%) of the leader workforce held an Education Specialist as their highest earned degree. However, 34.4% of new leaders still held an Education Specialist degree as their highest earned degree. 7.3% of new leaders
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2017 Georgia K-12 Teacher and Leader Workforce Status Report
held a PhD/EdD as their highest earned degree, which was less than half the proportion of the entire leader workforce with a PhD/EdD (17.8%).
YEARS OF EXPERIENCE When comparing the experience levels of new leaders to the entire leader workforce, new leaders did not have as much experience working in Georgia public education. 22.1% of new leaders had 5 or fewer years of experience in Georgia public education, compared to only 5.4% of all leaders. Approximately half of new leaders had ten or fewer years of experience, whereas almost half of all leaders (48.8%) had between eleven to twenty years of experience. The median number of years of experience for new leaders was 11 years, compared to 18 years for the entire leader workforce.
Figure 18: Years of Experience for New Leaders
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2017 Georgia K-12 Teacher and Leader Workforce Status Report

2016-2017 Teacher Rehire Characteristics
The report also examines teacher and leader rehires, or educators who returned to the classroom in 2016-2017 after at least one year of absence.45 During the 20162017 school year, 2,473 teachers were rehires, which represented 2.2% of the entire teacher workforce.

DEMOGRAPHICS

The distribution of male and female teacher rehires was similar to the gender distribution of the overall teacher workforce. 77.1% of teacher rehires were female.

Similar to new teachers, Hispanic teachers comprised a larger share of teacher rehires than the overall teacher workforce as well. 14.8% of teacher rehires were Hispanic, compared to 10.1% of all teachers. The share of teacher rehires who were black was also larger than the share of all teachers; 25.2% of teacher rehires were black, compared to 20.8% of all teachers. Additionally, only 44.3% of teacher rehires were white, compared to 60.0% of all teachers. However, 13.8% of teacher rehires did not have any race/ethnicity data available for this report.

Table 10: Distribution of Teacher Rehires' Races/Ethnicities46

Race/Ethnicity
Asian Black Hispanic Two or More White Unknown

Percentage of All Teachers
0.9 20.8 10.1 1.2 60.0 6.9

Percentage of Teacher Rehires
0.8 25.2 14.8 1.0 44.3 13.8

Finally, 31.5% of teacher rehires originally received teacher preparation outside of Georgia, which is greater than the percentage of all teachers who received teacher preparation outside of Georgia (26.3%).

45 Teacher rehires are defined as teachers who were not present in 2015-2016 CPI data at all, but were present in Fall 2017 CPI data as a teacher. 46 American Indian and Pacific Islander were excluded because n < 10.
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2017 Georgia K-12 Teacher and Leader Workforce Status Report

CERTIFICATE ANALYSIS

The percentage of teacher rehires certified in elementary grades (40.6%) was six percentage points lower than the percentage of all teachers; however, the percentages of teacher rehires certified in middle grades or secondary subjects were similar to the shares of all teachers. The percentage of teacher rehires who were gifted certified was less than half the percentage of all teachers who were gifted certified; only 11.3% of teacher rehires were gifted certified. The share of teacher rehires certified in ESOL was also slightly smaller when compared to all teachers. However, the percentage of teacher rehires certified in special education was slightly larger for teacher rehires than all teachers--26.6% of teacher rehires were certified in special education compared to 23.7% of all teachers.

Table 11: Distribution of Teacher Rehires' Certificate Fields

Certificate Field
CTAE Early Childhood ESOL Foreign Language Gifted Middle PK-12 Fields Secondary English Language Arts Secondary Math Secondary Science Secondary Social Studies Special Education STEM

Percentage of All Teachers
Certified
5.6 46.2 10.8 2.7 23.1 29.8 21.2 6.4 5.3 8.3 6.1 23.7 39.5

Percentage of Teacher Rehires
Certified
5.3 40.6
8.2 3.7 11.3 30.3 17.9 7.5 5.6 8.3 6.0 26.6 38.1

