Abstract
This study investigates an understudied but crucial issue in education in rural China: teacher mobility. Using school- and teacher-level data from primary and middle schools in Gansu province in western China, this study examines how school and teacher characteristics relate to teacher mobility. The school-level analysis shows that school location was the most consistent factor associated with teacher turnover. The association between higher wages and lower teacher turnover diminished as district and wave fixed effects were included. The probability of teacher turnover was higher for teachers with higher professional ranks and teachers who were initially assigned to schools away from home. We also found that failing the annual teacher evaluation increased the probability of leaving the school the following year, suggesting that teacher transfer might also be used to punish lower-performing teachers.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Ordinary least squares (OLS) is the most commonly used method for estimating the unknown parameters in a linear regression model. We also conducted Tobit regression, because the dependent variables are nonnegative and stack at 0. There are no large differences in the coefficients of variables of main interest.
References
Adams, G. J. (1996). Using a Cox regression model to examine voluntary teacher turnover. The Journal of Experimental Education, 64(3), 267–285.
Adams, J. (2012). Identifying the attributes of effective rural teachers: Teacher attributes and Mathematics achievement among rural primary school students in Northwest China. Gansu Survey of Children and Families Working Paper. Retrieved from http://repository.upenn.edu/gansu_papers/32/.
Akiba, M., LeTendre, G. K., & Scribner, J. P. (2007). Teacher quality, opportunity gap, and national achievement in 46 countries. Educational Researcher, 36(7), 369–387.
Allen, R., Burgess, S., & Mayo, J. (2018). The teacher labour market, teacher turnover and disadvantaged schools: new evidence for England. Education Economics, 26(1), 4–23.
An, X. (2013). The different allocation of teachers between urban and rural schools within county and policy suggestions. Educational Development Research, 8, 50–56. (in Chinese).
Boyd, D. J., Grossman, P. L., Lankford, H., Loeb, S., & Wyckoff, J. (2009). Teacher preparation and student achievement. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 31(4), 416–440.
Boyd, D., Lankford, H., Loeb, S., & Wyckoff, J. (2005a). Explaining the short careers of high-achieving teachers in schools with low-performing students. American Economic Review, 95(2), 166–171.
Boyd, D., Lankford, H., Loeb, S., & Wyckoff, J. (2005b). The draw of home: How teachers’ preferences for proximity disadvantage urban schools. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 24(1), 113–132.
Boyd, D., Lankford, H., Loeb, S., & Wyckoff, J. (2013). Analyzing the determinants of the matching of public school teachers to jobs: Disentangling the Preferences of teachers and employers. Journal of Labor Economics, 31(1), 83–117.
Cannata, M. (2010). Understanding the teacher job search process: Espoused preferences and preferences in use. Teachers College Record, v112(n12), 2889–2934.
Chetty, R., Friedman, J. N., & Rockoff, J. E. (2014). Measuring the impacts of teachers II: Teacher value-added and student outcomes in adulthood. American Economic Review, 104(9), 2633–2679.
Chu, J. H., Loyalka, P., Chu, J., Qu, Q., Shi, Y., & Li, G. (2015). The impact of teacher credentials on student achievement in China. China Economic Review, 36, 14–24.
Chudgar, A., Chandra, M., & Razzaque, A. (2014). Alternative forms of teacher hiring in developing countries and its implications: A review of literature. Teaching and Teacher Education, 37(2014), 150–161.
Cleves, M., Gould, W., Gutierrez, R. G., & Marchenko, Y. V. (2010). An Introcution to Survival Analysis Using Stata (3rd ed.). College Station, Texas: Stata Press.
Cowen, J. M., Butler, J. S., Fowles, J., Streams, M. E., & Toma, E. F. (2012). Teacher retention in Appalachian schools: Evidence from Kentucky. Economics of Education Review, 31(4), 431–441.
Cox, D. R. (1972). Regression models and life-tables. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series B (Methodological), 34(2), 187–220.
Fan, G., Wang, H., & Lan, L. (2015). Who is prone to turn over? Studies on problems and influencing factors of teachers mobility in primary and secondary school. Education and Economics, 2, 62–66. (in Chinese).
Feng, L., & Sass, T. R. (2017). Teacher Quality and Teacher Mobility. Education Finance and Policy, 12(3), 396–418.
Guarino, C. M., Santibanez, L., & Daley, G. A. (2006). Teacher recruitment and retention: A review of the recent empirical literature. Review of Educational Research, 76(2), 173–208.
