Does Teacher Turnover Disrupt Collaboration in Schools?

While a relatively large research base shows that teacher collaboration can affect teacher turnover, little is known about whether the inverse is true—can teacher turnover affect collaboration? To the extent that the relationship between teacher turnover and collaboration is interdependent, models that fail to account for a cyclical relationship will misattribute the effects of collaboration to turnover, and vice versa. In this study, the authors examine whether different levels of teacher turnover appear to affect teacher reports of collaboration. They do so in the context of 35 low-performing turnaround districts in Michigan, where both teacher retention and collaboration are central to effective turnaround. Drawing on 2 years of administrative data linked to unique survey data from teachers in these districts, they use simple regression models to estimate the effect of turnover on teacher perceptions of collaboration. The associational findings suggest an interdependent relationship between turnover and collaboration. Specifically, the authors find that higher turnover is associated with lower collaboration but only to a point. At the highest levels of turnover, teachers report greater collaboration. Black teachers in particular report more positive collaboration in the highest turnover contexts. This nonlinear relationship appears to stem from increased willingness to collaborate among teachers in the highest turnover schools. They conclude with a discussion of implications for teacher retention, collaboration, and school improvement.