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2017 Georgia K-12 Teacher and Leader Workforce Status Report
Figure 19: Distribution of Teacher Rehires' Certificate Levels
In terms of certificate level, 45.3% of teacher rehires held a Master's degree as their highest earned degree, which was just slightly greater than the proportion for all teachers. The percentage of teacher rehires with a Bachelor's degree as their highest earned degree was only one percentage point greater than the share of all teachers. Only 11.9% of teacher rehires held an Education Specialist degree as their highest earned degree compared, to 19.7% of all teachers. However, 3.7% of teacher rehires held a PhD/EdD, which was slightly greater than the share of all teachers (2.7%). Nevertheless, it is important to note that about 5% of teacher rehires did not have any reported certificate level information.47
47 Due to reporting errors, some teacher rehires identified using CPI data did not match to the certificate data provided by GaPSC which explains why this information is missing. Some of these teachers may not be required to hold a certificate if the school system has a waiver in its charter system or SWSS contract with the State Board of Education.
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2017 Georgia K-12 Teacher and Leader Workforce Status Report
YEARS OF EXPERIENCE When comparing the total number of years of experience in Georgia public education between teacher rehires and all teachers, a greater proportion of teacher rehires had ten or fewer years of experience. 67.9% of teacher rehires had ten or fewer years of experience, compared to 46.5% of all teachers. Thus, in general, teacher rehires had fewer years of experience than the entire teacher workforce. When compared to one another, the percentage of teacher rehires with 26 to 30 years of experience was one percentage point greater than the percentage of teacher rehires with 21 to 25 years of experience.
Figure 20: Years of Experience for Teacher Rehires
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2017 Georgia K-12 Teacher and Leader Workforce Status Report
2016-2017 Leader Rehire Characteristics
Out of 8,774 total leaders in 2016-2017, only 28 leaders were leader rehires, which represented 0.3% of all leaders.48
DEMOGRAPHICS
The gender distribution of leader rehires was similar to the distribution of all leaders. 71.4% of leader rehires were female, which was slightly higher than the percentage of all leaders who were female (68.8%).
Given the small sample size of leader rehires, most leader rehire race/ethnicity subgroups were too small to report. Nevertheless, 57.1% of leader rehires were white, which was just slightly greater than the share of all leaders who were white (56.3%).
The number of leader rehires who were prepared out of state was too small to report.
CERTIFICATE ANALYSIS
Due to the small sample size of leader rehires, it is difficult to draw any conclusions about any certificate field patterns for leader rehires.49 In general, the percentage of leader rehires certified in elementary and middle, grades was lower than the percentage of all leaders, but the percentage of leader rehires certified in secondary grades was slightly higher than all leaders. Additionally, 92.9% of leader rehires were certified in leadership, which was over ten percentage points higher than the percentage of all leaders.
No leader rehires had below a Master's degree as their highest earned degree.50 In general, the percentage of leader rehires holding a Master's degree as their highest earned degree was lower than the percentage for all leaders, and the percentage of leader rehires holding a PhD/EdD as their highest earned degree was higher. The largest share (53.6%) of leader rehires held an Education Specialist degree as their highest earned degree, which was similar to the proportion of all leaders (52.7%).
48 GOSA defined leader rehires as leaders who were not present in 2015-2016 CPI data at all, were present in Fall 2017 CPI data as a leader, and whose initial CPI year as a leader was not 2017, indicating that 2016-2017 was not their first year serving as a leader. 49 The number of leaders in each certificate field category except leadership was too small to report. 50 GOSA did not have certificate level data on one leader rehire.
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2017 Georgia K-12 Teacher and Leader Workforce Status Report
YEARS OF EXPERIENCE Again, due to the small sample size of leader rehires, findings on patterns in years of experience for leader rehires are limited. Nevertheless, the largest share of leader rehires (32.1%) had between 26 and 30 years of experience working in Georgia public education, which is greater than the share of all leaders with that amount of experience (10.8%). The median number of years of experience as a leader for leader rehires was 15 years compared to 7 years for all leaders. Keeping in mind the small sample size of leader rehires, these findings may indicate that some leader rehires have a lot of experience working in Georgia public education and are returning as a leader after a break.
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2017 Georgia K-12 Teacher and Leader Workforce Status Report

Teacher and Leader Production

In addition to analyzing patterns of the current teacher and leader workforce during the 2016-2017 school year, this report also examines the teacher and leader pipeline to the workforce using GaPSC educator preparation program (EPP) participant data to identify patterns in teacher and leader production.51 Due to differences in when GOSA received EPP participant data from GaPSC, the teacher and leader production results below are not directly comparable to the 2015-2016 report.

Employment Patterns of Teacher and Leader Candidates and Completers

Table 12: Traditional Preparation Program Teacher Employment

Traditional

Source
2016-2017 Still Enrolled 2016-2017 Completer 2015-2016 Completer

Count of EPP
Teaching Candidates52
12,540 3,153 3,626

Number Employed as Teachers as of October
2016
1,278
267
2,621

Percentage Employed as Teachers as of October
201653
10.2
8.5
72.3

Table 12 shows the number of teachers who completed or were still enrolled in a traditional educator preparation program in the current and previous year who were employed as teachers as of October 2016.54 72.3% of teachers who completed a traditional preparation program in 2015-2016 were employed as teachers as of October 2016. Of the teaching candidates who were still enrolled or completed a traditional preparation program in 2016-2017, roughly ten percent were employed as teachers.

51 The reporting period for program participant data collected by GaPSC follows the federal fiscal year (September 1, 2016 to August 31. 2017), so GaPSC did not receive finalized program participant data until mid-November. Thus, this report does not include all program participant data for all teachers and leaders employed during the 2016-2017 school year. GOSA will publish an addendum to this report with the updated data when available. 52 GaPSC classified programs into teaching, leadership, or service programs in the participant data. GOSA used the teaching program indicator to identify EPP teaching candidates. 53 Many alternative preparation programs such as the Georgia Teacher Academy for Preparation and Pedagogy (GaTAPP) require students to have a teaching job while enrolled, whereas many traditional programs include undergraduate students who are unable to be employed as a teacher while in the program. Due to overlapping reporting periods, certification candidates who initially enrolled in their programs after the October CPI data collection are not considered employed even though they may have been employed once they began the program. 54 In traditional preparation programs, candidates must complete all coursework before they can become employed.
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2017 Georgia K-12 Teacher and Leader Workforce Status Report

Table 13: Alternative Preparation Program Teacher Employment

Alternative

Source
2016-2017 Still Enrolled 2016-2017 Completer 2015-2016 Completer

Count of EPP
Teaching Candidates55
2,085 441 474

Number Employed as Teachers as of October
2016
1,629
420
415

Percentage Employed as Teachers as of October
201656
78.1
95.2
87.6

Table 13 shows the employment percentages for teachers who participated in alternative educator preparation programs.57 Larger shares of teachers who participated in alternative preparation programs were employed in October 2016. 87.6% of teachers who completed an alternative preparation program in 2015-2016 were employed as teachers. Most teacher candidates (95.2%) who completed an alternative preparation program during 2016-2017 were also employed as teachers in October 2016. Additionally, 78.1% of teacher candidates who were still enrolled in an alternative preparation during the 2016-2017 school year were simultaneously employed as teachers.