Han, L. (2013). Is centralized teacher deployment more equitable? Evidence from rural China. China Economic Review, 24, 65–76.
Hanushek, E., Kain, J. F., & Rivkin, S. G. (2004). Why public schools lose teachers. The Journal of Human Resources, 39(2), 326–354.
Hanushek, E., & Rivkin, S. (2010). Constrained job matching: Does teacher job search harm disadvantaged urban schools? CALDER Working Paper, 42(may), 1–58.
Harris, D. N., & Adams, S. J. (2007). Understanding the level and causes of teacher turnover: A comparison with other professions. Economics of Education Review, 26(3), 325–337.
Imazeki, J. (2005). Teacher salaries and teacher attrition. Economics of Education Review, 24(4), 431–449.
Ingersoll, R. M. (2001). Teacher turnover and teacher shortages: An organizational analysis. American Educational Research Journal, 38(3), 499–534.
Karachiwalla, N., & Park, A. (2017). Promotion incentives in the public sector: Evidence from Chinese schools. Journal of Public Economics, 146, 109–128.
Lankford, H., Loeb, S., & Wyckoff, J. (2002). Teacher sorting and the plight of urban schools: A descriptive analysis. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 24(1), 37–62.
Li, X. (2012). Educational administration system and institutional performance in rural Western China(Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Peking University, Beijing, China.
Li, X., Liu, M., & An, X. (2010). Allocation of personnel power and teacher incentive scheme in rural education system: Evidence form “To-the-county Reform” in Western China. Teacher Education Research, 22(3), 49–55. (in Chinese).
Liu, M., Murphy, R., Tao, R., & An, X. (2009). Education management and performance after rural education finance reform: Evidence from Western China. International Journal of Educational Development, 29(5), 463–473.
Luschei, T. F., & Rew, W. J. (2013). Exploring differences in the distribution of teacher qualifications across Mexico and South Korea: Evidence from the teaching and learning international survey. Teachers College Record, v115(n5), 1–38.
Maier, A., & Youngs, P. (2009). Teacher preparation programs and teacher labor markets: How social capital may help explain teachers’ career choices. Journal of Teacher Education, 60(4), 393–407.
Paine, L. W. (1998). Making schools modern: Paradoxes of educational reform. In Andrew G. Walder (Ed.), Zouping in transition: The process of reform in rural north China (pp. 205–235). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Podgursky, M., Monroe, R., & Watson, D. (2004). The academic quality of public school teachers: an analysis of entry and exit behavior. Economics of Education Review, 23(5), 507–518.
Reininger, M. (2012). Hometown disadvantage? It depends on where you’re from: Teachers’ location preferences and the implications for staffing schools. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 34(2), 127–145.
Robinson, B., & Yi, W. (2008). The role and status of non-governmental (“daike”) teachers in China’s rural education. International Journal of Educational Development, 28(1), 35–54.
Rockoff, J. E. (2004). The impact of individual teachers on student achievement: Evidence from panel data. American Economic Review, 94(2), 247–252.
Ronfeldt, M., Loeb, S., & Wyckoff, J. (2013). How teacher turnover harms student achievement. American Educational Research Journal, 50(1), 4–36.
Sargent, T., & Hannum, E. (2005). Keeping teachers happy: Job satisfaction among primary school teachers in rural Northwest China. Comparative Education Review, 49(2), 173–204.
Tsang, M. C. (1996). Financial reform of basic education in China. Economics of Education Review, 15(4), 423–444.
Wang, Y., & Li, H. (2017). An empirical analysis of rural teachers’ intention of turnover. Journal of East China Normal University (Educational Sciences), 3, 134–141. (in Chinese).
Zhao, Z., & Qin, Y. (2016). An empirical study on the opportunity cost and the turnover intention of teachers in compulsory education. Education and Economics, 1, 53–62. (in Chinese).
Acknowledgements
This research did not receive any specific grants from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. The authors would like to thank Emily Hannum from the University of Pennsylvania for granting the access to GSCF data sets. The authors would also like to thank Amita Chudgar, Lynn Paine, Peter Youngs, and David Arsen from the Michigan State University for their critical feedback and informative participation.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wei, Y., Zhou, S. Are Better Teachers More Likely To Move? Examining Teacher Mobility In Rural China. Asia-Pacific Edu Res 28, 171–179 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40299-018-0423-0
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40299-018-0423-0