Has “Who Comes Back” Changed? Teacher Reentry 2000–2019

Abstract

Studies of early-career teachers in the 1970s–1990s find that one-quarter to one-half of teachers who left the classroom eventually returned and that returning was associated with teachers’ gender and their child-rearing responsibilities. However, much has changed in the last forty years. Women are more likely to continue to participate in the labor force after having children, and teacher labor markets have been impacted by federal policy (e.g., No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top) and the Great Recession. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97), I find that only one-fifth of teachers who exited the profession from 2000–2019 returned. This is a substantially lower rate of return compared to similar work using a previous cohort of teachers from NLSY79. Furthermore, I do not find evidence that teacher reentry is associated with gender or child-rearing status. These findings have implications for teacher labor markets, as reentering teachers can expand the pool of experienced teachers.