Table 14: Educator Preparation Program Leader Employment

Traditional

Source
2016-2017 Still Enrolled 2016-2017 Completer 2015-2016 Completer

Count of EPP
Leadership Candidates
2,261
522
509

Number Employed as Leaders as of October
2016
589
180
201

Percentage Employed as Leaders as of October 2016
26.1 34.5 39.5

The percentage of leader candidates who were employed in October 2016 after
completing a traditional preparation program in 2015-2016 was lower than the percentage for teachers.58 Only 39.5% of candidates who completed a leadership

55 GaPSC classified programs into teaching, leadership, or service programs in the participant data. GOSA used the teaching program indicator to identify EPP teaching candidates. 56 Many alternative preparation programs such as the Georgia Teacher Academy for Preparation and Pedagogy (GaTAPP) require students to have a teaching job while enrolled, whereas many traditional programs include undergraduate students who are unable to be employed as a teacher while in the program. Due to overlapping reporting periods, certification candidates who initially enrolled in their programs after the October CPI data collection are not considered employed even though they may have been employed once they began the program. 57 In alternative preparation programs, candidates can complete coursework while simultaneously employed. 58 All leader candidates were enrolled in a traditional preparation program.

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2017 Georgia K-12 Teacher and Leader Workforce Status Report

preparation program in 2015-2016 were employed as leaders the following year. However, the percentages of leader candidates who were employed as leaders while enrolled or completing a program in 2016-2017 were greater than the percentages for teachers. 34.5% of leader candidates who completed a program in 2016-2017, and 26.1% of leader candidates still enrolled in a program were also employed as leaders in October 2016.

Table 15: Leader Preparation Program Employment Distributions

Source
2016-2017 Still Enrolled Traditional 2016-2017 Completer
2015-2016 Completer

Employed as Leaders
as of October
2016
26.1
34.5
39.5

Employed as Teachers as of October
2016
48.3 42.0 33.2

Employed as Leaders or Teachers as of October
2016
74.3
76.4
72.7

However, there were just as many candidates completing a leadership educator preparation program who were employed as teachers rather than leaders in October 2016. Table 15 shows the employment distributions of candidates who completed or were enrolled in a traditional leadership preparation program. One-third of leader candidates who completed a program in 2015-2016 were employed as teachers in 2016-2017. Additionally, over 40% of leader candidates who completed or were still enrolled in a program in 2016-2017 were employed as teachers. Overall, approximately three quarters of all leader candidates were employed as a leader or teacher in October 2016.

