It is natural for schools to see a certain amount of turnover in their employees in the same manner that a business or another organization might. Use your school report card to check what percentage of teachers left the classroom between March 2011 and March 2012. Is the percentage much different than the district or the state average? Before drawing a conclusion about your school and the frequency with which teachers leave, gather more information from your school's principal or from district administrators. You may learn that teacher turnover was quite high because of an early retirement incentive or because teachers were promoted, took positions outside the classroom, or budget constraints. Consider asking why teachers have left teaching positions and whether or not there is anything you can do to help improve teacher retention.
School similarity is determined based on the grades offered in your school. For further technical information about how teacher turnover is defined and when these data are collected, see the Data Sources & Information Guide.