Despite a growing literature surrounding the effects of demographic matching in schools, we know little about how racially congruent colleagues might influence teachers’ mobility decisions. Drawing on statewide administrative data from Pennsylvania, I examine the extent to which colleague racial congruence influences the likelihood of teacher turnover, and what transferring teachers’ destination schools imply about the relationship between teacher–teacher race congruence and transfer decisions. Using a series of fixed effects models, I find that a 10 percentage point increase in racially congruent colleagues decreases the likelihood of teacher turnover by about 18%, on average. However, I find substantive differences in the likelihood of transferring to another school for Black teachers compared to White teachers, with Black teachers being substantially less likely to transfer than White teachers. Additionally, transferring teachers appear to select into schools with greater proportions of racially congruent colleagues, suggesting a revealed preference for colleague demographics.
Alex J. Moran (Thu,) studied this question.