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2017 Georgia K-12 Teacher and Leader Workforce Status Report
2016-2017 Teacher and Leader Candidate Enrollment The report uses program participant data provided by GaPSC to examine patterns in teacher and leader candidate enrollment during the 2016-2017 school year. All participants who were enrolled in a program as of September 1, 2016 are included in this analysis.59 During the 2016-2017 school year, 20,842 teacher and leader candidates were enrolled in Georgia preparation programs. Of those enrolled, 75.8% were enrolled in a public in-state program, 14.5% were enrolled in a private in-state program, and 10.0% were enrolled in an alternative preparation program.60 In terms of program area, the largest share of candidates (24.8%) were enrolled in elementary preparation programs. The second largest share (14.6%) of candidates were enrolled in special education programs. 10.9% of candidates were enrolled in a leadership preparation program. Figure 21 displays the distribution of program area enrollment for all teacher and leader candidates during 2016-2017.
Figure 21: Teacher/Leader Candidate Enrollment by Program Area
59 As mentioned earlier, GOSA used September 1, 2016 because it aligns with the federal fiscal year that is used for reporting program participant data. Thus, participants who completed or withdrew from a program during the 2016-2017 school year after September 1, 2016 were still included in the enrollment analysis. 60 75 candidates were enrolled in multiple programs of different types. GOSA included these candidates in the counts for public, private, and alternative programs.
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2017 Georgia K-12 Teacher and Leader Workforce Status Report
Teacher and Leader Mobility The report analyzes patterns in teacher and leader mobility across and within school districts by examining whether a teacher or leader changed school districts or schools from the 2015-2016 school year to the 2016-2017 school year.61 The following analysis looks at teacher and leader mobility across school districts (interdistrict mobility) and within school districts (intra-district mobility). Teacher Mobility
INTER-DISTRICT MOBILITY
The overall 2016-2017 teacher inter-district mobility rate in Georgia was 4.9%. 5,430 teachers moved school districts between 2015-2016 and 2016-2017. In terms of years of experience, the largest share (40.5%) of teachers who moved school districts had five or fewer years of experience.62 About 67% of teachers who moved school districts had ten or fewer years of experience. Thus, less experienced teachers appear more likely to move school districts than more experienced teachers.
Figure 22: Years of Experience for Teachers Changing Districts
61 GOSA used GaDOE CPI school and system code information to determine mobility rates. If a teacher or leader had a different system or school code from Spring 2016 CPI to Fall 2017 CPI, he/she is considered mobile. The mobility analysis does not include teachers or leaders who left or joined the workforce between 2015-2016 and 2016-2017. 62 For this analysis, years of experience refers to the number of years in CPI by the end of the 20152016 school year.
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2017 Georgia K-12 Teacher and Leader Workforce Status Report
The map on the following page displays the teacher inter-district mobility rate for each school district in Georgia.63 Macon County and Twiggs County had the highest teacher inter-district mobility rate of 29.3%. Taliaferro County had the second highest inter-district mobility rate at 25.0%. Although there are no clear geographic patterns, the inter-district mobility rate map suggests that districts across middle Georgia appear to have higher inter-district mobility rates than districts in the northernmost and southernmost regions of the state, which is similar to 2015-2016 geographic trends. Additionally, Ben Hill County, Bremen City, and Wilcox County did not have any teachers who changed school districts between 2015-2016 and 2016-2017.64
63 The mobility rate is calculated by dividing the number of teachers who moved out of the district in 2016-2017 by the total number of teachers in the district in Spring 2016. 64 The inter-district mobility rate for these districts was zero, but this analysis does not account for teachers who left the workforce all together, so these districts do not necessarily have 100% retention. Please see the Teacher Retention section of the report for this analysis.
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2017 Georgia K-12 Teacher and Leader Workforce Status Report
Figure 23: Teacher Inter-District Mobility Rate Map
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2017 Georgia K-12 Teacher and Leader Workforce Status Report
INTRA-DISTRICT MOBILITY
Intra-district mobility is defined as changing schools within the same district between 2015-2016 to 2016-2017. The overall intra-district mobility rate was almost the same as the inter-district mobility rate at 4.4%. 4,872 teachers changed schools within the same school district from 2015-2016 to 2016-2017. Similar to teachers moving across districts, the largest share of teachers moving within school districts was teachers with fewer than five years of experience (27.9%). Additionally, the percentages of teachers moving within districts with sixteen or more years of experience were slightly higher than the percentages for teachers moving across districts. In fact, the median number of years of experience for teachers moving within districts was 10 years compared to 8 years for teachers moving across districts. These data imply that larger shares of teachers with more experience are moving within districts than across districts. However, 53.6% of teachers moving within districts still had ten or fewer years of experience.
Figure 24: Years of Experience for Teachers Changing Schools
The map on the following page shows the teacher intra-district mobility rates for each school district. The geographic patterns for intra-district mobility rates are different from the patterns for inter-district mobility rates. Quitman County had one of the highest intra-district mobility rates with 13.6% of teachers changing schools within the district. Dublin City (11.4%) and Richmond County (8.8%) also had higher intra-district mobility rates.65 Some of the districts with higher intra-district mobility rates are located in southwest Georgia. However, the teacher intra-district
65 Several districts had higher intra-district mobility rates than these districts, but the high rates were likely due to schools changing code numbers between 2015-2016 and 2016-2017. Districts affected by school code changes include Atlanta Public Schools, Bibb County, Dawson County, McIntosh County, Mitchell County, Sumter County, Terrell County, Wheeler County, and White County.
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2017 Georgia K-12 Teacher and Leader Workforce Status Report
mobility map shows that districts in metro Atlanta districts also appear to have higher intra-district mobility rates than other regions of the state. Twenty districts did not have any teachers moving within the district between 2015-2016 and 20162017.
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2017 Georgia K-12 Teacher and Leader Workforce Status Report
Figure 25: Teacher Intra-District Mobility Rate Map66
66 Baker County, Glascock County, Talbot County, and Taliaferro County only have one school in the district so GOSA excluded them from the intra-district mobility analysis.
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2017 Georgia K-12 Teacher and Leader Workforce Status Report
TEACHER MOBILITY IN HIGH POVERTY AND LOW POVERTY SCHOOLS
To analyze mobility patterns in high poverty and low poverty schools, the report used a mobility rate for each school and averaged the mobility rates for high poverty and low poverty schools for comparison.67 The average mobility rate in high poverty schools was 14.9%, which was more than double the average mobility rate for low poverty schools (6.8%). Using a two sample t-test, this difference is statistically significant (p < 0.05). Similarly, when analyzing the total counts of teachers who changed schools in high poverty and low poverty schools, 14.4% of teachers in high poverty schools changed schools from 2015-2016 to 2016-2017 compared to 6.8% of teachers in low poverty schools; this difference was also statistically significant using a t-test of proportions (p < 0.05). Thus, in 2016-2017, high poverty schools appeared to have more teachers changing schools between school years than low poverty schools.
67 The school mobility rate was calculated by dividing the number of teachers who changed schools from 2015-2016 to 2016-2017 by the number of teachers in the school in 2015-2016.
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Leader Mobility
INTER-DISTRICT MOBILITY68 The overall inter-district mobility rate for leaders was lower than the inter-district mobility rate for teachers; only 1.8% of leaders (149 leaders) moved school districts from 2015-2016 to 2016-2017. However, similar to teachers, of the leaders who did move school districts, a large share (40.3%) of those leaders had five or fewer years of experience as a leader.69 In fact, 69.1% of leaders who changed districts had ten or fewer years of experience as a leader. Thus, leaders with less experience as administrators also appeared more likely to move school districts than leaders with more experience. Due to small sample sizes, the report does not include an interdistrict mobility map for leaders.
INTRA-DISTRICT MOBILITY Figure 26: Years of Leader Experience for Leaders Changing Schools
The overall intra-district mobility rate for leaders was higher than the inter-district mobility rate and also higher than the intra-district mobility rate for teachers. 611 leaders, or 7.2% of all leaders, changed schools within districts from 2015-2016 to 2016-2017. Similar to the leader inter-district mobility patterns, 37.3% of leaders
68 The n-sizes for leader inter-district mobility rates by district were too small to report so there is no map for this section. 69 There is no graph for these findings because the n-sizes for some of the experience bands were too small.
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2017 Georgia K-12 Teacher and Leader Workforce Status Report
changing schools within districts had five or fewer years of experience as a leader, and 69.1% of these leaders had ten or fewer years of experience as a leader. Therefore, leaders who changed schools within the same district also appeared to have less experience as a leader. Of the districts with sample sizes large enough to report, Cherokee County had one of the higher leader intra-mobility rates with 30.4% of leaders changing schools between school years. Richmond County had 18.9% of leaders who moved schools within the district. However, for many districts, the numbers of leaders and leaders who moved within the district were too small to include in this report, so the report does not include a leader intra-mobility rate map. Additionally, many districts did not have any leaders who changed schools between 2015-2016 and 2016-2017.
LEADER MOBILITY IN HIGH POVERTY AND LOW POVERTY SCHOOLS
The average leader mobility rate in high poverty schools was 12.7%, compared to 8.9% of leaders changing schools in low poverty schools. Using a two sample ttest, this difference is statistically significant (p < 0.05). However, it is important to note that the number of leaders in a single school is small, so school mobility rates for leaders have a wide range and many schools had zero leaders changing schools. Furthermore, when analyzing the total counts of leaders who changed schools in high poverty and low poverty schools, 11.5% of leaders in high poverty schools changed schools after the 2015-2016 school year compared to 7.2% of leaders in low poverty schools; this difference was also statistically significant using a t-test of proportions (p < 0.05). Therefore, similar to teachers, high poverty schools seemed to have more leaders who changed schools from 2015-2016 to 2016-2017 than low poverty schools.
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Teacher and Leader Retention

