Examining Teacher Characteristics, School Conditions, and Attrition Rates at the Intersection of School Choice and Rural Education

ABSTRACT

While prior research has examined teachers in rural schools and teachers in charter schools, there has been little research into the intersection of rural and charter schools. Using nationally representative data, we examine the extent to which teacher characteristics, school characteristics, and teacher mobility vary based on the urbanicity of schools and whether the school is a public or charter school. We find that teachers in rural charter schools turn over at a significantly lower rate than teachers in urban charter schools and are significantly more likely to be young, novice teachers than their rural public school counterparts. We provide evidence that, in comparison with rural settings, it is important to consider urban and suburban context separately, particularly with respect to charter schools as urban charter teacher demographics and the schools in which they teach are substantially different than those of suburban charter teachers. Our work suggests research cannot ignore how teacher demographics, teacher qualifications, and the students they teach vary significantly given the context of the intersection of school choice and rural education.

KEYWORDS:

• Rural
• charter
• intersection
• teacher mobility

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. We use the term “rural areas” as defined by the United States Census Bureau as any geographic area not in an urban area (Bishaw & Posey, 2016).

2. The six states that have not introduced charter laws are relatively rural states.

3. To examine the differences among schools with urban-suburban TPS as the comparison group, please see Appendix Table A2.

4. To examine these differences with urban TPS as the comparison group, please see Appendix Table A3.