NC teacher turnover fell this year. But nearly 10% of educators still left profession.
North Carolina’s teacher turnover rate has dropped 14% but still remains higher than it’s been in recent years, according to the newest state report.
The report presented Wednesday to the State Board of Education shows a teacher “attrition rate” of 9.88% between March 2023 and March 2024. This means nearly one in 10 educators, or 8,886 of the state’s 89,972 teachers, left the profession during that time period
The State of the Teaching Profession and School Administrator in North Carolina report shows 1,487 fewer teachers quit than during the prior year. The attrition rate had been 11..5% the prior year, when turnover rose 47%.
But the 9.88% attrition rate is higher than the average rate of 8.64% over the last seven years. It’s also higher than any rate over those years other than in the 2022-23 report.
“While the report shows improvement in the percentage of teachers staying compared to prior years, there are still far too many teachers leaving the profession,” said State Superintendent Mo Green said in a new release.
“We need to do a much better job of keeping them in the classroom once they are hired. That starts with revering these professionals for the amazing job they do and providing them with great salaries and opportunities for growth within our public schools.”
The annual turnover report is mandated by state lawmakers. It only looks at turnover in school districts so it doesn’t include charter schools.
Schools rely more on non-traditional teachers
The report comes at a time when there’s been a 10% drop in enrollment in North Carolina educator preparation programs since the 2021-22 school year. This means schools are turning more to people who didn’t go through the traditional route to become a licensed teacher.
The number of new teachers who didn’t go through traditional training programs makes up nearly half of all new educators in the state. Since 2017-18, this group has increased by 19.6%.
Only 55% of the the people who received an emergency license in the 2018-19 school year went on to convert it to a residency teaching license.
“This middling conversion rate shows that we still have some work to do when it comes to supporting our alternatively prepared teachers,” Tom Tomberlin, senior director of educator preparation, licensure and performance at the state Department of Public Instruction, said in the news release.
Are teachers paid enough?
The new report also comes amid the ongoing debate about how much to pay teachers.
Last year, the National Education Association ranked North Carolina 42nd in beginning teacher pay and 38th in overall teacher pay. NEA projected the state had dropped to 41st in average teacher pay for the 2023-24 school year.
This year’s NEA report isn’t out yet, but a new DPI report estimates the state’s average teacher salary to now be $60,323. If you include all categories, average teacher compensation is now projected to be $61,449.
DPI says North Carolina ranks sixth out of 12 states in the Southeast in average teacher compensation. Georgia is the highest at $67,641.
Data on principal turnover
For the first time ever, the report also included data on how many principals leave the profession.
At the end of the 2022-23 school year, 186 of 2,498 principals left the state’s public schools. that’s an attrition rate of 7.45%. Most of those who left — 65% — retired.
More than two-thirds of principals of low-performing schools remained at the same school.
This story was originally published April 2, 2025 at 4:32 PM.