Teacher and leader retention patterns are important for assessing the stability of the educator workforce in Georgia, which can have implications for student achievement. Teachers and leaders were considered retained if they were present in their respective roles in the spring of 2015-2016 and fall of 2016-2017.70 Table 16 below shows the overall retention rates for teachers and leaders. From 20152016 to 2016-2017, 90.6% of teachers and leaders remained in their respective role between school years. The leader retention rate was 5.8 percentage points lower than the retention rate for teachers. Additionally, 1,061 teachers (1.0% of teachers) became leaders from 2015-2016 to 2016-2017.

Table 16: Teacher and Leader Retention

Teachers Leaders Total

Spring 20152016 Count
110,298 8,506 118,804

Fall 20162017 Count
100,366 7,249 107,615

Retention Percentage
91.0 85.2 90.6

Table 17 shows the teacher and leader retention percentages in 2015-2016 and
2016-2017, which were almost the same. About 90% of teachers remained teachers
from year to year in 2015-2016 and 2016-2017. The retention percentage for leaders in 2016-2017 was one percentage point lower than in 2015-2016.71

Table 17: Teacher and Leader Retention Over Last Two Years

Teachers Leaders Total

Fall 2015-2016 Retention Percentage
90.8 86.2 90.5

Fall 2016-2017 Retention Percentage
91.0 85.2 90.6

70 Teachers were retained if they were present in Spring 2016 CPI and Fall 2017 CPI as a teacher (defined by job code). Leaders were retained if they were present in Spring 2016 CPI and Fall 2017 CPI as a leader (defined by job code). All retention percentages use 2015-2016 counts as the denominator. 71 For the remainder of the teacher and leader retention analysis, the report does not examine retention over two years because GOSA only has complete demographic and certificate data for 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 employees. GOSA does not have complete demographic and certificate data for all 2014-2015 employees, which are needed to establish a baseline for retention calculations.
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Retention of Teachers
The following sections explore the demographic characteristics and certificate fields of all teachers who were retained from 2015-2016 to 2016-2017 to identify any patterns.

DEMOGRAPHICS

No significant teacher retention patterns by gender and race/ethnicity emerged. Approximately 91% of males and females were retained from 2015-2016 to 20162017. . American Indian teachers had the highest retention rate (94%); however, this is likely due to the small sample size of American Indian teachers overall.

Table 18 displays the retention percentages for each race/ethnicity subgroup, as well as certificate field. The retention percentages for all race/ethnicity subgroups and certificate field categories were approximately 90%. American Indian teachers had the highest retention rate (94%); however, this is likely due to the small sample size of American Indian teachers overall.

Table 18: Retained Teachers' Races/Ethnicities and Certificate Fields

Race/Ethnicity
American Indian Asian Black Hispanic Pacific Islander Two or More White

Retention Percentage
94.0 89.8 90.6 90.2 90.3 90.0 91.5

Certificate Field
Elementary ESOL Gifted Middle Secondary Special Education

Retention Percentage
91.0 91.3 92.1 90.6 90.8 91.2

DISTRICT AND SCHOOL ANALYSIS
The map below displays district retention rates to identify any potential geographic patterns in teacher retention.72 North Georgia and southeast Georgia appear to have higher concentrations of school districts with high retention rates. Wilcox County had 97.6% retention, and Chickamauga City retained 97.4% of teachers. Macon County (58.5%) and Twiggs County (60.3%) had some of the lowest teacher retention rates.
72 GOSA calculated district retention rates by dividing the number of teachers who remained teaching in the same district by the total number of teachers in the district in Spring 2016.
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2017 Georgia K-12 Teacher and Leader Workforce Status Report
Figure 27: Teacher District Retention Rate Map
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2017 Georgia K-12 Teacher and Leader Workforce Status Report

