Who's teaching this fallthat taught last fall.
How many teachers at any given Tennessee school stay year over year. Churn in the building shows up in the data before it shows up in test scores.
Same teacher, same school, year over year.
The retention rate is the percent of teachers who taught at a school in the prior year and are still teaching at the same school this year. Transfers within Tennessee, retirements, and exits from teaching all count as not retained. The number is published annually by TDOE and is one of the cleanest signals of school health we have.
Look up teacher retention for any Tennessee public school.
Toggle between "Lowest 12" (the schools losing the most teachers), "Biggest Drops" (schools with the steepest multi-year decline), and "Highest 12" (the most stable buildings).
Teacher Retention = the share of teachers in a given school in year N who are still teaching in the same school in year N+1. Below 80% means roughly one in five teachers is leaving every year, usually a mix of retirements, transfers to other schools, and exits from the profession. Sustained churn under 70% is correlated with worse outcomes across every academic metric on this site.
Retention Distribution
Tennessee schools binned by teacher retention rate.
Tenn School For Blind
Tennessee School for Blind
Soulsville Charter School
Memphis-Shelby County
Smithson Craighead Academy
Metro Nashville Public Schools
Senator Frank P. Lashlee Career and Technical Center
Benton County
Purpose Prep
Metro Nashville Public Schools
Perea Elementary School
Memphis-Shelby County
Nashville Classical East
Metro Nashville Public Schools
Memphis STEM Academy
Memphis-Shelby County
Memphis Rise Academy
Memphis-Shelby County
Memphis Merit Academy
Memphis-Shelby County
Memphis Business Academy Middle
Memphis-Shelby County
Memphis Business Academy High School
Memphis-Shelby County
Reading the retention number
Four pieces of context before drawing conclusions about any one school.
- Definition
Same teacher, same school, year over year
Retention here means a teacher who taught at a given school in year N is still teaching at the same school in year N+1. Transfers to other Tennessee schools count as not retained from that school's perspective, even though the teacher stayed in TN public education.
- What it captures
Churn at the building level
Schools with high teacher turnover lose institutional knowledge, mentorship pipelines, and program continuity. Even strong teachers struggle to maintain outcomes when the staff around them turns over every few years.
- Causes
Mixed signals in one number
A teacher leaving a school can be a retirement, a transfer, a move out of state, an exit from teaching, or a layoff. The retention rate doesn't distinguish, but most leaving in the under-70% schools is voluntary.
- Pairing
Read alongside outcomes
Low retention does not by itself mean a school is failing. But sustained low retention combined with low growth scores is one of the most reliable warning signs in the data we publish. Pair this dashboard with TVAAS, chronic absenteeism, and the school grade.
Questions readers keep asking
What does "Percent Retained" actually mean?
Of the teachers who taught at this school in the prior school year, the percent who returned to teach at the same school in the current year. Teachers who transferred to another TN school, retired, or left the profession all count as not retained.
Why does the state average swing so much year to year?
Tennessee retention dipped during the COVID years and bounced back partially. Pension and salary structure changes, district-specific reductions in force, and large-cohort retirements all move the statewide number visibly. The 3-year window on this page shows the swing in context.
Are charter schools and alternative schools included?
Yes. Every public school reports retention. Charter teacher contracts are sometimes structured differently (annual rather than continuing) and charter retention rates tend to skew lower as a result, read those alongside the school grade and student outcomes before drawing conclusions.
What's a healthy retention rate?
Industry research generally treats 90%+ retention as stable, 80-90% as normal teacher mobility, and sub-80% as the threshold where mentorship pipelines start breaking down. Below 70% is the band where new-teacher quality typically suffers because the school is constantly hiring replacements rather than developing veterans.
Teacher retention rates come from the Tennessee Department of Education annual teacher retention file, school level. Refreshes annually each fall.
Some schools (very new, very small, restructured) may not report retention every year and will not appear on the dashboard. The rate doesn't distinguish voluntary departures from retirements, transfers, or reductions in force.
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Subscribe to The SignalPair retention with outcomes.
Sustained low retention plus stagnant student outcomes is the warning signal. Pair this dashboard with School Grades, Chronic Absenteeism, and Discipline to see the pattern.
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