Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Teacher shortages continue to be an area of concern for district leaders, parents, and policymakers. To combat teacher shortages, some districts such as New York City (NYC) implemented programs to increase the number of alternatively certified teachers. Alternatively certified teachers, such as New York City Teaching Fellows (NYCTFs), are recruited and trained by district, often at a higher cost than traditionally trained teachers. As a result, retaining alternatively certified teachers is a fiscal and instructional priority in many districts. This study investigates whether a NYCTFs’ measure of social capital relates to their decision to remain a teacher in a specific school or district. Specifically, this study tests the bridging function of social capital, which examines how social connections increase a person’s access to resources. The hypothesis of this study posits that NYCTFs with higher levels of social capital will be more likely to be retained at their school and in the district, since levels of social capital may mitigate the difficulty novice teachers often experience. Two research questions guided this study: (1) Does an alternatively certified teacher’s social capital relate to his/her odds of school-based retention in the first, second, third, fourth or fifth year of teaching? (2) Does an alternatively certified teacher’s social capital relate to his/her odds of in district retention during their first, second, third, fourth, or fifth year of teaching? Using logistic regression, the NYCDOE administrative data set from 2006-2016 and three surveys administered to the 2006 cohort of math NYCTFs, this study tested the social capital measures and rates of retention for 249 NYCTFs. After running the school-level models, the each year’s model indicated that a teacher’s social capital did not relate to their odds of school-based retention after controlling for teacher demographics, school demographics, school attendance rates, and teacher’s motivations. Although the district level models in years one and two did not indicate a statistically significant relationship between a teacher’s level of social capital and the probability they would continue teaching in the district, the models in years three through five, controlling for teacher demographics, school demographics, attendance rates, and teachers level of motivation, indicate a statistically significant relationship between social capital and in-district retention. In a teacher’s third year, every one-unit standard deviation increase in a teacher’s social capital decreased the odds of retention multiplicatively by a factor of .4928. In a teacher’s fourth year, every one-unit standard deviation increase in a teacher’s social capital decreased the odds of retention multiplicatively by a factor of .5032. In a teacher’s fifth year, every one-unit standard deviation increase in a teacher’s social capital decreased the odds of retention multiplicatively by a factor of .4531. Recognizing that alternatively certified teachers with higher measures of social capital have higher odds of leaving NYCDOE in their third through fifth years of teaching may impact the ways the district designs career ladders and resource allocation plans. The findings of this study provide information to policymakers and school district leaders to better understand the ways teacher characteristics impact retention decisions.