The average retention rate in high poverty schools was 73.9%, which was statistically significantly lower than the average retention rate in low poverty schools (84.5%; p < 0.05).73
Retention of Recently Hired Teachers
To explore whether newer teachers are remaining in the workforce over time, the report also analyzes retention of recently hired teachers. For this analysis, the report looks at teachers with five or fewer years of experience as of the 2015-2016 school year who remained teaching in 2016-2017. The retention rate for recently hired teachers was slightly lower than the retention rate for all teachers; 87.8% of recently hired teachers were retained in 2016-2017, compared to 91.0% of all teachers.

DEMOGRAPHICS

Similar to all teachers, no differences existed between the retention rates of recently hired teachers by gender; approximately 88% of male and female recently hired teachers were retained in 2016-2017. However, there were some differences in retention percentages of recently hired teachers when disaggregated by race/ethnicity. The retention percentages for recently hired Asian (82.8%) and multiracial (84.3%) teachers were lower than the percentages for all other races/ethnicities, and the retention percentage for Pacific Islanders (89.5%) was slightly higher. However, it is important to note that the number of Asian, multiracial, and Pacific Islander teachers was smaller than the other races/ethnicities.

Table 19: Distribution of Retained Recently Hired Teachers' Races/Ethnicities

Race/Ethnicity American Indian Asian Black Hispanic Pacific Islander Two or More White

Retention Percentage 85.7 82.8 87.7 87.1 89.5 84.3 88.0

73 For this analysis, GOSA calculated a retention rate for each school and averaged the retention rates for high poverty and low poverty schools for comparison. The school retention rate was calculated by dividing the number of teachers who remained in the school from 2015-2016 to 20162017 by the number of teachers in the school in 2015-2016.
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CERTIFICATE ANALYSIS

Similarly, the recently hired teacher retention percentages were relatively consistent when disaggregated by certificate field. Across all certificate fields, an average of 87.5% of recently hired teachers certified in each field category were retained. In general, the retention percentage for recently hired teachers certified in secondary grades was slightly lower. Recently hired teachers certified in secondary math had the lowest retention percentage (84.8%). However, recently hired teachers certified in secondary social studies had the highest retention percentage (90.1%). Table 20 shows the retention percentages for recently hired teachers across certificate fields.

Table 20: Distribution of Retained Recently Hired Teachers' Certificate Fields

Certificate Field Early Childhood ESOL Gifted Middle Secondary English Language Arts Secondary Math Secondary Science Secondary Social Studies Special Education

Retention Percentage 87.3 87.8 88.1 88.4 85.8 84.8 86.3 90.1 88.7

DISTRICT ANALYSIS

The map of district retention rates for recently hired teachers almost mirrored the map of district retention rates for all teachers (see Figure 26). Clinch County, Glascock County, Irwin County, Warren County, Wilcox County, and Jefferson City had 100% retention of recently hired teachers. Commerce City, Talbot County, and Treutlen County were among some of the districts with the lowest retention rate (below 50%) of recently hired teachers. However, these districts also had relatively small sample sizes of recently hired teachers.

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Retention of Leaders
The retention rate of all leaders was slightly lower than the retention rate of all teachers--85.2% of leaders in 2015-2016 remained leaders in 2016-2017.

DEMOGRAPHICS

The retention percentage for male leaders was greater than the retention percentage for female leaders; 88.4% of male leaders remained leaders, compared to 83.9% of female leaders. In terms of race/ethnicity, the retention percentage was lower for Asian leaders (74.4%), Hispanic leaders (79.9%) and leaders reporting two or more races (76.0%). However, the sample size of Asian and multiracial leaders is relatively small. White leaders had the highest retention percentage of 86.3%, followed closely by black leaders with 86.0% retention.
Table 21: Distribution of Retained Leaders' Races/Ethnicities74

Race/Ethnicity American Indian Asian Black Hispanic Two or More White

Retention Percentage 83.3 74.4 86.0 79.9 76.0 86.3

CERTIFICATE ANALYSIS

Table 22: Distribution of Retained Leaders' Certificate Fields

Certificate Field
Early Childhood ESOL Gifted Leadership Middle Secondary Special Education

Retention Percentage
84.9 83.6 85.5 90.1 85.4 86.3 80.6

When disaggregated by certificate field, the retention percentages for leaders certified in special education (80.6%) and ESOL (83.6%) were lower compared to

74 Pacific Islander was excluded because the n-size was less than ten.

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other certificate field categories. Table 22 displays leader retention rates across certificate fields.

DISTRICT ANALYSIS

Many smaller districts had 100% retention of all leaders from 2015-2016 to 20162017. However, many smaller districts also had low leader retention rates around 50 to 60 percent. Fulton County, one of the larger districts, had one of the lowest leader retention rates, with only 62.4% of leaders remaining in the district.75
When comparing leader retention rates in high and low poverty schools, the average leader retention rate in high poverty schools (73.9%) was lower than the average leader retention rate in low poverty schools (80.9%). Additionally, when analyzing the total counts of leaders who were retained in high poverty and low poverty schools, 77.7% of leaders in low poverty schools remained in their schools, which was greater than the percentage of leaders who were retained in high poverty schools (71.4%). These differences were statistically significant using two-sample t-tests (p < 0.05).
Retention of Recently Hired Leaders
The report also examined leaders with five or fewer years of experience as a leader as of the 2015-2016 school year who remained a leader in 2016-2017. The retention rate for recently hired leaders was 11 percentage points lower than the retention rate for all leaders. Only 74.0% of recently hired leaders remained leaders in 20162017. The 2016-2017 retention rate for recently hired leaders was also nine percentage points lower than the retention rate in 2015-2016.

