Many schools in Michigan have been facing a crisis in recent years: a shortage of teachers and low teacher retention rates. In Detroit, though, some researchers say efforts to address those issues have paid off.
A recent report by the Detroit Partnership for Education Equity & Research, or Detroit PEER, at Wayne State University found that the Detroit Public Schools Community District has substantially reduced annual teacher vacancies. The report examined data from Metro Detroit, within Detroit, and other district schools in Macomb, Oakland, and Wayne counties for the 2016-17 through 2022-23 school years, the latest years for which data was available during the creation of the report.
Metro Detroit schools have consistently had above-average retention rates for teachers since the 2017-2018 school year. Within Detroit only, the Detroit Public Schools Community District has consistently ranked above the 90th percentile in teacher retention rate since 2016-17.
Michigan schools have been facing an increasing shortage of teachers, making recruitment and retention more difficult for school districts. There were 24 unfilled and permanently vacant teaching positions in Michigan schools during the 2012-13 school year. In 2022-23, that number was 473, according to the Education Policy Innovation Collaborative.
Bianca Burch is an assistant researcher at Wayne State University who co-authored the report, along with researchers Whitney Miller and Ben Pogodzinski. She said teacher retention in Detroit and other Michigan schools is valuable.
“I think teacher retention is so important with students because it helps to build relationships,” Burch told Michigan Public. “I think that authentic relationships that teachers can build with students help to increase [the] likelihood of school attendance, better outcomes with grades and graduations.”
The report didn’t only look at retention rates, but also studied the share of Black teacher retention in Detroit and other metro school districts. It found that the share of Black teachers in Metro Detroit is higher than in other Metro areas in Southeast Michigan. Detroit charter schools also had a higher percentage of Black teachers, with 35% in the 2016-17 school year and 44% in the 2022-23 school year identifying as Black. The share of Black teachers in other districts studied has also increased in recent years but remains under 10%.
The study did not attribute any cause or effects to Detroit’s high rate of teacher retention and high share of Black teachers. However, the Detroit Public Schools Community District has increased teacher pay in recent years. The district has also improved working conditions and utilized state guidance on addressing vacancies and shortages by focusing on the existing pool of candidates.
Chalkbeat Detroit analyzed teacher workforce data in 2021 and found that the teacher turnover rate is higher in Michigan schools with more Black students statewide. It also found that wealthier suburbs in Michigan have much higher rates of teacher retention.
The Detroit PEER report said previous research found that Black students’ academic, social-emotional, and behavioral outcomes improve when they have a Black teacher. In Detroit, the majority of students are Black, according to the report.
Burch said district actions are essential to ensure that all students feel supported in their educational journey.
“We want all students to feel motivated, to feel encouraged, to feel inspired,” Burch told Michigan Public. “And I think that certainly comes from what happens at the district level to increase capacity for teacher attainment and retention for the district in general.”
There are still more questions about what caused the increased rate of retention for teachers, particularly Black teachers, in the Detroit Public Schools Community District, says Burch. She said she hopes to get more into the weeds of the data, asking questions like whether teachers are coming from preparation programs, if they come from out of state, and, ultimately, why are these teachers staying?
