Shining a light on education & government in TennesseeShining a light on education & government in TennesseeHow 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.
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.
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.
Tennessee schools binned by teacher retention rate.
Tennessee School for Blind
Memphis-Shelby County
Metro Nashville Public Schools
Benton County
Metro Nashville Public Schools
Memphis-Shelby County
Metro Nashville Public Schools
Memphis-Shelby County
Memphis-Shelby County
Memphis-Shelby County
Memphis-Shelby County
Memphis-Shelby County
Four pieces of context before drawing conclusions about any one school.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Signal covers Tennessee teacher pay, retention, and workforce policy weekly.
Subscribe to The SignalSustained 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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