DEMOGRAPHICS

Table 23: Distribution of Retained Recently Hired Leaders' Races/Ethnicities

Race/Ethnicity Asian Black Hispanic Two or More White

Retention Percentage 67.6 74.0 71.1 62.3 75.4

75 Due to small sample sizes, the report does not include a map of leader retention rates by district.
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Similar to all leaders, the retention rate for recently hired male leaders (77.9%) was higher than the retention rate for females (72.4%). Additionally, the retention percentages were also lower for recently hired Asian leaders (67.6%) and leaders reporting two or more races (62.3%), which mimics the pattern for all leaders. However, leaders who were Asian or of two or more races comprised a small share of all recently hired leaders.

CERTIFICATE ANALYSIS

The certificate field retention patterns for recently hired leaders somewhat mirrored the patterns seen in certificate fields among all leaders. Recently hired leaders certified in special education had the lowest retention percentage compared to other certificate fields. However, recently hired leaders certified in elementary and middle grades also had lower retention percentages. Table 24 shows the retention percentages for all recently hired leaders across certificate fields.

Table 24: Distribution of Retained Recently Hired Leaders' Certificate Fields

Certificate Field Early Childhood ESOL Gifted Leadership Middle Secondary Special Education

Retention Percentage 73.8 75.8 79.1 80.0 73.7 76.3 71.5

DISTRICT ANALYSIS

The school district patterns in recently hired leader retention rates are similar to the district leader retention patterns for all leaders. Many small school districts had 100% retention of leaders while other small school districts had relatively low leader retention rates below 50%. Some larger districts had much lower retention rates for recently hired leaders compared to all leaders. For instance, 72.6% of Atlanta Public Schools leaders were retained, but only 50.6% of recently hired leaders were retained. Fulton County and Bibb County had similar patterns.

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Teacher and Leader Retirement

In an effort to examine potential educator retirement patterns, the report examines available data provided by the Teacher Retirement System of Georgia (TRS). TRS serves all employees committed to education in Georgia, and its members are not limited to only teachers and leaders.76 Thus, TRS does not use the same job code definitions for teachers and leaders as the GaDOE or GaPSC. TRS provided GOSA with information on all employees classified under the GaDOE for the 2016-2017 school year as of the end of the fiscal year (June 30, 2017).77 Rather than focusing only on teachers and leaders, the following analysis includes all "GaDOE members" in TRS. For the purposes of this report, these members are referred to as teachers/leaders/staff. During the 2016-2017 school year, 252,872 members of TRS were classified as teachers/leaders/staff.

Table 25: Distribution of All Teacher/Leader/Staff TRS Members

Status
Active79 Vested80 Eligible for Retirement81 Eligible for Reduced Retirement Benefit82

Count
202,528 104,308 12,122 8,339

Percentage of All Teacher/Leader/Staff
Members78 80.1% 41.2% 4.8% 3.3%

The table above displays the distribution of active members, vested members, and members who are eligible for retirement for all teacher/leader/staff members of TRS. However, to gain a better understanding of potential retirement patterns, this report focuses on analyzing active members only (see Table 26).

An active member of TRS is any member who has made at least one contribution in the past four years. Of the 202,528 active teacher/leader/staff members in TRS in 2016-2017, about 10% were eligible for retirement or a reduced retirement benefit. More specifically, about 6% of active members were eligible for

76 TRS members include all employees of local boards of education, charter schools, universities
and colleges, technical colleges, libraries, RESAs, Board of Regents, and other associated state
agencies. 77 Under TRS, "GaDOE employees" include teachers, leaders, clerical staff, aides, lunchroom workers, paraprofessionals, technical support, maintenance, etc. 78 Percentages do not add up to 100% because members can be both active and vested, or vested and
eligible to retire. 79 Active members have made at least one contribution to TRS in the past four years. 80 Members are vested when they have at least ten years of service credit. 81 Members are eligible for retirement if they are 60-years-old and have at least ten years of service credit, or if they have at least twenty-five years of service credit at any age. 82 Members are eligible for a reduced retirement benefit if they retire prior to age 60 with 25 to 29
years of service.

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retirement, and about 4% were eligible for a reduced retirement benefit. Thus, as of the 2016-2017 school year, 10% of active teacher/leader/staff members in TRS could potentially retire in the foreseeable future.

Table 26: Distribution of Active Teacher/Leader/Staff TRS Members

Status
Vested Vested but Not Eligible for Retirement
Not Vested Eligible for Retirement Eligible for Reduced Retirement Benefit

Count
100,149 80,175 102,379 11,652 8,322

Percentage of All Active Teacher/Leader/Staff Members 49.4% 39.6% 50.6% 5.8% 4.1%

Almost half (49.4%) of all active members were vested, which means they had at least ten years of service credit. However, the majority (80%) of all active, vested members were not yet eligible for retirement; in other words, 39.6% of all active members were vested but not yet eligible for retirement. Additionally, 50.6% of all active members were not yet vested, which means they had fewer than ten years of service credit. Thus, as of 2016-2017, the majority of active teacher/leader/staff members in TRS did not yet have enough service credit to retire, and just about half of active teacher/leader/staff members had fewer than ten years of service credit.

