GCS Teacher Turnover Rate Below State Average

The teacher turnover rate in Guilford County Schools is 13.24 percent for the 2013-14 school year, nearly one percentage point lower than the 14.12 percent rate for the state. GCS’s rate stayed fairly consistent, up slightly from 12.9 percent in 2012-13.

Employee satisfaction is important to GCS and is included in The Strategic Plan 2016: Achieving Educational Excellence: Personalizing Learning. GCS has a number of initiatives in place to help recruit and retain teachers, including financial incentives to keep teachers in hard-to-fill positions and in highly impacted schools, mentor support, ongoing professional development to enhance teacher skills, supporting lateral entry teachers through the Lateral Entry Resources and Advising Center and working with community agencies and organizations to provide GCS employees with discounts and special offers.

In the 2013-14 school year, 658 teachers left GCS. The most common reason, provided by 15.65 percent of teachers, was to teach in a different North Carolina school district. Nearly 13 percent retired with full benefits and 12.6 percent relocated with their families. Ten percent said they resigned for “other reasons.”

Teachers across North Carolina gave 28 different reasons for leaving their position. The state divided their responses into five categories:

Teachers who left for personal reasons:

This includes teachers who resigned due to a career change, family circumstances, health issues, to teach in another state, dissatisfaction with teaching, seeking a career change or decided to retire with reduced benefits.

Teachers who left the district but remained in education: 

This includes teachers who resigned to teach in another district, charter school or non-public school, or moved to a non-teaching position within the district or at another district or agency.

Teachers who left for reasons beyond district control:

This includes teachers who retired with full benefits, moved due to military orders, resigned because their Visiting International Faculty term or Teach for America term expired, or left due to reduction in force.

Teachers who were terminated by their local school district:

This includes teachers who resigned in lieu of non-renewal or dismissal, did not obtain or maintain their license, were not rehired when their probationary contract ended or were dismissed.

Teachers who left for other reasons:

This includes teachers who either resigned for reasons not listed in the survey or did not give a reason.

GCS works to expand opportunities for and engage with employees in identifying challenges, developing solutions, executing plans and achieving goals all while facing a challenging economic reality that asks the district to do more with less.