In N.J. study, 43% of new teachers plan to leave teaching

Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) researchers are studying the future of teaching through the Project on the Next Generation of Teachers. With the number of students growing across the United States, and the number of retiring teachers growing as well, more than 2 million new teachers must be hired by America’s schools to meet the demand. A study of new teachers in New Jersey reveals that 43 percent of them don’t plan to stay in teaching throughout their careers. While almost all of the new teachers anticipate staying in education for the remainder of their working lives, many of them report that they expect to move on to education-related jobs other than classroom teaching, such as curriculum development, professional development or administration. In another finding, 46 percent of New Jersey’s new teachers are mid-career entrants to the field, suggesting that mid-career entrants are becoming teachers in roughly the same numbers as first-career entrants. “New teachers today do not all fit the stereotypical image of 22-year-olds embarking upon their first careers after graduating from university teacher education programs,” says Susan Moore Johnson, a professor at HGSE and director of the Project on the Next Generation of Teachers.