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Summary of Findings
The K-12 Teacher and Leader Workforce Report aims to inform the development and implementation of educator policies in Georgia. The report analyzes workforce, production, retention, and retirement patterns for K-12 teachers and leaders in Georgia during the 2016-2017 school year. The report uncovers insightful teacher and leader workforce, production, retention, and retirement patterns.
Key findings include:
Current Status of the Workforce
o During the 2016-2017 school year, Georgia's public education workforce consisted of 111,896 teachers and 8,774 leaders, an increase of 2% and 4% respectively from the previous year.
o The majority (approximately 60%) of the teacher and leader workforce was white.
o The share of black leaders (34%) was larger than the share of black teachers (21%).
o The share of Hispanic leaders (5%) was lower than the share of Hispanic teachers (10%).
o Forty-four percent of teachers held a Master's degree as their highest earned degree, and 53% of leaders held an Education Specialist degree as their highest earned degree.
o Almost half of the teacher workforce had ten or fewer years of experience working in Georgia public education. 27% of teachers had five or fewer years of experience, while 23% of teachers had eleven to fifteen years of experience.
o The majority of leaders had ten or fewer years of experience working as a leader. The percentage of leaders with five or fewer years of experience (41%) was four percentage points lower than in 2015-2016, but the percentage of leaders with more than ten years of experience was greater (34% in 2016-2017 compared to 28% in 2015-2016).
o High poverty schools had significantly larger shares of black teachers and leaders and significantly smaller shares of white teachers and leaders compared to low poverty schools.83
o Low poverty schools had more leaders with Bachelor's and Master's degrees as their highest earned degree, whereas high poverty schools had more leaders with a PhD/EdD as their highest earned degree.
83 GOSA defined high poverty and low poverty schools by identifying the top and bottom quartile of schools using free lunch direct certification percentages. The bottom quartile cut off was 23% of students directly certified, and the top quartile cut off was 51% of students directly certified. For more information on the use of direct certification percentages, see GOSA's e-bulletin.
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2017 Georgia K-12 Teacher and Leader Workforce Status Report
o Sixty-seven percent of all current certificate holders during the 2016-2017 school year were employed as a teacher or leader, and 7% of all current certificate holders were not employed in the Georgia public education workforce at all.
o 6,233 teachers (6% of all teachers) were new teachers in 2016-2017, and 2,473 teachers (2%) returned to teaching after a break in service.
o 1,175 leaders (13%) were new leaders in 2016-2017, and 28 leaders (0.3%) returned as a leader after a break in service.
o Hispanics comprised a larger share of new teachers and leaders when compared to the entire teacher and leader workforce.
Teacher and Leader Production
o During the 2016-2017 school year, 20,842 teacher and leader candidates were enrolled in Georgia preparation programs.
o Seventy-six percent of teacher and leader candidates were enrolled in public in-state programs, 14.5% were enrolled in private in-state programs, and 10% were enrolled in alternative preparation programs.
o During 2016-2017, 10% of candidates enrolled in traditional education preparation programs were employed as teachers while in the program.
o Seventy-two percent of completers in traditional educator preparation programs in 2015-2016 were employed as teachers as of October 2016. 88% of completers in alternative preparation programs in 2015-2016 were employed as of October 2016.
o Forty percent of completers in leader preparation programs in 20152016 were employed as leaders as of October 2016.
Teacher and Leader Mobility
o Between 2015-2016 and 2016-2017, 5% of teachers and 2% of leaders changed school districts.
o Approximately 40% of teachers and leaders who changed school districts had five or fewer years of experience working as a teacher or leader, respectively.
o Between 2015-2016 and 2016-2017, 4% of teachers and 7% of leaders changed schools within a district.
o High poverty schools had more teachers and leaders changing schools from 2015-2016 to 2016-2017 than low poverty schools.
Teacher and Leader Retention
o 90.6% of teachers and leaders remained in their respective roles from 2015-2016 to 2016-2017.
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2017 Georgia K-12 Teacher and Leader Workforce Status Report
o High poverty schools do not retain as many teachers and leaders as low poverty schools.
o The retention rate for teachers with five or fewer years of experience was three percentage points lower than the retention rate for all teachers.
o The retention rate for leaders with five or fewer years of experience was eleven percentage points lower than the retention rate for all leaders, and nine percentage points lower than the retention rate in 2015-2016.
Teacher and Leader Retirement o As of 2016-2017, 80% of all school and district teachers, leaders, and staff in TRS were active members.84 o Ten percent of all active teacher/leader/staff TRS members were eligible for retirement or a reduced retirement benefit. o Almost 50% of all active teacher/leader/staff TRS members had at least ten years of service credit, but the majority of these members were not yet eligible for retirement. o Fifty-one percent of all active teacher/leader/staff TRS members had fewer than ten years of service credit.
84 Active members have made at least one contribution to TRS in the past four years.
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2017 Georgia K-12 Teacher and Leader Workforce Status Report
Acknowledgements This research was conducted at the request of the Georgia Alliance of Education Agency Heads with guidance from the Georgia Professional Standards Commission, the Georgia Department of Education, and the Teachers Retirement System of Georgia.
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