Revolving School Doors? A Longitudinal Examination of Teacher, Administrator, and Staff Contributions to School Churn

Non-teaching staff comprise over half of all school employees, and their turnover may be consequential for school operation, culture, and student success, yet we lack evidence documenting their attrition. We use 17 years (2007–2023) of administrative data from Oregon to examine mobility and exit among teachers, administrators, paraprofessionals, licensed staff, and non-licensed staff. Although teacher turnover dominates turnover conversations, teachers are consistently the most stable employee group, even as turnover surged following the COVID-19 pandemic. School factors, such as colleague experience, predict turnover rates for all employees, but within-school turnover between staff groups is not highly correlated, and associations with some school context factors vary by employee groups. Results suggest that employee turnover is not a homogeneous phenomenon across staffing groups.